Call for papers: journals

Here you will find several opportunities for publication in either journals or edited volumes which will come out either in Italy or abroad.

 

Call for Papers for a special issue of the Journal of American Drama and Theatre

The Publications Committee of the American Theatre and Drama Society invites submissions for the Spring 2010 issue of "The Journal of American Drama and Theatre" which it is guest editing. You do not need to be a member of the Society to submit an article, but submissions from the membership are particularly encouraged.

The aim of The Journal of American Drama and Theatre is "to promote research on theatre of the Americas and to encourage historical and theoretical approaches to plays, playwrights, performances, and popular theatre traditions." For the Spring 2010 issue, we invite colleagues to explore comedy, spectacle, and theatrical diversions, both in the United States and Latin America. This fall, Broadway audiences will see eagerly awaited revivals of /Bye Bye Birdie /and /Finian's Rainbow, alongside new stagings of Neil Simon's /Brighton Beach Memoirs and /Broadway Bound./ Will this model be reflected around the Americas? Why do comedy and light entertainments remain resilient? How do we account for the popularity of these forms? An 1858 commentator in the /Boston Courier /argued, "What we want in our busy, bustling, hurried city life is such relaxation as will smooth the brow and lighten the spirit. . . . He who goes to an evening place of entertainment after a day of mental toil, desires not an additional entanglement of brain, but perfect and entire relief." Over 150 years later, does this sentiment still dominate audiences' theatrical preferences? When certain forms (such as tragedy or satire) fall "out" of fashion, what accounts for those trends? How have playwrights, producers, and performers responded when audiences have demonstrated clear preferences for "perfect and entire relief" rather than emotional catharsis or calls to social or political action? How have these cycles shaped the development of American theatre?

Manuscripts (5000-6000 words) should be prepared in conformity with The Chicago Manual of Style, using footnotes rather than endnotes. Articles should be submitted as e-mail attachments, using Microsoft Word format. Please note that all correspondence will be conducted by e-mail. Submissions must be received no later than *December 1, 2009; *please email articles to Mark Cosdon, mcosdon@allegheny.edu. Authors will be notified about the status of their submissions during the week of *December 28. *The final manuscript revisions of accepted submissions (complete with rights, permissions for images, etc.) _must_ be received by the Publications Committee no later than *February 22, 2010.*

Call for Papers on "America and Crime"

aspeers: emerging voices in american studies

The past year has seen an unprecedented interest in white-collar crime. From the presidential election that pitched an honest Main Street against a criminal Wall Street to the trial of Bernard L. Madoff, crime, it seems, has become a central metaphor for the American public to reevaluate long-standing dogmas of neoliberalism. This recent surge of interest arguably is a consequence of the current economic developments, but it also reflects a more fundamental connection between American (self-)perception and 'crime,' a connection that is expressed in a wide range of cultural artifacts and texts. We are thus calling for submissions scrutinizing the role of crime from various disciplinary perspectives. Contributors are invited to explore the role of crime as a cultural signifier, a social reality with complex ramifications, an analytic category, or from other angles.

Different notions of crime have served as master tropes both for American culture's self-portrayal and for outside readings of the United States. From the celebrated lawlessness of the Frontier to the global appeal of gangsta rap, from the 1970s panic over serial killers to the perception of the US as a criminally imperial power, a wide range of discourses testifies to the significance the category has assumed. This cultural productivity of crime begs a wide range of questions. For example, how has crime been represented in different literary genres? How does fiction impact definitions and perceptions of crime? Have new forms of technology altered the way crime is being represented?

Apart from such a literary/cultural studies angle, crime is also an immensely productive field in the social sciences, history, and law. Here, the complex nature of 'crime' becomes most apparent: It is at once a central, well-defined category of social interaction and a continually changing, fragile agreement. A number of questions arise: How have efforts at social control criminalized previously legal behavior? How has city development intersected with law enforcement efforts? In how far are advances in technology both an impediment to and an enabler of crime?

In that an interest in crime modifies more traditional interests in race, class, and gender, it can be utilized not only as an object of inquiry, but as an analytic category that opens up interdisciplinary dialogues. In this sense, crime becomes a critical lens through which core concepts of American studies, such as the body, the nation, the border, etc., can be reconfigured.

aspeers, the first and currently only graduate-level peer-reviewed journal for European American studies, invites fellow graduate students to reflect on these issues. Please note that the contributions we are looking for might address but are not limited to the topical parameters outlined above. We welcome term papers, excerpts from theses, or papers specifically written for the occasion by 1 November 2009.

Please check out our submission guidelines and an editorial timetable at www.aspeers.com/2010.

Calls for submissions by November 1 2009