Writing Herself In the World: Women’s Autobiography and Relationship to the World

International conference on women’s autobiographies
Research group FAAAM, University of Paris Ouest Nanterre

“Our sweetest existence is both relative and collective, and our true self does not reside solely within us,” Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote in /Rousseau, Judge of Jean-Jacques/. If autobiography is indeed the reflective act of a remembering self, this self is never an isolated subject and the world is never only a mere stage set for reminiscing.
Sociologist Maurice Halbwachs wrote, “we never remember alone.” Are not the interior and the exterior worlds simply two faces of the same reality? Annie Ernaux, who borrowed Rousseau’s phrase in her /Journal du dehors/ Exteriors/, introduces herself as “crossed by people and their existence like a whore,” since her relationship to the world is
not only an objective of her mind, but a physical and erotic link too.
In /How Our Lives Become Stories: Making Selves/ (1999), Paul John Eakin encourages us to demystify the self-referential narrative seen as autodiegetic, where the first person subject would first and foremost refer to itself. Eakin states that the first person of autobiography is truly plural in its origins and subsequent formation.
He proposes the terms “relational self” and “relational life,” arguing that all identity is relational and all self-writing is at the crossroads of biography and autobiography, which positions the narrating subject in a larger context—that of the family, the community and the ethnic group. A writing of inwardness may also be perceived as an inscription of otherness and of ‘formerness.’ To write is not only to become an individual, but also to recognize the presence of others in the making of the self.
Autobiography, which is traditionally associated with a certain subjective idealism, is not expected to fully engage with the world, while memoirs, a genre preferred by Anglo-Saxon women, position the writing subjects in a larger environment. As Nancy Miller insisted, memoirs do not draw a clear line between the public and the private since emphasizing the role of the outside world amounts to some socio-political, cultural or ethical risk. It means inhabiting and reappropriating the public space, becoming visible, sharing one’s experience and offering a reflection on history and society. For Helen M. Buss, memoirs are not only representations of women’s personal lives but also of their desire to repossess important parts of our culture, in which women’s stories have not mattered.
From this perspective, the autobiographical project is akin to sociology or history, which it completes without replacing. We may wonder what historical value to attribute to autobiography. What is the relation between autobiography and cultural memory? Betweenautobiography and counter-memory? Autobiography and photography? Beyond the traditional (written) forms of autobiographical narrative, we are interested in other, more contemporary, forms of autobiographical projects.

Several themes may be explored:

1) The autobiographical narrative as testimony/reappropriation/intervention: how do women participate as witnesses of their time? What narrative strategies do they use to
combine/separate/mix individual and collective discourses, private and public discourses? How do women write narratives of historical events or of “conditions of being”? Specific genres such as war stories or slave narratives could be studied.

2) Autobiography and ‘postmemory’ (Hirsch): when second or third generations recount the trauma (war, exile, decolonization, poverty) endured by previous generations in diasporic memoirs, or working class memoirs (Jeanette Winterson, Carolyn Steedman).

3) The places of memory: what is the relation of women’s autobiography to space-time? How is the place of memory represented (cf the garden world of Jamaica Kincaid in /My Garden (Book))? / What role does it play in the construction of the narrative identity in narratives of exile and of migration/, /such as ethnic culinary memoirs /(Myriam’s Kitchen)/? How are the conditions of being part of several worlds and of the postcolonial self expressed?

4) Autobiography in the world’s web: the Self in the virtual world. Do on-line journals increase our connectedness to the world or do they leave us more isolated?

5) Autobiography and the image of (the self in the) world: the referentiality of images tested against writing (photographs inserted into the autobiographical text as visual transmission / mediation between the self and the world, graphic memoirs, etc…); the intersection between personal, political and photographic autobiographies (Jo Spence)

Papers will be given in English (preferred language) or French

200-400 word abstracts (and short bios) to be sent by June 15th 2016 to the co-organizers: Claire Bazin cbaz1@wanadoo.fr and Corinne Bigot corinne.bigot@wanadoo.fr

Nicoleta Alexoae-Zagni, Istom, CREA Paris Ouest
Valérie Baisnée, Université de Paris Sud, CREA Paris Ouest
Valérie Baudier, CREA, Paris Ouest
Claire Bazin, CREA, Paris Ouest Nanterre
Corinne Bigot, CREA, Paris Ouest Nanterre
Elisabeth Bouzonviller, Université de Saint Etienne
Stéphanie Genty, SLAM, Université d’Evry-Val d’Essonne
Nathalie Saudo-Welby, CORPUS Université de Picardie Jules Verne

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Buss, Helen M. /Repossessing the World: Reading Memoirs by  Contemporary Women/. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2002.
Eakin, John Paul. /How Our Lives Become Stories: Making Selves./ Cornell University Press, 1999.
/____ Touching the World: Reference in Autobiography/. Princeton University Press, 1992.
Ernaux, Annie, /Exteriors/. Seven Stories Press, 1996.
Halbwachs, Maurice. /La Mémoire collective/. Paris: Albin Michel, 1997.
Hirsch, Marianne and Smith, Valerie (eds). “Feminism and Cultural Memory: An Introduction.” /Signs/, Vol. 28, No. 1, Gender and Cultural Memory Special Issue (Autumn 2002): 1-19.
Hirsch, Marianne, /Family Frames:/ /Photography Narrative and Postmemory, /Harvard UP, 1997.
_____________ “Past Lives: Postmemories in Exile”, /Poetics Today,/ Vol. 17, No. 4 (1996): 659-690.
Miller, Nancy K. /Bequest & Betrayal: Memoirs of a Parent’s Death/. Oxford UP, 1996.
Ricœur, Paul. /La mémoire, l’histoire, l’oubli/. Paris: Seuil, 2000.
Turkle, Sherry. /Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other/. New York: Basic Books, 2011.
Whitlock Gillian, /Soft Weapons: Autobiography in Transit, /The University of Washington Press, 2007.
Zanon-Davis, Natalie and Randoph Starn, “Introduction,” /Representations/ 26, Special Issue: “Memory and Counter-Memory” (1989): 1-6.

Forging the American Century: World War II and the transformation of U.S. internationalism

The intersection of contemporary debates about the future of American power and recent developments in the field of diplomatic history compel us to reconsider the foundations and contours of the American Century.

“Forging the American Century”, seeks to combine the current concern for America’s changing role in the world with new and developing insights into the nature of international relations to revisit the origins of the American Century: World War II and its aftermath. The conference is not about the high diplomacy of the war, nor is it necessarily about the start of the Cold War. Instead, it will address the ways in which the World War and America’s rise to global power drove Americans in different fields, both inside and outside the sphere of formal diplomacy, to forge new connections with the world. We will also address the many ways in which people around the world responded to the new or changing American presence.

 

By invoking the term “American Century”, we do not intend to link up to Henry Luce’s original arguments. With its confusing mix of jingoism, democratic idealisms, free market enthusiasm, nationalism, and naiveté, Luce’s “American Century” has rarely been taken seriously as a blueprint for American internationalism. However, the concept of an “American Century” has recently made a comeback in discussions about the United States’ relative decline. Can the United States maintain its international economic position in the face of Chinese competition? Have the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq caused irreparable damage to its role as an international leader? Will rising powers, especially the much-discussed BRICS countries, challenge the liberal world order that the United States has built and sustained?

 

In a recent anthology that he described as a “dissenter’s guide to the American Century”, Andrew Bacevich argues that:

“the conditions that once lent plausibility to visions of an American Century [have] ceased to exist…Contemporary reality no longer accommodate[s] the notion of a single nation arrogating to itself the role of a Good Samaritan, especially a nation with dirty hands…The utility of Luce’s formulation as a description of the contemporary international order or as a guide to future U.S. policy has been exhausted.”

Others have been more optimistic, both about the nature of the American Century and its future. Joseph Nye defines it as “the extraordinary period of American preeminence in military, economic, and soft power resources that have made the United States central to the workings of the global balance of power, and to the provision of global public goods”. While the international environment will become more complicated in the future, he announces simply that “the American century is not over”.

 

The running debates over the future of American power make this an opportune moment to reconsider the foundations of U.S. internationalism, especially in the light of recent innovations in the field of diplomatic history. Over the past fifteen years, terms such as empire, soft power, and anti-Americanism have become commonplace in discussions of America’s role in the world. Foreign policy, power politics, and the work of statesmen and professional diplomats no longer dominate histories of U.S. foreign relations. Current scholarly interest in soft power, public diplomacy, and Americanization have opened the field to the study of culture. “New” diplomatic historians study the role of individuals, networks, musicians, athletes, transnational movements and a wide variety of other forms of “informal” diplomacy. A focus on American action has made room for the study of interaction: the ways in which peoples throughout the world have resisted, negotiated, or welcomed the American presence.

 

Disciplines and topics

We welcome scholars from all disciplinary and theoretical backgrounds to present fresh insights into the historical foundations of U.S. power and the international order it helped to create during and (immediately) after the Second World War. The following questions may be helpful in formulating contributions to this conference:

 

(1) How did the War and its aftermath change the practice of diplomacy? How did diplomats develop new strategies to reach out to the world? How did they coopt private initiatives or vice versa?

(2) How did individuals, companies, civic groups, and other “informal” diplomats shape America’s global presence during and after the war?

(3) How did the United States shape the international environment through its support for new diplomatic, financial, and economic institutions? To what extent did those new institutions shape U.S. actions?

(4) How did America’s new role in the world shape its domestic culture, politics, or society?

(5) How have Asians, Africans, Europeans, and Latin Americans resisted, negotiated, or welcomed the new American presence.

(6) How have processes of historical memory and (re)interpretations of World War II shaped U.S. internationalism in domestic and transnational contexts?

 

Paper Proposals

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers. Please send a 300 word abstract and brief biographical note to j.vandenberk@let.ru.nl by May 15, 2016

 

Date and location

The conference will take place at the Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, on October 27-28, 2016. This conference is an initiative of the North American Studies Program at the Radboud University. For more information about our program and our staff please visit www.ru.nl/nas.

Please note that a small fee may apply for participants in this conference.

IN LIMINE Fringe Forms and Border Discourses

PhD in Literary, Linguistic and Comparative Studies

Graduate Conference 2016

Keynote speaker: Edgar Radtke

 The second edition of the Graduate Conference of the PhD in Literary, Linguistics and Comparative Studies will be devoted to investigating the concept of limen in its various meanings: limen as threshold, textual and meta-textual margin; limen as border, boundary; limen as extreme limit; limen as in-betweenness, the threshold of consciousness and perception. You can refer to limen as what defines, separates, combines, allows the crossing and contamination, the identification or differentiation. It can be fixed, variable, incorporated or invented and is understood as an object in its literal meaning or as a metaphorical concept. The organizing committee is pleased to welcome scholars from different disciplines to address the topic of fringe forms and border speeches from traditional or unusual perspectives, in order to offer a comprehensive analysis of this multilayered concept with ambivalent meanings. The concept of limen can then be related to all forms of marginalization in literature, linguistics and the arts, according to a literary, critical, linguistic, philological, semiotic, anthropological, medial approach. The committee will accept proposals which analyze the theme along an interdisciplinary trajectory, highlighting the arbitrariness of each label. Looking forward to further proposals, some of the key topics that will be the focus of the conference are listed below: I) TEXTUAL CROSSINGS -Comments, glosses, annotations -Notes -Re-writings -Critiques and interpretations -Translations

I) TEXTUAL CROSSINGS -Comments, glosses, annotations -Notes -Re-writings -Critiques and interpretations -Translations

II) BOUNDARIES BETWEEN ART AND CULTURE -Border and hybrid identities as topics -Culture, literature, arts, cinema and authors on the edge -Movements and dialogues between different cultural and artistic expressions -Theater as boundary form, shape and space

III) LINGUISTIC MARGINALITY -Linguistic contamination and language contacts -Marginal aspects on all linguistic levels -Marked and /or atypical forms -Dialects, interlanguages, pidgins, creole languages

 

ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS AND CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS PhD candidates and early-career researchers interested in taking part to the Graduate Conference should send an outline (400 words max., excluding title and possible bibliography from word count) to graduateconf@unior.it by May 10, 2016. Applications should include the following: personal information (name, surname, e-mail address, institutional affiliation), thematic area, presentation type. Please, submit all electronic application materials as a single PDF or DOC file. Applicants may participate with a 15-minute paper or with a poster (118 x 165 cm max., printed on a lucid or opaque board). In the opening of the posters-dedicated session, each poster creator will give a 3-minute talk on his or her project and invite conference-goers to directly question him or her. The duration of this session will be defined according to the total number of poster presentations. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by July 10, 2016. All the speakers will be invited to send their talk by December 31, 2016, for the publication of the conference proceedings, edited by the Organizing Committee and by the PhD Scientific Committee.

All expenses will be covered by participants. Further information (conference venues, accommodations, social dinner) are available on the conference page http://www.unior.it/ateneo/12487/1/graduate- conference.html Questions about the conference are welcome and may be directed to the email address below. Official languages: Italian and English. Contacts: graduateconf@unior.it

Organizing Committee: Margherita De Blasi Giulia Imbriaco Felice Messina Salvatore Orlando Valentina Schettino

Obama’ Legacy: Tensions & Reconfigurations After the Presidential Elections.

Scientific Committee: François de Chantal (Political Science, Paris Diderot) – Andrew Diamond (History, Paris 4) – Frédérick Douzet (Geopolitics, Paris 8) – Romain Huret (History, EHESS) – Denis Lacorne (Political Science, Sciences-Po/CERI) – Vincent Michelot (Political Science, IEP Lyon) – Jean-Christian Vinel (History, Paris Diderot) – Julien Zarifian (Geography, Cergy Pontoise University).

Venue: Université Paris 7 (auditorium Buffon to be confirmed). Official address: 4 rue Marie-Andrée Lagroua Weill-Halle, 75013 Paris. Public Access (ground floor): 15 rue Hélène Brion 75013 Paris.
 

Scientific Argument:

If the historic nature of the 2008 elections is not disputable, the decisive nature in policy terms of Obama’s two terms is a matter of debate. Using Stephen Skowronek’s typology of presidential leadership (1993), we can question whether Obama was, like Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a position to “repudiate” the prior political and social order to build a new one. More generally, was Obama’s presidency a “transformative” event that made substantive changes possible? Or was it, as Cass Sunstein anticipated (2008), a “minimalist” presidency, or even a traditionalist “restoration”? Obama’s presidency actually seems to be in-between these clear-cut categories, but to what extent and how?

The first objective of this international conference is to provide an early assessment of Obama’s presidency by comparing it to previous major waves of reforms. The example of Obama’s presidency will also allow participants to think in more general terms about progressivism and its limits within the budget and institutional constraints of the American polity. To do so, the conference will be organized around the four following topics:

1. The legislative record of Obama’s administration naturally calls for a comparison with past reform attempts. The similarities between the New Deal and the Great Society, on the one hand, and Obama’s presidency, on the other hand, have been noticed by many (Kloppenberg, 2010), especially because the progressives’ hopes were once more placed in the presidency. The inauguration of a new and charismatic president in a context of social and economic collapse and the repudiation of the Republican Party combined to create a sense that 2008 was quite similar to the 1932 elections and FDR’s victory. The agenda of the incoming president also echoed the 1930s as the stimulus plan, Wall Street reform and healthcare reform (a goal that had loomed large on the agenda of all Democratic presidents since FDR’s refusal to include a healthcare provision as part of Social Security) were finally adopted during the 111th Congress. Not only can Obama’s achievements be seen as being in the wake of FDR’s, but the presidency of the first black president seemed to fulfill, at least symbolically, the promises of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. Obama’s personal story-telling was based on the integration of values & codes inherited from the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, as illustrated by his 1995 autobiography,Dreams From My Father. He also willingly displayed his sense of belonging to the black community by ticking the “Black/African-American” box in the 2010 census. Taken together, all these elements combined to elevate Obama’s presidency to the status of a third successful wave of progressive reforms that would also realize the dream of a “post-racial” society.

2. The second dimension we wish to explore during this conference is the crisis of the American political system. During the Obama years, there was first an institutional crisis. Gridlock fueled debates about the decline of the American Republic (Ackerman, 2010). Faced with a paralyzed Congress, Obama resorted to independent executive action in a number of areas such as immigration, which led his Republicans opponents to denounce abuses of Presidential power –a total reversal of rhetoric compared to the Bush presidency. There was also a political crisis, with the rise in partisanship. In many ways, Obama’s calls for a « post partisan era » of government was impossible with a Republican party moving further to the right. In the meantime, a budgetary crisis resulting from the conflicts between Obama and the republicans weakened the credibility of the US and turned the annual vote of the budget into yearly drama. Finally, there has been a crisis at the level of citizenship, with movements left and right (Occupy Wall Street, The Tea Party) challenging the legitimacy of elected officials. A kind of cynicism about traditional establishment politicians seems to have taken root, one reinforced by the ongoing debate over the Citizens United decision.

3. The third dimension we invite scholars to explore is made up of three burning issues –inequality, racial relations and immigration. Seven years after Obama was sworn into office, the crisis of the Middle class –one of the 2008 campaign themes—is as important a political issue as ever. Labor unions seem have been weakened by multiple conservative assaults, particularly in the private sector. The right to work movement has made progress in the North, and its constitutional strategy has led to a much anticipated decision by the Supreme Court (Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.). In the meantime, the administration has failed to raise the minimum wage, and more generally to offer a solution to the growing class inequality. The tax system –both at the state and federal level- has remained unchanged, but the gap between taxes on income and taxes on capital has grown. The enormous success of Capital, Thomas Piketty’s book, has largely captured growing concerns over what is an increasingly unequal fiscal system. As for racial relations, they have not improved with the election of a Black President. The riots in Ferguson and Baltimore and the recent events of police brutality are stark reminders of the persistence character of race as a dividing line in American society (Sugrue 2010). In spite of the emergence of Black Lives Matter, and although Obama denounced the brutality that caused the riots, nothing has been done to reform the penal system and question the “carceral state” that has caused so much damage to African American communities. Meantime, another Supreme Court decision, this time on the Voting Rights Act, (Shelby County v. Holder) has weakened the legal tools used to combat discrimination. Finally, because racial divisions also take root in urban geography, education, and the evolution of work in post-industrial America, we also invite scholars to submit proposals dealing with the intersection of race and class. Finally, immigration remains an unresolved problem. The paralysis of Congress on this issue is such that during the Obama years, most attempts to deal with it –both progressive and conservative—have taken place at the local level. As it stands federal immigration policy is a patchwork that offers no way forward.

4. The last topic of the conference is foreign policy. The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize that Obama received also illustrated the high hopes placed in the incoming president after the controversies surrounding Bush’s decisions to go to war. Obama did succeed in withdrawing American forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, but these successes created in turn new challenges, from Libya to Syria, including the rise of Daesch, that made the well-publicized American “pivot” to Asia much more complicated to implement. This facilitated a return to the Atlantic framework inherited from World War Two, especially in the context of the Ukrainian crisis and the renewed tensions between Russia and the U.S. But how substantial has the rediscovery of the Atlantic alliance been? Especially when U.S. foreign policy turns to unilateralism whenever Americans deem it necessary. The raging debate over mass surveillance since Snowden’s revelations in June 2013 and its negative impact on the Old Continent illustrate the persistence of misunderstandings between America and its European allies. If the official use of the expression “War on Terror” was dropped by Obama, the practice persists (drones), especially under the guise of “cyber security,” which still creates tensions in the Euro-American relationship. Besides, the protection of individual privacy in the context of mass surveillance (Jeff Rosen, 2001) and the democratic framework suitable to preserve accountability are especially acute issues after eight years of increasing cyber innovations. Those new challenges call for a complete rethinking of international law and collective security. Finally, the free-trade agenda of the Obama administration – toward Asia and Europe – can be regarded as both a way to deepen the relations with allied nations and a source of major tensions, especially in Europe. Recent diplomatic successes of the Obama administration, like the nuclear agreement with Iran, could also be addressed.

Taken together, the Obama presidency seems to have provided as many solutions as it created new problems. The “third wave” of American progressivism that so many people expected in 2008 turned out to be a difficult adjustment to the realities of American politics in a severe social and economic context. After eight years in power, Obama’s record is certainly a mixed bag for many, especially for his most enthusiastic supporters of 2008. Nevertheless, the conference will try to put forward a more nuanced assessment of a Presidency that seems to defy many of the existing categories.

Submission Deadlines:

– March, 31st 2016 : deadline for proposals (500 words max., with a title and an institutional affiliation). Proposals will be sent to François de Chantal, fdechantal@univ-paris-diderot.fr and Jean-Christian Vinel <jean.christian.vinel@gmail.com>.

– June, 30th 2016 : Committee’s response.

– The final & written version of the paper is expected by November 2016.     

“Innovative Poetries – Innovations in Poetry”

Beginning with the modernist aesthetic revolution, poetry has continuously shown a stubborn resolve to respond to social, political and cultural shifts and crises with technical innovation. Such innovativeness speaks of the resilience of poetry, as genre, as it refuses to succumb to various announcements of its death or cultural irrelevance. The historical lineage of these responses is an impressive inventory of technical innovation in itself. While the New York School poets reacted to the monumental edifices of their modernist predecessors, their own performative-surrealist modes or varieties of “personism” were later replaced by the Language poets’ insistence on the dissolution of personal expressivity, while both the Language and New York School poets have been seen as responding to the technically moderate “scenic mode” of the 1970’s.

But these innovations have already had their continuations and further reverberations. As various prominent commentators suggest, poetry written in English, now also resounding beyond the Anglophone scope, has continued to respond to social and cultural crises and turmoils with technical innovation. Michael Davidson has argued that the “negative capability” of the contemporary poet, now resolving more around social crises than “personal uncertainty,” has given us poems of increased “interruption” and deliberate “illegibility,” as poets seek to make the genre responsive to the crises of global migrations, economic meltdown, ecological degradation, and fluctuations in our understanding of gender and labor. From a slightly different viewpoint, reinforcing Charles Bernstein’s advocacy of poetic artifice as resistance to dominant poetic “verse cultures,” Marjorie Perloff has defended the cause of technical poetic innovation and practicing poetry “by other means,” proposing an aesthetic platform which, while it calls for a rethinking of the notion of individual originality, also delivers a staunch defense of the capacity of poets and their practice to keep the genre afresh by technical and formal innovation.

These critics’ favoring of the poetry of citationality and cultural material appropriation has found support through various archival projects. One of them is the recently published 2014 Poetics Journal Digital Archive, preceded by a 2013 co-publication, A Guide to Poetics Journal: Writing in the Expanded Field, 1982-1998. Edited by Lyn Hejinian and Barrett Watten, both volumes document critical developments, taking into account an impressively broad range of aesthetic perspectives. Meant as a resource for research, collaborations, and interventions, rather than a definitive collection of criticism, the archive offers an encouragement to view poetry and poetics as “an expanded field” of both theory and poetic practice. Poetic tradition does not take center stage in this project; instead, it privileges the realm of the avant-garde with its many theoretical and aesthetic debates. For the editors,

 

[p]oetics is a site for reflection on the making of the work that extends its construction into the fields of meaning in which it has its effects. Such fields of meaning are manifold, from the readers’ responses to historical contexts, social motivations, relations to other arts, and philosophical concerns, finally entailing something like a cunning of poetics: the manner in which the work of art extends its principle of construction, the way it makes meaning, through the contexts it draws from, finally, to transform them.

 

The challenge posed by this archival initiative may serve to sum up the thrust of what we are proposing to explore in this thematically focused conference. We invite scholars to present their views and stance on the technical innovation in the poetry written in English, as it continues to respond to crises of various kinds – social, economic, cultural, globalized – remaining a vitally flexible genre, able to shape insightful perspectives on the human situation.

The “new poetries” that we invite you to consider are the poetries of technical and aesthetic innovation. The conference presentations that we welcome and invite may include, but are in no way limited to, the following tendencies, contexts, and issues as well as the ways in which they have been intertwined:

 

  • language-centered poetics (including Language- and post-Language writing)
  •  performance-based poetics
  • the political character of the aesthetic
  • (non-)originality/individuality/voice amidst technical innovation
  • subject-construction in poetry
  • ecopoetics
  • New Narrative
  • hybrid & cross-genre poetic modes
  • conceptual and post-conceptual poetry
  • poetic and poetic/artistic collaborations

 

Abstracts of paper proposals, up to 250-300 words, should be sent to conference organizers by May 15, 2016: dr Kacper Bartczak (kacper@uni.lodz.pl) and dr Małgorzata Myk (goskamyk@gmail.com).

The conference fee is 350 PLN.

 

The 1st conference circular, contacting the authors of accepted proposals and containing further payment, venue, and accommodation information, will be sent by May 30.

Fass-Sandin Prize for Best Article in German or Italian

The Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY) is pleased to call for nominations for the best article in German or Italian on the history of children, childhood, or youth (broadly construed) published in a 2013, 2014, or 2015 issue of a print or online journal. The SHCY will grant one award. The prize consists of a plaque and a check for $250. The winner will be announced in early September 2016 on the website of the SHCY. She/he will be informed of the award prior to the anouncement. Nominations are invited from publishers, editors, scholars, and authors. Eligibility for the awards is based solely on the language in which the article is published, not on the residence or nationality of the author. Current members of the SHCY award committee are ineligible.

Please send a PDF or photocopy of the article to both chairs of the prize committee, Patrizia Guarnieri at patrizia.guarnieri@unifi.it and Dirk Schumann at dschuma@uni-goettingen.de. The deadline for nominations is April 15, 2016. The third member of the committee is Patrizia Dogliani (Bologna).

 

 

Web Resources

Here you can find a selection of academic journals dealing with American studies. Several journals require payment to have full access to the articles, while others provide free full-text articles online.

Selected American Studies Journals Published in the United States

 

Selected American Studies Journals Published in Europe

Italian Universities and American Studies for Graduate Students.

Questa lista, rivolta principalmente ai laureati che desiderino proseguire la loro formazione nell’ambito dell’americanistica, elenca le università in cui sono attivati corsi di perfezionamento oppure dottorati che consentono di fare ricerca sulla cultura, la letteratura, e/o la storia americana a livello avanzato. Le informazioni fornite qui si intendono di orientamento: gli studenti sono invitati ad approfondire o contattare i docenti localmente.

 

National and International Associations

  • EAAS – European Association for American Studies: www.eaas.eu
  • IASA – International American Studies Association: www.iasaweb.org
  • MESEA – The Society for Multi-Ethnic Studies: Europe and the Americas: www.mesea.org
  • ACLA – American Comparative Literature Association: www.acla.org
  • AHA – American Historical Association: www.historians.org
  • IASA (formerly AIHA) – Italian American Studies Association: www.aihaweb.org
  • ASA – American Studies Association: www.theasa.net
  • MLA – Modern Language Association: www.mla.org

 

Cultural Institutions

The Web offers a wide variety of materials devoted to the US and the American Studies. The list of links below is not meant to be exhaustive, rather to be the starting point for further researches. Any search engine can be a useful tool to obtain more results.

Full Text American Literary (and Not Only) Works:

 

Newspapers

Grants

Bandi Aperti

Fulbright Grants

The Fulbright Program provides funding for students, scholars, and professionals to undertake graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and teaching in elementary, and secondary schools. More programs are available on their website at www.fulbright.it

 

Bandi Chiusi

Premio Agostino Lombardo  

Per commemorare la figura del grande studioso scomparso, l’AISNA (Associazione Italiana di Studi Nord-Americani) bandisce il Premio Agostino Lombardo, assegnato alla migliore tesi di laurea di argomento americanistico discussa nel corso dell’anno precedente in un’università italiana.

Il premio consiste in € 500,00 (cinquecento). Al premio in denaro si aggiungono, come da regolamento, l’iscrizione all’AISNA per un anno senza ulteriori presentazioni da parte di membri dell’Associazione e la proposta di pubblicazione di un estratto della tesi sulla rivista RSA.

Possono concorrere al Premio tutte le tesi di Laurea Specialistica o Magistrale discusse nel corso dell’anno solare 2017 su argomenti inerenti lo studio della letteratura, della storia e della cultura nord-americana. Ciascun membro dell’Associazione Italiana di Studi Nord-Americani, in regola con il pagamento delle quote associative, potrà proporre non più di una tesi, che dovrà essere accompagnata da una circostanziata relazione a firma del/della proponente. Il/la proponente non deve essere necessariamente stato/a relatore/relatrice della tesi.

La tesi dovrà essere inviata in formato cartaceo ed elettronico. La tesi in formato cartaceo e in unica copia, stampata fronte-retro e rilegata con semplice cartoncino e spirale, va inviata a: Premio Agostino Lombardo, c/o Centro Studi Americani, via Michelangelo Caetani, 32, 00186 Roma. La tesi in formato elettronico (pdf), va inviata invece all’indirizzo della Segretaria AISNA: segretario-aisna@unive.it. Il/la proponente dovrà inviare la propria relazione in formato elettronico al medesimo indirizzo della Segretaria. Tutta la documentazione dovrà essere inoltrata entro il 1 giugno 2018. I lavori relativi al precedente bando 2017, non pervenuti alla commissione a causa di comprovati disguidi di trasmissione/ricezione postale (cartacea e/o elettronica), saranno riammessi a concorrere per il 2018.

Le tesi pervenute saranno esaminate da una Commissione che, dopo aver valutato individualmente gli elaborati, stilerà una graduatoria di merito, designerà il/la vincitore/vincitrice e delibererà l’eventuale assegnazione di menzioni di merito. Il vincitore/la vincitrice del Premio verrà proclamato/a nel corso della Assemblea dell’Associazione che si terrà a Roma il 27 settembre 2018.

 

Premio Caterina Gullì

La famiglia Gullì ha istituito a partire dall’anno 2006 un premio per onorare la figura di Caterina Gullì, americanista prematuramente scomparsa nell’anno 1990, quando era in procinto di terminare la sua tesi di dottorato in Studi Americani presso l’Università degli Studi di Roma 3, nonché un Ph.D. in Letterature Comparate presso la Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ).

Il premio consiste in € 300 (trecento). Al premio in denaro si aggiungono, come da regolamento, una quota di iscrizione all’AISNA per un anno, senza ulteriori presentazioni da parte di membri dell’Associazione, e la proposta di pubblicazione di un estratto della tesi sulla rivista RSA.

Nell’istituire il premio, la famiglia Gullì delega l’Associazione Italiana di Studi Nord-Americani a scegliere ogni anno, fra le tesi presentate al Premio Agostino Lombardo, una tesi dotata di particolari caratteristiche di innovatività e originalità alla quale assegnare il premio. Tutte le tesi presentate al Premio Agostino Lombardo, pertanto, parteciperanno automaticamente anche al Premio Caterina Gullì.

L’AISNA si riserva di contribuire alle spese di viaggio dei vincitori di entrambi i premi per la sede prevista dell’Assemblea annuale.

 

Seconda Edizione Premio di Traduzione “Cinzia Biagiotti”

Per ricordare Cinzia Biagiotti, docente di Lingua e Letterature Angloamericane all’Universita di Pisa, si bandisce la seconda edizione del premio di traduzione riservato a tesi di laurea magistrate, suddiviso in due sezioni:

1) Tesi di laurea in traduzione letteraria da opera di scrittore statunitense.
2) Tesi di laurea in traduzione letteraria o saggistica da opera in lingua inglese di viaggiatori in Toscana. 

Le tesi, discusse negli anni solari 2016 e 2017, devono essere inviate in duplice copia a “Premio di Traduzione Cinzia Biagiotti“, c/o Dipartimento di Filologia, Letteratura e Linguistica —Palazzo Scala — via S. Maria, 67, 56126 Pisa, entro il 28 febbraio 2018 (farà fede il timbro postale). 

Le tesi pervenute saranno esaminate da una Commissione formata da: 
Dacia Maraini — Presidente
Marina Camboni
Roberta Ferrari
Barbara Lanati
Gaia Marsico 

Segreteria Premio: Laura Coltelli (lcoltelli21@gmail.com) 

 

Due borse di studio post-dottorali per dottori di ricerca in Letteratura angloamericana e Storia degli Stati Uniti

IL PRESIDENTE

–Visti i fini statutari dell’AISNA – Associazione Italiana di Studi Nord Americani – che raccoglie studiosi della letteratura, della storia, delle arti e delle istituzioni degli Stati Uniti d’America;
–Vista la deliberazione del Direttivo dell’Associazione di bandire, grazie all’assegnazione di un grant finalizzato da parte dell’Ambasciata degli Stati Uniti, n. 2 borse post-dottorali dell’ammontare di € 2.600 ciascuna, da destinare a Dottori di ricerca in Letteratura angloamericana e Storia degli Stati Uniti affinchè possano, nell’arco di n. 6 mesi, procedere alla rielaborazione delle tesi dottorali in vista di una loro pubblicazione in volume;

AVVISA

Art. 1 L’AISNA – Associazione Italiana di Studi Nord Americani – con il contributo finanziario dell’Ambasciata degli Stati Uniti, bandisce n. 2 borse di studio della durata di n. 6 mesi, da assegnare a n. 2 tesi dottorali in Letteratura Angloamericana e Storia degli Stati Uniti onde favorirne la rielaborazione e la conseguente pubblicazione da parte dei rispettivi autori.
Art 2 Ammontare delle borse — L’ammontare di ciascuna borsa è previsto in € 2.600.
Art 3 Requisiti di ammissione — I candidati devono essere in possesso dei seguenti requisiti: dottorato di ricerca conseguito in Italia da non più di 3 anni dalla pubblicazione del presente bando.
Art 4 Commissione valutatrice — La valutazione dei lavori presentati è affidata a una Commissione di n.5 membri nominati dal Direttivo dell’AISNA.
Art 5 Criteri di valutazione — La Commissione assegnerà ai progetti presentati un punteggio pari a un massimo di 100 punti, così suddivisi: fino a un massimo di 50 punti per la tesi di dottorato (originalità, uso delle fonti e della letteratura, impostazione critico-metodologica); fino a un massimo di 30 punti per le pubblicazioni presentate; fino a un massimo di 20 punti per titoli diversi quali soggiorni di studio all’estero adeguatamente documentati, borse di studio, premi ricevuti e inerenti la Letteratura Angloamericana e la Storia degli Stati Uniti. A parità di merito sarà data precedenza a chi ha conseguito il titolo da più tempo. In subordine, a chi ha la minore età anagrafica.
Art 6 Il/la tutor della borsa post-dottorale – indicato/a dai candidati nella domanda – si impegna per la durata della borsa a fornire al/alla borsista una postazione di lavoro e tutte le facilities (accesso risorse telematiche, etc.) che il suo dipartimento di afferenza può mettere a disposizione del/della borsista.
Art 7 Pubblicazione e scadenza — Il presente Avviso sarà pubblicato sul sito dell’AISNA. La scadenza per le domande è fissata al 31 maggio 2017.

La domanda con gli allegati indicati nel modello allegato dovrà pervenire alla Segreteria dell’AISNA per via telematica: segretario-aisna@unive.it La commissione valutatrice è composta da Raffaella Baritono, Daniela Ciani, Marco Mariano, Gigliola Nocera e Giuseppe Nori.

– Modello della domanda

– Bando stampabile

 

EAAS Postgraduate Travel Grants  

Postgraduate students in the Humanities and Social Sciences who are registered for a higher research degree at any European university, and are members of an American Studies association belonging to EAAS may apply. Two kinds of grants are available: the Transatlantic Grant and the Intra-European Grant. The maximum single award granted may amount to EUR 2,000.

The Transatlantic Grant will permit the holder to conduct research which illuminates a particular area of American Studies in a designated university, independent research organization or archive in the United States.

The term of the grant will be between three weeks (minimum) and eight weeks (maximum). Successful applicants will receive a grant intended to cover round trip travel and some of the living expenses. Only students registered for a Ph.D. are eligible to apply for the Transatlantic Grants.

The Intra-European Grant will allow the recipient to conduct research for a period of up to four weeks in an American Studies Center or university library or archive in Europe. Graduate students who are registered either for a Ph. D. or a Master’s degree by research are eligible to apply for Intra-European Grants.

Applications must be made on the official form and should include written confirmation from the host institution that the researcher will have access to the necessary resource materials, and a letter from the student’s academic supervisor. Applicants will be required to supply a detailed estimate of the cost of their visit, including the cost of travel, subsistence, and incidentals. They should also state the minimum amount of money needed to make the trip possible. Applicants are encouraged to seek supporting or matching funding wherever possible.
Grant recipients will be responsible for making their own arrangements for travel and accommodation. Travel must be completed within twelve months of the grantee being notified of the award.

Grantees are required to submit a report to the EAAS within thirty days of returning from their research visit. Obvisously the report should include the grantees institution and destination.

The reports are accessible from the bottom of this page.

The application deadline (receipt of the application) for the current round is Sunday, April 17, 2016. You may download the Application Form as a Word file(44,5 KB) or a PDF file (123 KB).

Please send the completed Travel Grant Application Form including:

  1. an estimated budget,
  2. a recommendation letter from academic supervisor,
  3. a letter of confirmation from the host institution

to Professor Pawel Frelik, Vice-President of the EAAS, by e-mail attachment to vice-president@eaas.eu.

See www.eaas.eu/eaas-grants/travel-grants

 

Statutes
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Statutes

Sede Legale

Associazione Italiana di Studi Nord Americani
c/o Centro Studi Americani,
C.F. 96027200581
Via Michelangelo Caetani, 32 
00186, Roma 

Tel: 06.6880.1613 / Fax: 06.6830.7256

 

 

Statuto

  • TITOLO I. Denominazione e sede.

    • Art. 1 Viene costituita un’Associazione denominata “Associazione Italiana di Studi Nord Americani”
    • Art. 2 L’Associazione ha la sede legale presso il Centro Di Studi Americani in Roma, Via Michelangelo Caetani, 32. Essa avrà il suo recapito a fini postali e di fatto presso il domicilio eletto dal Presidente pro-tempore.

  • TITOLO II. Finalità dell’associazione.

    • Art. 3 L’Associazione persegue i fini seguenti: a) stabilire contatti regolari tra gli specialisti e i cultori di studi nord-americani in modo da facilitarne le attività didattiche e di ricerca; b) contribuire allo sviluppo degli studi nord-americani in Italia e stimolare occasioni di scambi interdisciplinari; c) promuovere e mantenere rapporti con le analoghe associazioni e centri di ricerca di studi nord-americani di altri paesi.

  • TITOLO III. Soci.

    • Art. 4 Possono essere Soci: a) gli specialisti italiani di studi nord-americani che ne facciano richiesta; b) coloro le cui opere, studi e ricerche rispondano alle finalità dell’Associazione, sempreché ne facciano richiesta. I Soci sono ripartiti in tre classi di discipline: letteratura ed arti; storia; scienze Sociali. Ciascun Socio deve dichiarare, al momento della prima costituzione delle classi, e successivamente, all’atto di richiesta di ammissione all’Associazione, la classe di discipline alla quale intende essere assegnato. L’ammissione di Soci avviene su presentazione di altri due Soci ed è approvata dal Consiglio Direttivo e ratificata dall’Assemblea. Il potere di ratifica dell’Assemblea si estende sia al fatto dell’ammissione del Socio sia al fatto della sua assegnazione a una particolare classe di discipline. Il mancato pagamento delle quote statutarie entro l’anno fiscale implica la decadenza dalla qualifica di Socio.

  • TITOLO IV. Organi dell’associazione.

    • Art. 5 Gli organi dell’Associazione sono:
      • L’Assemblea dei Soci;
      • Il Consiglio Direttivo;
      • Il Presidente.

      Le cariche non sono retribuite.

    • Art. 6 L’Assemblea dei Soci è costituita da tutti i Soci dell’Associazione in regola con i pagamenti. Essa si riunisce in seduta ordinaria una volta l’anno; approva la relazione sull’attività svolta dall’Associazione; fissa le quote associative; ratifica l’ammissione dei nuovi Soci; approva i rendiconti e preventivi; delibera sulle eventuali modifiche di Statuto a maggioranza qualificata dei due terzi dei partecipanti; svolge inoltre tutte le altre funzioni attribuite ad essa dallo Statuto e decide sulle questioni che il Consiglio Direttivo ritenga di sottoporre al suo esame. L’Assemblea può essere convocata in seduta straordinaria dal Consiglio Direttivo su richiesta di un quarto dei Soci.
    • Art. 7 Ogni Socio ha diritto a un voto. L’esercizio del diritto di voto può essere delegato, per iscritto, ad altro Socio. Non può essere delegato allo stesso Socio più di un voto.
    • Art. 8 Per la validità delle assemblee in prima convocazione occorre l’intervento della metà più uno dei Soci. In seconda convocazione le Assemblee sono valide qualunque sia il numero dei Soci intervenuti. Le deleghe concorrono alla formazione del numero legale. Le deliberazioni sono prese a maggioranza assoluta degli intervenuti e dei rappresentanti per delega. L’Assemblea è presieduta dal Presidente dell’Associazione.I verbali delle Assemblee sono sottoscritti dal Presidente e dal Segretario dell’Assemblea, il quale verrà di volta in volta designato dall’Assemblea medesima.
    • Art. 9 Il Consiglio Direttivo si compone di otto membri. Ciascuna delle classi di discipline, in cui si ripartiscono i Soci dell’Associazione, elegge separatamente un membro del Consiglio Direttivo, purché la classe conti di un numero di Soci pari o superiore a cinque. I restanti membri del Consiglio e il Presidente sono eletti dall’Assemblea nel suo insieme. Il Consiglio Direttivo elegge nel suo seno due Vice Presidenti, un Tesoriere, un Segretario. Tutti i membri del Consiglio Direttivo durano in carica tre anni e sono rieleggibili per una sola volta. In caso di tre assenze consecutive dal Consiglio Direttivo, in riunione regolarmente convocata, il membro del Consiglio Direttivo decade dalla funzione. In caso di decadenza o di dimissioni dal Consiglio Direttivo subentrerà il primo dei non eletti nell’ultima elezione. Il Consiglio decade qualora cinque membri decadano dalla carica per qualsiasi ragione. Esso ha il potere di prendere tutte le decisioni adatte a realizzare i fini dell’Associazione, gestisce i fondi dell’Associazione e ne rende conto all’Assemblea dei Soci, fissa l’ordine del giorno dell’Assemblea tenuto conto delle proposte ricevute dai Soci. Per le deliberazioni del Consiglio Direttivo è necessaria la presenza della maggioranza del Consiglio stesso. Le deliberazioni sono prese a maggioranza dei presenti; a parità di voti prevale quello del Presidente.
    • Art. 10 Il Presidente ha la legale rappresentanza dell’Associazione, convoca e presiede l’Assemblea e il Consiglio Direttivo, cura l’esecuzione di tutte le deliberazioni e non è rieleggibile. In caso di assenza o di impedimento il Presidente viene sostituito nelle sue funzioni e attribuzioni dal Vice Presidente più anziano di età.
    • Art. 11 L’Associazione organizza ogni due anni un Congresso o Convegno di Studi.

  • TITOLO V. Scioglimento dell’associazione.

    • Art. 12 Lo scioglimento dell’Associazione può esser deciso dall’Assemblea dei Soci a maggioranza dei due terzi dei Soci. In tal caso i fondi in cassa saranno versati alla Biblioteca del Centro di Studi Americani di Roma.

Ácoma online

I nuovi numeri della rivista Ácoma sono disponibili online all’indirizzo www.acoma.it:

N. 8 primavera-estate 2015: “Impero seduttore”. Il soft power nelle relazioni Stati Uniti-America Latina
N. 9 autunno-inverno 2015: Oltre il libro: nuove forme di narratività sugli/dagli USA.