-----Original Message-----
From: Canning J. [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 18 June 2007 16:02
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Area Studies: Borderlands: themes in teaching literatures of
the Americas
Dear colleague
This conference may be of interest to many in the Caribbean Studies
community? Please could you send it to your members?
Kind regards
John
Dr. John Canning
Academic Coordinator (Area Studies)
Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies School of
Humanities University of Southampton Southampton
SO17 1BJ
Tel: 023 8059 4814
Fax: 023 8059 4815
cfp: Borderlands: themes in teaching literatures of the Americas
Date: 18 October 2007
Location: University of Birmingham
http://www.bham.ac.uk/about/maps/
Deadline for proposals: 13 July 2007
This conference is being organised by the Subject Centre for Languages,
Linguistics and Area Studies and the English Subject Centre.
Keynote speakers:
Marcus Wood, Professor of English, University of Sussex
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/english/profile97133.html
Author: Blind Memory: Visual Representations of Slavery in England and
America, 1780-1865 (2000), and High Tar Babies (2001).
Philip Swanson, Professor of Hispanic Studies, University of Sheffield
http://www.shef.ac.uk/hispanic/staff/profiles/pswanson.html
Author: Latin American Fiction: A Short Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell,
2004) The Companion to Latin American Studies (London: Arnold, 2003)
The physical border between the United States and Mexico has been
presented by Gloria Anzaldua as a metaphor for physiological, sexual and
spiritual borderlands "...which are physically present wherever two or
more cultures edge each other, where people of different races occupy
the same territory, where under, lower, middle, upper classes touch,
where the space between two individuals shrinks with intimacy" (Anzaldua
1999).
This concept of Borderlands is an appropriate metaphor of the
multi-lingual, multi-state, multi-racial American continent(s).
Literatures of the Americas are taught students to students on a range
of degree programmes, including English literature, American / US
Studies, Modern Languages, Canadian Studies, Latin American Studies,
Caribbean Studies and Comparative literature. This conference seeks
explore themes than run through contemporary and historical literatures
across the Americas and how these impact on teaching.
Papers are invited from those teaching any aspect of American
literatures on any programme of study. Papers which address any of the
following key themes are particularly welcome.
Key questions and themes:
To what extent does the ambiguous (English-language) use of the word
'American' problematise the idea of American literatures? How do our
teaching practices address such notions of ambiguity?
Are there key themes across American literatures, e.g. immigration,
colonialism, travel, slavery, nationhood, translation, civil rights?
What are the advantages and challenges of teaching literatures of the
Americas from the vantage point of the UK?
How is interdisciplinarity incorporated into teaching literatures of the
Americas?
To what extent do (or should) literature courses address the Americas as
a coherent unit of study?
Is the linguistic diversity of the Americas a barrier or an asset to
teaching its literatures?
How does current research on the literatures of the Americas inform
teaching?
Please submit an abstract (150-200 words) to John Canning
[log in to unmask] by 30 June 2007.
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