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.