Although it is a question of time, as well. If I am going to LASA in Lima, then another event in Tampa and another in Washington, and if I am to go to California and Minnesota as well, do I have time to do this in a way that would actually benefit me? I already know what my paper would say, which is what makes this so tempting, but — one more abstract and one more long trip, just for purposes of feeling real for a few days?
ACLA 2017: Race Theory and Literature
Call for Papers
American Comparative Literature Association// Utrecht University, Netherlands// July 6-9 2017
Emerging out of the practices of colonialism, imperialism, and slavery/slave trade, race theory has seen renewed and reinvigorated interest in the last sixteen years. Recent scholarship has started to examine the relationship between these varying theories on race from philosophical, philological, theological, historical, biological, and other disciplines and literature (particularly prose fiction) from as early as the 16th century, but flourishing prominently in the Enlightenment and later 19th century at first in European university and later in U.S. universities, developing concurrently and after these theories were developed and circulated in multiple discourses.
This seminar proposes to look at the relationship between literature and the theorization of race in academic disciplines, primarily in the 18th and 19th centuries but also extending into the 20th century. Questions we wish to explore include, but are not necessarily limited to the following:
– How and why do prominent and marginal authors adopt, reject, criticize, and/or apply theories of race to ethnic others within their works?
– Is there a theory or are there theories of race within works of literature or in larger literary traditions and movements?
– Theorists this seminar would like to examine include, but are not limited to, Buffon, Bernier, Voltaire, Meiners, Kant, Herder, Blumenbach, Hegel, Herder, de Gobineau, Darwin, Galton, Boas, Locke, Montagu, Du Bois, Appiah, Senghor, Alcoff, Hanchard, Ferreira de Silva, Omi and Winant. We will also consider theories of race from literary authors such as Céline and Tagore, for instance.This seminar seeks research comparing race theories alongside literary works from all over the world, as well as literary works that respond either directly or indirectly to race theories. We also welcome comparisons between race theory and visual culture, music, and other forms of artistic media.
Please submit a 300-word abstract for a 20-minute presentation on the ACLA website (http://www.acla.org/race-theory-and-literature) until September 23, 2016.
Contact the seminar co-organizers Pauline Moret-Jankus at pauline.moret-jankus@uni-jena.de and Adam J. Toth at adamjtoth@gmail.com with any questions.
Axé.
Related:
I have a bureaucratic document to write that I do not want to write, because it involves standing up for myself and mine and I do not like this kind of conflict. I have avoided it so far by doing other work. Now I want to avoid it by writing an abstract for a conference I would love to go to but surely cannot afford, either in terms of time or money. I might still apply for that, but I will stop avoiding the bureaucratic document. I will stop feeling apologetic about the fact that it needs to be done, and will say to myself, “good for you for standing up and making yourself heard.”
AAUP council is June 14-18.