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UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies

States of Damage: C21 US Writing and Culture

Call for Papers

We invite members of the American Studies community in the UK and continental Europe to attend a colloquium entitled "States of Damage: New Paradigms for the Study of US Writing and Culture in the C21," to be held March 8-9, 2008 at the University of Warwick in conjunction with the Clinton Institute for American Studies, University College Dublin.

Questions to be considered at the colloquium include the following:

• What distinctive themes and problems have emerged during the post-9/11 era?
  
• How might we periodize the current moment?
  
• How does the range of contemporary cultural production prompt reappraisal of critical Americanist paradigms?
  
• What challenges face non-host nation scholars in the field?
  
• What new forms of scholarly interaction and exchange might be developed for the dissemination of research and teaching, both within academe and for a broader public?

The intention of the colloquium is not, we repeat not, to reproduce existing conference formats or protocols. We aim instead to create an informal environment conducive to collegial exchange, debate and mutual support. In place of plenary speakers and parallel sessions, we intend to schedule roundtable discussions held in a single intimate room at the University of Warwick's new CAPITAL Centre (Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning). Sessions will be organized around individual themes and issues; we particularly encourage colleagues to free themselves from single-author/single-text readings in favour of exploratory and experimental paradigms.

Deadline for 250-word proposals: January 25, 2008.

Send proposals to

• Nick Lawrence (n.lawrence@warwick.ac.uk) and
  
• Stephen Shapiro (s.shapiro@warwick.ac.uk).