The Midwest Conference on British Studies is pleased to announce the following keynote speakers for this year's event:

Walter Arnstein
Emeritus Professor of History at the University Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,
Author of Queen Victoria

Troy Boone
Associate Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh
Author of Youth of Darkest England: Working Class Children at the Heart of the Victorian Empire

The MWCBS seeks papers from scholars in all fields of British Studies, broadly defined to include those who study England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Britain's empire. We welcome scholars from the broad spectrum of disciplines, including but not limited to history, literature, political science, gender studies and art history. Proposals for complete sessions are preferred, although proposals for individual papers will be considered. Especially welcome are roundtables and panels that:

• offer cross-disciplinary perspectives on topics in British Studies
• discuss collaborative or innovative learning techniques in the British Studies classroom
• situate the arts, letters, and sciences in a British cultural context
• examine representations of British (and non-British) national identities
• consider Anglo-American relations, past and present
• examine new trends in British Studies
• assess a major work or body of work by a scholar
• reflect on the status of colonial and postcolonial studies 30 years after Said’s Orientalism.

The MWCBS also invites submissions for a special panel engaging Seymour Drescher’s work on the transatlantic slave trade and the abolitionist movement. Professor Drescher will serve as respondent for these sessions.

The MWCBS welcomes papers presented by advanced graduate students and will award The Walter L. Arnstein Prize at its plenary luncheon for the best graduate student paper given at the conference.

Proposals should include a 200-word abstract for each paper and a brief, 1-page c.v. for each participant, including chairs and commentators. For full panels, please include a brief 200 word preview of the panel as a whole. In addition, please place the panel proposal, and its accompanying paper proposals and vitas in one file. Please make certain that all contact information, particularly email addresses are correct and current. All proposals should be submitted online by May 1, 2009, (an extended deadline) to the Program Committee Chair, Rick Incorvati, at rincorvati@wittenberg.edu.

Visit the MWCBS website at http://mwcbs.edublogs.org/.

MWCBS Program Committee: Rick Incorvati, Chair, Wittenberg University; Phyllis L. Soybel, College of Lake County; Eric Tenbus, University of Central Missouri; Amy Whipple, Xavier University; Michele White, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga