CFP How to Use Literature in the Italian Language Class (NeMLA Italian Studies Volume XLI) (6/30/2019)

Apologies for having just come across this. It seems of potential value.

CFP: How to Use Literature in the Italian Language Class (NeMLA Italian Studies Volume XLI)
http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/about/news.html
Posted Tuesday, November 27, 2018


NeMLA Italian Studies, the refereed journal published by NeMLA's Italian section under the sponsorship of NeMLA and The College of New Jersey, has a call for papers for Volume XLI, "How to Use Literature in the Italian Language Class."


The use of literature in language classes can be considered as one of the most effective way to teach language and culture. In this call for papers the editors welcome original contributions that investigate the relevance of the use of literary-based input for teaching and learning Italian language and culture, and highlight strategies educators can use to effectively engage students through literature in the classroom. Preferred contributions should address all levels of Italian courses, particularly the beginning and intermediate ones.


Submissions should not exceed 5,000 words (including notes and bibliography) and can be either in English or Italian (with preference given to English). Authors must comply with the MLA bibliographic standards for citations and documents of source. Contributors should send their manuscripts together with a 300-word abstract and 50-word bio and CV to the editors by June 30, 2019 with the subject line "NIS VOLUME XLI" to (please include all in email) Paola Nastri (paola.nastri@gmail.com), Paola Quadrini (paolaquadrini@gmail.com), and Simona Wright (simona@tcnj.edu).

CFP NeMLA’s 50 Anniversary Celebration Volume (proposals by 4/30/2019)

This seemed of potential interest:
NeMLA’s 50 Anniversary Celebration Volume
Posted Monday, April 8, 2019
http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/about/news.html

CFP NeMLA’s 50 Anniversary Celebration

Call for abstract submissions!


Title: Transnational Spaces: Intersections of Cultures, Languages and People

Contemporary reality is deeply affected by the phenomenon of globalization, which is understood as the diffusion and extension of economic, social, and political operations across national boundaries, alongside the emergence of supernational bodies of governance and control. As we witness daily, globalization has internationally produced a corollary of macro and micro phenomena, from empoverished national economies to war torn countries, from a dramatic rise in political and climate refugees and forced migration to the enactment of militarized border policing operations. Internally, it has produced growing economic inequalities and, in many countries, it has contributed to the rise of far-right and populist movements driven by a violent anti-immigrant agenda. As political and economic processes become more international, we recognize the proliferation of transnational non-state actors whose jurisdiction is larger and vastly more authoritative than national sovereign rule. Transnationalism is therefore first and foremost an economic and political phenomenon that has impacted the social structure in many, and in some cases undeniably foreseeable ways. We agree with William I. Robinson, when he argues that contemporary transnational conditions have produced a systemic mutation whose nature and implications need to be examined. Thus, as “social structure is becoming transnationalized; an epistemic shift is required in concurrence with this ontological shift” (1998, 561).[1] We can apply the same question Robinson asks of sociology studies to the humanities, as we believe that adopting a transnational and transdisciplinary perspective is necessary to examine and discuss both contemporary and classical ‘texts’ that address the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and class within a transnational, transcultural, and translingual framework. Thus, drawing from the theme of the 2019 NeMLA convention, "Transnational Spaces: Intersections of Cultures, Languages, and Peoples," our volume intends to present a transnational perspective/approach that, we hope, will contribute to a paradigmatic shift and possibly a reconceptualization of the humanities in a time when they often seem under attack, or unable to confront the complex realities we inhabit. We welcome essays that aim to challenge traditional notions of history, territory, and identity and that recognize the complex processes of transculturation which characterize modernity. Especially sought are submissions that approach texts from disciplines such as literature, cinema, gender and sexuality studies, media and cultural studies, eco- and environmental studies, postcolonial studies, migration and border studies, and human geography.


Send a 300-word proposal to cmardoro@buffalo.edu and simona@tcnj.edu by April 30th, 2019. Timeline for publication: Submission of completed individual manuscript (MLA stile) by July 31st, 2019. Revisions expected by October 31st, 2019. Expected publication, Spring 2020 with Vernon Press.



[1] See William I. Robinson, “Beyond Nation-State Paradigms: Globalization, Sociology, and the Challenge of Transnational Studies,” Sociological Forum, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Dec., 1998), pp. 561-594.

Updated Panel for 2019 New England American Studies Association Conference

Here's the updated (and probably final) draft of our sponsored session for the New England American Studies Association. My thanks to the organizers for their interest in the topic and for my fellow panelists for their proposals.



Make Me Medieval: Appropriations of the Middle Ages in American Culture

Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Representation(s): Image and Reality, Identity and Community: 2019 New England American Studies Association Conference.

Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg, MA.

8 June 2019.



“All-American Arthuriana: The Appropriation of the Matter of Britain during the American Civil War Era,” Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar)

“Medievalism in America’s Mardi Gras Tradition,” Ann J. Pond (Bishop State Community College)

“Might Makes Right: Medieval Combat Sports and the Legitimization of a Fascist Middle Ages,” Ken Mondschein (University of Massachusetts-Amherst-Mt Ida)

“ ‘Beautiful, willful, and dead before her time’: Reclaiming Female Characters in A Song of Ice and Fire and Its Fandom,” Kavita Mudan Finn (Independent Scholar)

Kalamazoo 2019 Updates

A much belated posting.

The program for this year's International Congress on Medieval Studies, to be held at Western Michigan University from 9-12 May, is now available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/events.

Our three sponsored sessions on Norse mythology in popular culture comprise a virtual mini-conference and run on Saturday, 11 May, from 10 AM to 5 PM. There will be a business meeting held during the lunch break, with all welcome to attend.

I'll post full panel details closer to the conference.

Michael A Torregrossa
Founder, Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

SATURDAY, MAY 11

10:00 AM

368 SCHNEIDER 1280

More than Marvel: Representations of Norse Mythology in Contemporary Popular Culture I: New Perspectives

Sponsor: Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

Presider: June-Ann Greeley, Sacred Heart Univ.

Adapting the Norse Myths: Risks, Challenges, and Creative Choices

Erik A. Evensen, Univ. of Wisconsin–Stout

Erik A. Evensen, MFA, is an associate professor of design in the School of Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin–Stout. He is a designer, illustrator, and graphic novelist whose creative work often reinterprets topics from history, mythology, and folklore. He is the author/illustrator of the graphic novels Gods of Asgard and The Beast of Wolfe’s Bay, the game artist for Marrying Mr. Darcy: The Pride and Prejudice Card Game, and has illustrated for the Ghostbusters and Back to the Future comic book series from IDW Publishing. Gods of Asgard won a Xeric Award in 2007, and has since been featured at the Field Museum of Natural History, the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, and the Wexner Center for the Arts, and has been adopted as a textbook at Gustavus Adolphus College, James Madison University, and Marshall University. It has been cited in a wide variety of academic writing, including master’s theses, doctoral dissertations, books, and journal articles. Other mythological works include the 2013 graphic novel The Beast of Wolfe’s Bay, a modernized retelling of Beowulf, and Angrvadil, an illustrated novel retelling of the Saga of Fridtjov the Bold. Erik holds an MFA in Visual Communication Design from Ohio State University, and studied fine art at the University of New Hampshire and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Asgardians in the East: Norse Gods in Japanese Popular Culture

Ilse Schweitzer VanDonkelaar, Michigan State Univ.; Sarah Kelley Brish, Independent Scholar

Ilse Schweitzer VanDonkelaar received her PhD in English from Western Michigan University and is an assistant professor in the department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on representations of the natural world and of death in Old English and Old Norse literatures. She is also an acquisitions editor for Medieval Institute Publications, managing series in New Queer Medievalisms and Monsters, Prodigies, and Demons.

Sarah Kelley Brish received her MA in Medieval Studies from Western Michigan University. In 2011, she presented a paper at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway, on the appropriations of Norse culture in World of Warcraft, so being able to view this particular topic through the lens of another culture is very intriguing. Sarah currently works as a freelance editor.

Hidden Bodies, Masculine Minds: Shield-Maidens in Video Games, Norse Myth, and Legend

Shirley McPhaul, Univ. de Puerto Rico–Recinto de Río Piedras

Shirley McPhaul holds two Master Degrees, one in Viking and Medieval Norse Studies from the University of Iceland, and a second one in Comparative Literature from the University of Puerto Rico. For her thesis in both degrees, she chose to direct her research towards reception, Popular Culture and Video Game Design, focusing in Fictional World Building for one project and gender theory for the second. She is currently teaching Medieval Literature and Popular Culture at the University of Puerto Rico, and Video Game Conceptualization at Atlantic University College. Her current research is geared towards interactive narratives in interactive media, such as Video Games, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.

“I did that once. They made a saga about it”: Metafiction and Storytelling in Neil Gaiman’s Adaptations and Retellings of Norse Mythology

Fanny Geuzaine, Univ. catholique de Louvain

A graduate in English and French literatures as well as in mathematics and musicology, Fanny Geuzaine is currently pursuing her doctoral research as a F.R.S.-FNRS Research Fellow in the English Literature department of the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium). Her research focuses on metafiction, storytelling and transmediality in the short works of fiction and non-fiction of Neil Gaiman. Her recent publications tackle the question of transmediality and novelization processes in Dave Eggers’s rewriting and adaptation for the screen of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Thing Are (L’Harmattan), as well as the impact of context and co-text on metafictional issues in Neil Gaiman’s short stories (Journal of the Short Story in English). Her first monography, The Tripartite Nature of Speculative Fiction. The Shock of the Strange through the Figure of the Creature, will be released in Autumn. She is particularly interested in the way popular culture reinvests tales, myths and literary traditions, and she simply loves a chilling ending to a good story – but she won’t tell anyone if you don’t.

12:00 PM

Schneider 1280

Association for the Advancement of Schneider 1280 Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Business Meeting: All are welcome to attend.

01:30 PM

421 SCHNEIDER 1280

More than Marvel: Representations of Norse Mythology in Contemporary Popular Culture II: Character Spotlights

Sponsor: Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

Presider: Scott Manning, Independent Scholar

Reshaping the Scandinavian Saga through Hybridity: Thorgal, an Anti-Mythological Hero

Maxime Thiry, Univ. catholique de Louvain

A graduate in Roman and French literatures, Maxime Thiry is currently pursuing his doctoral research as a Teaching Assistant in the French & Roman Languages &Literatures department of the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium). His research focuses on intermediality in Belgian cotemporary literature and how it offers an original angle to the mutations of representations following the Iconic Turn. This question leads him to analyze both similarities and differences in works (from narrative works to cinematographic and television products) that grapple with postmodernist and pop paradigms, from their production to their reception. His recent publications tackle the question of iconicity in novels from the Belgian writers Jean-Philippe Toussaint and Guy Vaes, and the TV show American Horror Story.  

The Misunderstood Wolf: Fenrir as Antihero in Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology and Televassi’s Fenrir’s Saga

Travis Kane, Univ. of Houston

Travis Kane is a recent graduate of the University of Houston. He is the recipient of the Gentile Scholarship in literary criticism, and the PURS research award. He presented his paper “From Demon to Disabled: Interpreting Grendel’s Monstrosity in Beowulf, John Gardner’s Grendel, and Robert Zemeckis’s Beowulf” at the Southeastern Medieval Association (SEMA) conference on November 2017. His research interests include Medieval Norse, Anglo Saxon, and Celtic literature, Germanic and Celtic mythology, Medievalism, Translation, Adaptation, and Fantasy literature.

Translating Trickster: Reading Loki for the Twenty-First Century

Megan Fontenot, Michigan State Univ.

Megan N. Fontenot holds a dual BA in English and Humanities from Milligan College and an MA in English Literature from Michigan State University. Her work has been published in the journals Mythlore and Fafnir, with an article forthcoming in Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review. Megan is also a regular blogger for Tor.com and is currently working on a series exploring the textual histories and developments of various Tolkien characters. She will be pursuing a PhD in English Lit, with a focus in nineteenth century British literature and Tolkien Studies, at the University of Georgia this fall.

Give Them Hel(a): The Norse Goddess of Death as the Great Mother in Myth and Film

June-Ann Greeley, Sacred Heart Univ.

[need bio]

03:30 PM

473 SCHNEIDER 1280

More than Marvel: Representations of Norse Mythology in Contemporary Popular Culture III: Channeling the Myths

Sponsor: Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

Presider: Jolanta N. Komornicka, St. Jerome’s Univ., Univ. of Waterloo

Medieval Motifs in DreamWorks Dragons

Sandra Hartl, Otto-Friedrich-Univ. Bamberg

Sandra Hartl, M.A. studied English literature and Classics at the universities of Bamberg (Germany) and Galway (Ireland). She is doing a PhD and has presented several papers on J.R.R. Tolkien’s classical mythological motifs.

Reinterpretation of Norse mythology in Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia

Geneviève Pigeon, Univ. du Québec–Montréal

[need bio]

“Her temper was still the same”: Women Resisting Colonialism in Modern Viking Narratives

Margaret Sheble, Purdue Univ.

Winner of the Thomas Ohlgren Award for Best Graduate Student Essay in Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Margaret Sheble is a PhD candidate at Purdue University studying English Literature where she also received her MA. Additionally, she holds an MA in Arthurian Literature from Bangor University, Wales and an Honors BA in Art History from Norther Arizona University. Currently she works as an instructor on record for ENG 106 Introductory Composition at Purdue University and has generated curriculum for the equivalent online course. Other courses include ENGL 286 The Movies with a focus on superhero films and ENGL 238 Intro to Fiction. Margaret is also a graduate assistant for the Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment and Research. Other positions held have included museum development, archival research assistant, and editorial assistant. In the Fall 2019 she will be the graduate assistant for the journal Arthuriana and is currently working on an Arthurian games database for The Camelot Project. Her dissertation research is on suicide in the Arthurian tradition and how the suicides that occur or are attempted within the Arthurian texts reflect the wider concerns of ideal heteronormativity, gender roles, and one’s faithfulness to the Arthurian community. Her talk “Her temper was the same: Women Resisting Colonialism in Modern Viking Narratives” will appear in New Feminist Voices in the Heroic Age this summer.

 “I was born a god. And so were you”: Mythic Norse Superheroes in God of War (2018) and Marvel Comics

Andrew Barton, Texas State Univ.–San Marcos

Andrew Barton is a lecturer at Texas State University, where he teaches freshman composition courses. Upon graduating from Texas A&M University with degrees in Psychology and English, he worked for several years in the nonprofit world, serving as a district executive for an organization with a youth-serving focus. Eventually, Andrew desired to return to literature and academia, and enrolled at Texas State University. During his studies, he became interested in fantasy and children’s literature. While a graduate student, Andrew worked as a Teaching Assistant, covering classes in American and British literature, and was awarded multiple scholarships for his academic achievements. He received a Master’s degree in Literature in 2018, and wrote his thesis on medievalist literature in popular culture as it relates to adventure and spatiality. He is especially interested in medievalist and popular literature such as comics and film, and particularly how those interact in digital media such as video games. He has presented multiple papers at conferences, with topics including heterotopia, the Other, the Harry Potter series, The Lord of the Rings, Beowulf, liminality, and Dr. Strange. He is currently working on a project involving the medieval influences of Ready Player One, and assisting in a videocast project on Diversifying the Western Canon for use in sophomore literature classes. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, their dog, and their hedgehog.

Medievalism in America Panel Draft

Here is the first draft of our proposed session for the 2019 meeting of the New England American Studies Association.


Make Me Medieval: Appropriations of the Middle Ages in American Culture

Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Representation(s): Image and Reality, Identity and Community: 2019 New England American Studies Association Conference.

Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg, MA.

8 June 2019.



“All-American Arthuriana: The Appropriation of the Matter of Britain during the American Civil War Era,” Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar)

“Might Makes Right: Medieval Combat Sports and the Legitimization of a Fascist Middle Ages,” Ken Mondschein (University of Massachusetts-Amherst-Mt Ida)

“ ‘Beautiful, willful, and dead before her time’: Reclaiming Female Characters in A Song of Ice and Fire and Its Fandom,” Kavita Mudan Finn (Independent Scholar)

(possibly a fourth presenter)

Medievalism in America Panel (conference date 6/8/2019)

The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture is organizing a panel on American medievalisms for a session at the June meeting of the New England American Studies Association at Fitchburg State University (Fitchburg, MA) on Saturday, June 8. 

We are in need of a third presenter. Please contact us ASAP at medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com.

Further details on the conference are available at https://newenglandasa.wordpress.com/.

Detail on our work can be found at our website: https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/.