From the Professors Brilliant comes a Call for Papers. Alas, I cannot participate, as it starts on the first night of Passover, and if I left RT early and skipped the PAGEANT OF MAN TITTY for Pesach, you can understand that New Orleans is not among my ports of breadless call either. Otherwise I’d be there with beads on.
But if you’re looking for a scholarly opportunity or a place to send a proposal last minute, have a look.
PCA / ACA National Conference: New Orleans, April 8-11, 2009
(Conference info: http://pcaaca.org/conference/national.php)
CALL FOR PAPERS: Romance Fiction
We are considering proposals for individual papers, sessions organized around a theme, and “special panels” featuring authors or editors. Sessions are scheduled in one-hour slots, ideally with four papers or speakers per standard session.
Should you or any of your colleagues be interested in submitting a proposal or have any questions, please contact one or both of the area chairs (see below). Please feel free to forward, cross-post, or link to this call for papers.
We are interested in any and all topics about or related to romance fiction: all genres, all kinds, and all eras.
Some possible topics (although we are not limited to these):
—Individual Novels or Authors
—New Directions in Romance Scholarship (historicist, formalist, post-colonial, queer-theoretical, etc.)
—Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Romance, and same-sex love within predominantly heterosexual texts
—Genre-Bending and Genre-Crossing authors and texts (erotic romance, SF romance, chick-lit, urban fantasy, highbrow / lowbrow crossover texts, etc.)
—African-American, Latina, Asian, and other Multicultural romance
—Young Adult Romance and Chick-lit (series, novels, authors, communities)
—Category Romance (its past history, recent and forthcoming lines, changing demographics, etc.)
—History of Romance Fiction and its major subgenres (major authors and texts, turning points in the development of the genre or any subgenre)
—Romance and Region: places, histories, mythologies, traditions
—Romance on the World Stage (texts in translation; romance manga; non-Western writers, readers, and publishers; local, national, and multinational publishing)
—Romance communities and the Romance Industry: authors, readers, publishers, websites, blogs
If you are a romance author or editor and are interested in speaking on your own work or on developments in the romance genre, please contact us!
As we did last year in San Francisco, the Romance Fiction area will meet in a special Open Forum to discuss upcoming conferences, work in progress, and the future of the field. Of particular interest this year: the new International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR) with its affiliated scholarly publication, Journal of Popular Romance Studies (JPRS)!
Submit a one-page (150-250 word) proposal or abstract (via regular mail or e-mail) by November 15, 2008, to the Area Chairs in Romance:
Eric Selinger
Dept. of English
DePaul Univ.
802 West Belden Ave.
Chicago, IL 60614
773-325-4475
eselinge@depaul.edu
Darcy Martin
Women’s Studies
East Tennessee State University
(423) 439-6311
martindj@etsu.edu
Thank you! We’d love to see many MANY Smart Bitches there!
I will, hopefully, be there. I submitted a proposal through the “fat studies” branch of things…not about romance, although I did consider it.
I’m a young graduate student from Belgium and have attended the PCA/ACA conference – in particular its romance area – the last couple of years and I can honestly say it’s a fabulous experience. The conference as a whole, and the romance area especially, is very welcoming of both beginning and more experienced scholars, so please everybody feel welcome to send in proposals!
Also, importantly, I’ve been in touch with Eric and Darcy and want to point out that the deadline is November 30 (instead of November 15, as stated in the original CFP). So there is still plenty of time to put a proposal together!
Doesn’t an acronym sorta take the fun out of man-titty? I’d lead a panel on the creation of suggestive acronyms.
Srsly tho, it’s so cool to see romance get the brainy attention it deserves. I’ve heard rumors that for the next four years at least, “educated” and “intellectual” won’t be swear words.
Doesn’t an acronym sorta take the fun out of man-titty?
Not for me, Jessa, because I like to think of the new organisation (IASPR) as Jasper, which sounds to me like a mysterious Regency Duke who’s been spying for Wellington. The journal’s going to be called the Journal of Popular Romance Studies (JPRS), which I think of as Jeepers! I’m not sure exactly what kind of heroine would exclaim that, or what she’d have seen which made her exclaim, but I’m sure we could all come up with plenty of ideas…
Laura, isn’t Jeepers Jasper’s trusty valet? An ancestor of Jeeves’s surely. 😉
It’s too bad the clock is ticking (::cough:: rather loudly ::cough::) for my dratted PhD project, otherwise I would have submitted a proposal. But next year, oh, next year … (she mutters). Then all dragons will be slain and all maidens rescued and there’ll be time for romance again.
Or at least that’s what I hope.
isn’t Jeepers Jasper’s trusty valet? An ancestor of Jeeves’s surely. 😉
You’ve provided proof positive that there’s lot of fun to be derived from acronyms 😉 I like the idea of Jeepers being a person. Maybe a butler, though?