February 13–16, 2008
Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Proposal Deadline: November 15, 2007
Time flies fast, get your proposals in!

E-mail submissions preferred:
Dr. Diana Dominguez
Area Chair
gypsyscholar@rgv.rr.com

Please put SWPCA Submission in e-mail subject line.

Exciting News: It’s our pleasure to announce that Joy Harjo has accepted our invitation to be our 2008 Keynote Speaker.

Joy Harjo is an internationally known poet, performer, writer and musician of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation. She has published seven books of acclaimed poetry including She Had Some Horses, In Mad Love and War, The Woman Who Fell from the Sky, and her most recent How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems from W.W. Norton. Among her many awards are the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Award, the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society.

This year's area theme is Initiation, interpreted as narrowly or broadly as preferred. Children and young adults face multiple rites of passage in widely ranging ways: physical, intellectual, cognitive, spiritual, metaphorical, symbolic, psychological, and philosophical. How do the literature and culture productions aimed at the children's and young adult audience represent, reflect, aid in understanding, and influence these "initiation" stages and rites of passage? There is a multitude of ways this theme can be interpreted, as well as a multitude of ways Children's/YA culture can be interpreted, including, but not limited to traditional literature, graphic novels, comic books, periodicals, television, film, music (songs and videos), toys, fashion, web sites, blogs, and advertisement.

Topics might include (but not limited to):
"Firsts" in children's/young adults' lives: first day of school, First/Early Reader books for children, first crush, first love, first heartbreak, first dance, first lie
Dealing with loss: loss of a toy, loss of a pet, moving, loss of a friend, divorce, death of a loved one or friend, loss of innocence Rites of Passage: puberty, "initiation" rites to join a club, group, gang
Traumatic passages: dealing with crime-related or violent "passages" – rape, incest, child abuse, domestic violence, boyfriend/girlfriend abuse, murder, other violent incidents, racism/sexism

These and more are topics that children's and young adult cultural products (books, comics, graphic novels, films, television – remember the After School specials of the '80s?) can all include "initiation" or "passage" elements, in both direct and indirect/metaphoric ways. From books, to toys, to films and television, to web sites, blogs, and chat rooms aimed at dealing with some of these issues – how does today's popular culture address these important children's and young adults' issues?

Please send 250 word paper proposals, or 500 word panel proposals, including full contact info for all participants for review to area chair by deadline of November 15, 2007. Please include a short (100 word) bio listing previous and current research activities, but no full CVs needed.

Interdisciplinary approaches and all scholarly fields are welcome. Also, as this is a popular culture conference, presentations that depart from traditional reading of papers are highly encouraged and welcomed. Presenters also need not have a university affiliation; we embrace all forms of experiential knowledge potential presenters might offer. Graduate students are especially encouraged to submit proposals.

Please see the Conference web site for information on Graduate Student Paper Awards, as well as two Graduate Student Travel Fellowships.

For further details regarding the conference, including Graduate Student Paper Awards (listing of all areas, hotel, registration, tours, etc.) please visit the conference website:

http://www.h-net.org/~swpca/

Full contact details:
Dr. Diana Dominguez
Dept. of English & Communication
U. of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College
80 Fort Brown
Brownsville, TX 78520
Phone: 956.882.8853
See you in Albuquerque!