"Dissent," C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists Biennial Conference, Coral Gables, Florida

Jennifer C. James Announcement
Location
Florida, United States
Subject Fields
African American History / Studies, Cultural History / Studies, Literature, Slavery, Intellectual History

 

C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists seeks submissions for its sixth biennial conference, April 2-5, 2020 in Coral Gables, Florida. We invite individual paper, panel, and roundtable proposals on literature and culture in and beyond the United States during the long nineteenth century.

 

With our theme we aim to inspire a broad consideration of varied forms of “dissent”: nonconformity to existing identities, institutions, policies, practices, and norms in this period. What constitutes “dissent”? How do we think through dissent genealogically--that is, how might  nineteenth-century dissent offer a means of examining contemporary circumstances and formations?

 

We also hope to engender discussions about dissent in scholarship and pedagogy. How might we challenge dominant or conventional approaches within nineteenth-century American literary and cultural studies? Do we need reformulations of what constitutes analysis, proper objects of study, disciplinary boundaries, and field formation? How might the particular historical and archival labor of nineteenth-century American studies challenge the scholarly values of the twenty-first century university?

 

Lastly, how might we theorize divergences from dissent, such as accord, consensus, convention, and acceptance, or reactionary forms of dissent, such as nativism and revanchism? To what extent might dissent itself, often framed as a form of negation, risk foreclosing intellectual and political possibilities? In what ways might we productively dissent from dissent?

 

C19 also invites submissions on other topics, especially those engaging literary, cultural and historical perspectives on nineteenth century Florida and its location within the circum-Caribbean. We encourage transhemispheric, transoceanic, and transnational approaches; presentations attending to migration, movement, and travel, and those examining the complex lives, afterlives and ecologies of settler colonialism, indigeneity, slavery and empire.

 

In addition to traditional panels, roundtables and individual paper submissions, we welcome proposals for workshops, dialogues, and inventive presentation formats. Submissions due September 2, 2020. Portal opens May 24. For more detailed information about the conference, please consult the C19 website.

 

Contact Information

Jennifer James, Associate Professor of English, The George Washington University

Program Chair, C19: Society of Nineteenth Century Americanists Biennial Conference

Contact Email
jcj@email.gwu.edu