Abstract Deadline: September 15, 2006
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Cross Cultural Explorations of Trauma Despite Cathy Caruth's claim in her landmark collection Trauma: Explorations in Memory that "trauma itself may provide the very link between cultures," trauma has been infrequently explored from cross-cultural and non-Western perspectives.This panel seeks to examine the relationship between trauma and culture, to explore and possibly critique the Eurocentric perspective of trauma studies, and to investigate the manner in which trauma reinvigorates psychoanalysis with the work of cultural critique. Email abstracts to Lisa Hinrichsen of Boston University at lhinrich@bu.edu.

The End of Tolerance? As the century began, 'tolerance' was supposed to enable some ground for a universal moral commitment. In Europe, the emergence of the European Union and the "European Dream" would enable a culture of tolerance and a kindly integration of The Other. A few short years later, the almost frantic hopes placed in the promise of tolerance have been frustrated, intolerance is on the march in both the U.S. and Europe, and tolerance appears to be dead. Does "tolerance" have a future? If so, what shape will it take? Abstracts should be submitted via email to: Stephen Gallagher

The End of Tony Soprano?: Exploring the Ongoing Cultural Impact of HBO's “The Sopranos” in the 21st Century This panel seeks papers that analyze specific elements represented in HBO's “The Sopranos” (ethnic identity, waste, gender, food, race, class etc.), that examine cultural productions that the series has spawned or influenced (cookbooks, scholarly works, fiction, other films or TV series), or that explore how the series continues to resonate in American culture or impacts perceptions of Italian Americans in the 21st century. Please send 250-500 word abstract (in body of e-mail) to: Paul Galante, Lehigh University English Department

Fairy Tale Visions and (Re)Visions This panel will focus on contemporary fairy tales as invented or reinvented by critically acclaimed writers of the 20th century to the present. I invite papers that explore contemporary fairy tales in various forms, including the novel, novella, short story, or poetry. Writers of interest include, but are not limited to, Anne Sexton, Angela Carter, Gregory Maguire, A.S. Byatt, Philip Pullman, Jane Yolen, Emma Donoghue, and others. Susan R. Bobby, Wesley College

False Memoirs: The Intersection of Fiction and Memory in Contemporary Short Fiction Creative Session. One of the interesting consequences of the recent James Frey Affair is the recognition of how readily fiction and the memoir intersect, with many writers producing narratives in the mode of the memoir but generated from the point of view of a fictional persona. The purpose of this creative session will be to provide prose fiction writers with an opportunity to read and comment upon the use of the form and conventions of the memoir in their own writing. Gordon Reynolds, Ferris State University: gordonreynolds@ferris.edu

Food for Thought: Culinary, Literary and Cultural Views of Food in Literature, Film, Theater This panel offers an opportunity to analyze the role food has played and continues to play in literature, film, theater and other aspects of culture. Focus can be on visual arts and film, but written literature is also appropriate. Interests in the topic of food in culture can be expanded across genres, disciplines, and time. Food has been a subject of interest and concern to human beings over an extraordinary span of time and food continues to be studied, written about, filmed and enjoyed in a multitude of ways. Send abstracts to: Annette M. Magid, Erie Community College

Dorothy to Hermione: Representing Girls in Children's Fantasy Submissions are solicited on portrayals of girls in fantasy novels and popular culture, with a particular focus on their adherence or nonadherence to stereotypical gender roles. We've come a long way from Dorothy… recent portrayals range from the relatively passive Susan and Lucy in the Chronicles of Narnia film adaptation to bookworm Hermione Granger of the nearly-ubiquitous Harry Potter media barrage. Email abstracts to AnastasiaSalter: anastasia@selfloud.net

God and the Graphic Novel The last thirty years have witnessed a veritable explosion in comics and comics-related research--in the investigation of virtually all aspects of this once-marginalized genre. And yet, in spite of this fact, one subject remains conspicuous largely by its absence: that of religious experience. Accordingly, this panel invites papers dealing with any aspect of the sacred and its comic book portrayal, including (but not limited to): comics and comparative religion, comics and proselytization, comics and mystical moments, comic book encounters between members of differing faiths, and comic reflections on the word/image matrix in religious discourse. Dr. Kelly S. Meyer, The College of Saint Rose

H.L. Mencken: The Sage of Baltimore Board-Sponsored. This panels solicits papers on any aspect of the work or influence of H.L. Mencken, with particular interest in his involvement with lampoonery or social darwinism. Send abstracts to Lisa DeTora, Lafayette College: detoral@lafayette.edu

Literature, Narrative and Medicine Bleak House, Martin Chuzzlewit, Doctor Thorne, The Woman in White, Dracula, Frankenstein, Cancer Ward, Sanctuary, Cider House Rules, Mrs. Dalloway, The Plague, Mister Monday, The Hostile Hospital, The Miserable Mill, A Summer to Die, Terms of Endearment. What do these texts have in common? Each depicts medicine in action. This panel considers the cultural and social significance of depictions of medical content in belletristic literature, journalism, and nonfictional narrative. Papers are sought on medical topics in life and literature, including juvenile fiction. Lisa DeTora, Lafayette College: detoral@lafayette.edu

Medicine and Poetry: The Poultice and the Pen Much like the work of interpreting a poem, we also interpret our bodies, their health, and even their pain. What does poetry offer to the world of medicine, and how does medicine run central to the task of poetry? How do medicine and poetry have overlapping philosophical and theoretical concerns, particularly in attending to the etiology—and expression—of illness in the poem? This panel seeks papers about medicine and poetry addressing any aspect of health and suffering, illness and recovery, hope and healing. Email 250-500 word abstracts to Clare Emily Clifford no later than September 1, 2006 .

Mystery and Detective Fiction This open session welcomes proposals concerning any aspect of mystery and detective fiction. Please send abstracts or completed papers, preferably as Microsoft Word attachments to email, with the requisite information as noted in the NEMLA call for papers guidelines to Robert P. Winston at winston@dickinson.edu or by mail to Department of English, Dickinson College, P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, PA 17013-2896.

Picture Books and Children's Comics: Semiotics of Illustration Papers are sought examining semiotic relations in and between picture books and children's comics. Papers may focus specifically on picture books like Norton Justerand Chris Rashka's The Hello, Goodbye Window, or on children's comics like Art Spiegelman's Little Lit series. Examinations of differences in these genres and the relationship of image and text are especally encouraged. Vanessa Raney, Michigan State University: raneyv@juno.com.

The Sense of an Ending in Contemporary Television This panel is invested in a narratological approach to understanding the ways in which contemporary television resolves itself. Papers will examine how the endings of contemporary television series reflect literary postmodernisms in narrative structure and design, what they have to say about resolution, closure, a larger structure of meaning. Please 1-2 page abstracts send them via email along with your vitae to Dr. Lisa Perdigao at lperdiga@fit.edu

Stupid Girls, Desperate Housewives, and Queer Characters: Sexuality in 21st-Century Popular Culture Considering punk-artist Pink's song "Stupid Girls," the popular tv sitcom "Desperate Housewives," the satirical, black comedy "South Park," and the artistic films Chasing Amy and Rent, this panel seeks to interrogate the media's representations of gender and sexuality while theorizing how and why these representations prove more damaging than liberating. Send abstracts to: Kristina Fennelly, Lehigh University: krf2@lehigh.edu

Violence, Technology, and the Cold War Domestic Roundtable. Papers are sought on topics including, but not limited to: domestic violence in Cold War film and television (The Burning Bed, The Tracey Thurman Story, The Godfather); protecting families and households (Shane, The Stepford Wives, Die Hard); images of violence designed to be projected into Cold War households (“The Lone Ranger,” “Gunsmoke,” “M*A*S*H,” “The Rockford Files”); and Cold-War era technology-oriented images of violence for domestic consumption (“Star Trek,” “Space 1999,” “Battlestar Galactica”). Papers considering Cold War images and texts in the context of pre- or post-Cold War forms are also welcome. Lisa DeTora. Lafayette College; detoral@lafayette.edu

Writing for Hire: The Politics Surrounding the Publication of Current News and Literature This panel seeks papers that address how the press has served as a form of protest literature and/or how protest literature has served as a form of the press, broadcasting to an uninformed audience accepted and/or unaccepted philosophy. Please send abstracts of 500 words or less pasted in the body of an email message, or, if attached, in rich text format, to Sandra Staton-Taiwo at sls63@psu.edu.

Writing Hunger This panel will explore the multivalent representations of food and hunger in American literature. In "Hunger," Adrienne Rich wrote: "I choke on the taste of bread in North America / but the taste of hunger in North America / is poisoning me." Rich suggests the paradoxical relationship American culture has with food and the symbolic complexity of food or hunger in literary representation. Panel papers may address images of hunger (physical and metaphorical) and/or of food—as commodity item, popular culture, ethnic or national symbol, religious ritual, symbol of disorder (compulsive consumption or denial), etc.—in American literature. Please email 250-500 word abstracts to Kirsten Bartholomew Ortega at kirstenbart@hotmail.com.