CFP: Nineteenth Century American Forum of the MLA in Seattle, WA (January 9-12, 2020)

The Nineteenth Century American Forum is planning to sponsor three panels at MLA 2020 in Seattle. Please consider submitting an abstract for one of the CFPs listed below.

New Approaches to Reading (in) Nineteenth-Century America


How might scholars formulate new approaches to reading (in) the nineteenth century—especially in ways attuned to race, gender, sexuality, class, and disability. Send 250-word abstract and biography to [email protected] and [email protected]. Deadline for submissions: Friday, March 15, 2019

C19 Comparative Race and Indigeneity


Comparative and/or relational frameworks for analyzing race and indigeneity in connection with the 19th-century U.S. Send 250-word abstract and brief bio to [email protected] by March 15. Deadline for submissions: Friday, March 15, 2019

Confederate Monuments, Memory, and Memorials: The Uses and Abuses of the Nineteenth Century(co-sponsored with LLC Southern United States)

In light of the terrorist events that took place in Charlottesville, VA on August 11-12, 2017, medievalists and classicists were very publicly forced to address the white supremacist (mis)uses of their historical eras. Historians of the US Civil War and the US Civil Rights Movement also weighed in on everything from Lost Cause paraphernalia to the removal of Confederate monuments around the country.  Literary specialists, however, have not as readily been called upon to enter the conversation.  Given that the popular resurgence of confederate idealization and romanticization deeply involves nineteenth-century US literary cultures, this panel seeks expert commentary on this topic from those who specialize in the postbellum period, and especially those who study African American literatures and/or literatures of the southern United States. Panelists might comment upon the relationship between literary representations of the US Civil
War and the installation of confederate monuments, the relationship between Reconstruction and Confederate memory, and/or how to responsibly teach the Confederacy in US literature courses. Please send 250—word abstract and brief bio to Marlene Daut ([email protected]) and Jarvis McInnis ([email protected]). Deadline for submissions: Friday, March 15, 2019