American Studies has always been interested in different notions of migration. Publications and course catalogs around the world testify to the role it has played and continues to play in both scholarly research and academic teaching. Recent concepts of 'mobility' can contribute to a new and richer understanding of the movement of people. Thus, we are calling for submissions scrutinizing migration and mobility, their relation to cultures and identities, and the narratives, fictions, and plots they generate. We invite contributors to engage areas such as old and new groups of migrants, the various directions and scopes of 'mobility,' different spaces of migration, or any other theme relating to the topic.

Permanent migration has long been established as a site of exciting scholarship. Focusing on more recent phenomena, temporary migration (tourism, student exchanges, internships, and up-scale labor migration) is a field deserving more attention; as is the emergence of 'the mobility class'-a global elite of high-skilled workers and artist cosmopolitans who are equally at home in metropolises around the world. How do these new forms of mobility challenge (or complement) familiar notions of migration?

Secondly, inquiries into transatlantic migration, certainly a core interest of European American Studies, can meaningfully be expanded by looking at transpacific, intra-continental, and even regional movements of people: What are the different factors shaping them? How do economic or ecological push and pull factors vary between individual kinds of migration?

Thirdly, we are interested in the spaces of migration and mobility. American Studies has always been attentive to spaces of arrival and 'borders' as places of cultural encounters. This interest prompts us to ask for close readings also of places of departure, of transit spaces, and contact zones. What narratives do such transit spaces (as, for example, the airport lobby) accommodate in contemporary fiction?

aspeers, the first and currently only graduate-level peer-reviewed journal for European American Studies, invites fellow graduate students to reflect on these issues. We welcome contributions by students in European MA (and MA-equivalent) programs by October 31st.
Please check out our submission guidelines, an editorial timetable, as well as some additional tips, and a list of possible topics at http://www.aspeers.com/2009