26th Annual MELUS Conference and 6th Conference of the United States Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies
April 19-22, 2012
Santa Clara University, California
THEME: Ethnic Literatures and Transnationalism
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Bill Ashcroft, Wlad Godzic, Francisco Jimenez, David Marriott
As an ongoing and vital process through which societies and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of communications, economics, and politics, globalization addresses the transnational circulation of ideas and languages. Its impact on literature is manifold, with both positive and negative associations, wherein cultures receiving outside influences ignore some, adopt others as they are, and then immediately start to transform others. Certain aspects of globalization – such as hybridity and multi-rootedness – are increasingly present in literary texts as we witness ways in which they shape new literary forms, interrogate existing canons, and explore the emergence of ethnic canons.
We invite paper abstracts and complete panels, workshops, and roundtable proposals on all aspects of the multi-ethnic literatures of the United States and elsewhere. We are particularly interested in proposals that explore globalization in terms of its influence on ethnic canons, and vice versa, and encourage presentations on all global frameworks of analysis, such as Atlantic studies, global feminisms, pan-Africanism, postcolonialism, transnationalism, global indigenous studies, etc. Submissions should detail requests for specific audiovisual equipment, if needed. We also ask that a proposal for a complete panel, roundtable, or workshop include a short description of the central topic, supplemented by brief abstracts of individual speakers’ contributions.
Deadline for abstracts and proposals (250 words in Word or rtf format): October 31, 2011.
Please e-mail abstracts to:
Prof. John Hawley
Hotel rooms ($139) have been set aside at the Fairmont Hotel, San Jose, where the conference will be held.
170 South Market Street
San Jose, California
TEL (408) 998-1900
https://www.fairmont.com/sanjose
All presenters, chairs, and respondents must be members of USACLALS or MELUS. Membership information can be found on the USACLALS website https://www.usaclals.org/ or the MELUS website at https://webspace.ship.edu/kmlong/melus/membership.htm . All payments of membership dues must be mailed directly to USACLALS or MELUS, not to the conference organizers.
The long-term goal of USACLALS is to study postcolonial literatures (including those of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Canada, New Zealand and Australia) in relationship to the varied and vital cultural contexts of the Americas. We encourage studies which reach beyond the literatures of the British Commonwealth to use comparative frameworks in relation to francophone literatures, ethnic American literatures, and African-American literature.
To see Past MELUS conferences, go to https://webspace.ship.edu/kmlong/melus/confarchive.htm .