Lives & Letters Mailing: November 2015
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to another Lives & Letters Mailing. This mailing contains information about:
1. Whites Writing Whiteness: Project News
—- New Trace: The Forbes, the Men and Nomalanga’s Baby
—- Approaches to interpretation and the Forbes Diaries
—- The Trace, generalisations and particularities
2. Life Writing, Volume 12, Issue 4, December 2015 is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online
3. Intersections of Storytelling, Experientiality and Cultural Memory
4. The Annual Conference of ESREA 2016
5. CFP Revisiting Commemoration Practices, uses and appropriations of the Centenary of the Great War, International conference Paris March 2016
6. Call for Papers: Writing Lives Across the Disciplines
7. Call for Submissions: Letters (12/18/2015) Special Issue of Mosaic
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1. Whites Writing Whiteness: Project News
There are three items of project news we would like to share:
New Trace: The Forbes, the Men and Nomalanga’s Baby
This trace pertains to four July 1904 diary entries written by Kate and David Forbes. These entries concern Nomalanga and her husband Bismark, workers at the Forbes family’s Athole farm. The trace includes full transcriptions of the entries, observations on each, and brief comments about the context and related factors surrounding the case. For this and more, please visit the Trace page: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/traces/the-forbes-the-men-and-nomalangas-baby/
Approaches to interpretation and the Forbes Diaries
How to interpret traces of the past is no easy or self-evident matter. The practices for doing so are nowhere specified in detail, and it is always a matter of matching and balancing (or not balancing) working practices for reading with the specifics of particular choices of documents or other traces. Liz Stanley and Emilia Sereva have discussed some possible interpretational approaches, and a small debate concerning an unfolding scenario in the 1904 Forbes Diary is available via the blog: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/blog/how-to-interpret-to-the-letter-or-what/
The Trace, generalisations and particularities
As part of the website in production for The Archive Project, there are some shared pages including on ‘The Archive’ and ‘The Trace’, with accompanying photographs. Where ‘Trace’ is concerned, ‘The’ suggests a call for generalities. However, what survives of the past is stuff, is bits of this and that, all having their own profound particularities. For more on this analytical disconnect, please visit the blog: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/blog/more-on-the-trace/
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2. Life Writing, Volume 12, Issue 4, December 2015 is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online
Special Issue: Self-regarding: Looking at Photos in Life Writing
This new issue contains the following articles:
Editorial
Self-regarding: Looking at Photos in Life Writing
Tanya Dalziell & Lee-Von Kim
Pages: 377-381
DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2015.1084580
Articles
Desperately Seeking Suzanne: Photographs in Suzanne Chick’s Adoptee-narrative Searching for Charmian
Tanya Dalziell & Paul Genoni
Pages: 385-399
DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2015.1084581
Scenes of Af/filiation: Family Photographs in Postcolonial Life Writing
Lee-Von Kim
Pages: 401-415
DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2015.1086874
Accounting for Time in Nineteenth-Century Manuscript Diaries and Photographs
Kathryn Carter
Pages: 417-430
DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2015.1084603
Taking Snapshots, Living the Picture: The Kodak Company’s Making of Photographic Biography
Gil Pasternak
Pages: 431-446
DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2015.1084604
Show and Tell: Negotiating Self and Seeing in Les Photos d’Alix by Jean Eustache
Sonia Wilson
Pages: 447-463
DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2015.1086875
Reflection
Mẹ-search, Hauntings, and Critical Distance
Vinh Nguyen
Pages: 467-477
DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2014.915285
Reviews
Self-Projection: The Director’s Image in Art Cinema
Kimberly Hall
Pages: 481-484
DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2015.1058732
Writing the Self: Diaries, Memoirs, and the History of the Self
Kathryn Sederberg
Pages: 485-488
DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2015.1069174
Miscellany
Pages: 489-490
DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2015.1086939
Editorial Board
Pages: ebi-ebi
DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2015.1100699
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IABA-L: A LIST FOR LIFE WRITING
International Auto/Biography Association
sites.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/iaba/home
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3. Intersections of Storytelling, Experientiality and Cultural Memory
December, 14, 2-4pm
Room SD.1.23, Docklands Campus, UEL
Narrative Hermeneutics: Storytelling, Experience and Memory
ALL WELCOME!
Hanna Meretoja
In this talk, I explore narrative hermeneutics as an approach that emphasizes the interpretative structure of storytelling, experience and memory. In contrast to the tradition that links interpretation to the idea of unveiling deep, hidden meanings, I argue for seeing interpretation as an activity of sense-making that has a performative dimension: it is not just about representing the world but takes part in constructing, shaping, and transforming intersubjective reality. Acknowledging the interpretative structure of narrative and experience allows us to understand their interrelation in such a way that neither posits a hierarchical dichotomy between them nor identifies them with each other. Narrative hermeneutics provides a framework for articulating life as a constant process of narrative reinterpretation rather than as one coherent narrative, and for a non-reductive, dialogical way of conceptualizing the relation between cultural narrative webs and individual subjects. Against the backdrop of narrative hermeneutics, I envision a narrative ethics that acknowledges the ethical complexity of narratives as cultural practices of making sense of the past, present, and future: instead of seeing narrative as inherently “good” or “bad” for us, it is crucial to address both how certain cultural narratives reinforce oppressive social structures and the potential of certain storytelling practices to enlarge the space of possibilities in which we can act, think, and re-imagine the world together with others.
Hanna Meretoja is Professor of Comparative Literature, Director of SELMA: Centre for the Study of Storytelling, Experientiality and Memory at the University of Turku (Finland), and the leader of the research project “Ethics of Storytelling and the Experience of History in Contemporary Arts” (Emil Aaltonen Foundation, 2013-16). Her research interests include narrative studies, cultural memory studies, narrative hermeneutics, and the interrelations between literature, philosophy and history. Her most recent publications include The Narrative Turn in Fiction and Theory: The Crisis and Return of Storytelling from Robbe-Grillet to Tournier (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), “Narrative and Human Existence: Ontology, Epistemology, and Ethics” (New Literary History, 45:1, 2014) and Values of Literature (co-edited, Brill Rodopi, 2015).
Biography, Gender and History: Nordic Perspectives
Maarit Leskelä-Kärki
Historical biography is an old practice with a strong but often debated relation with history as an academic discipline. In the 20th century, in particular during the post-World War II period, academic historians did not generally see biography as a form of writing ‘real’ history or perceive it as an appropriate field of historical research. As a result, biography remained under-theorized, even marginalized until in recent years. This renewed interest in biography is strongly related to and intersects with microhistory, gender history, history of everyday life and the new history from below, all of which question the grand narratives of history and emphasize the individual, in particular “ordinary” people, and their experiences in society.
The Nordic countries are no exception in this “biographical turn”, as this renewed interest has been called. In my presentation, I will illuminate our project concerning the methodology and theory of biographical research that we have been working with together with my Nordic colleagues during the past few years. Its objective is to strengthen the relationship between history and biography by demonstrating the various ways of doing biography as a method of historical analysis from a particular gender perspective. I will also talk about my own research related to this field concerning the use of the concept of relational identity. In a biographical work on a Finnish 19th century woman I will analyse the ways individuals are remembered in their close family relations and ask how we could as biographers make use of the varied and often also contradictory textual and visual material produced on past persons. The aim will be to question the idea of a coherent life-story, “a life as a given entity” and ask how we could approach the past persons in a way that would allow many voices and contradictions.
Maarit Leskelä-Kärki works as a University Lecturer at the Deparment of Cultural History at the University of Turku and is the Vice Director of SELMA. She works on several research and book projects concerning cultural history of women’s writing, autobiographical sources and life-narratives as well as biographical research. Her most recent articles include “Cercanos y distantes. La relacionalidad en la investigación biográfica” in Isabel Burdiel and Roy Foster (Eds.): La historia biográfica en Europa: Nuevas perspectivas (Zaragoza: Institución Fernando el Católico, 2015) and ”Histories of women, histories of nation: Biographical writing as women’s tradition in Finland, 1880s-1920s” in Women telling nations. Eds. by Amelia Santz & Suzan van Dijk & Francesca Scott (Series Women Writers in History, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2014).
Greetings from SELMA: Centre for the Study of Storytelling, Experientiality and Memory
Hanna Meretoja and Maarit Leskelä-Kärki
We will conclude by providing a short overview of the activities of the new research centre SELMA: Centre for the Study of Storytelling, Experientiality and Memory, located at the School of History, Culture and Arts Studies at the University of Turku (Finland). Established in June 2015, SELMA is an interdisciplinary and international research centre that combines historical and theoretical perspectives to the study of the interconnections between storytelling, experientiality and cultural memory. It coordinates research collaboration and organizes research events, including both theoretical-methodological symposia and public engagement events based on the interaction between the arts and the sciences. For further information on SELMA, see https://selmacentre.wordpress.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/SELMA-Centre-for-the-Study-of-Storytelling-Experientiality-and-Memory-1120037781346641/.
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4. The Annual Conference of ESREA 2016
RESOURCES OF HOPE – THE PLACE OF HOPE IN RESEARCHING LEARNING LIVES
The Annual Conference of ESREA – European Society for Research on the Education of Adults – Life History and Biography Network
Thursday 3 to Sunday 6 March 2016
Venue: Canterbury Cathedral Court
The deadline to submit abstract has been extended to 2nd November 2015.
Where and why do we see the most important resources of hope to lie: in intimate or social life, in private, sacred spaces, or in material relationships and democratic experience? Or all of these dimensions?
* What are the resources of hope that enable people to keep on keeping on, or for transformation?
* Can the sites of adult education survive the colonisation of space by dominant economic agendas and the grip of homo economicus ?
* Do teachers and learners have the same resources of hope in an era of audit and commodification?
* Is hope a motivator towards adult learning and is education necessarily a source of hope?
* What are the potential manifestations and implications of hopelessness?
* Can hope become a delusional fantasy or a denial of reality in an increasingly divided and troubled world?
For more information please click on the link below.
Conference website link <http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/education/resources-of-hope>
Abstracts to be sent to: gill.harrison@canterbury.ac.uk
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5. CFP Revisiting Commemoration Practices, uses and appropriations of the Centenary of the Great War, International conference Paris March 2016
Call for Papers : deadline December 15 2015
International Conference
24-25 March 2016
Appel à communications : date limite 15 décembre 2015
Colloque international
24-25 mars 2016
Revisiting Commemoration
Practices, uses and appropriations of the Centenary of the Great War
Revisiter la commémoration
Pratiques, usages et appropriations du Centenaire de la Grande Guerre
Location / Lieu : Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense / Archives Nationales
Argumentaire en français
Par l’ensemble des manifestations auxquelles il a donné lieu comme par la répartition de celles-ci sur l’ensemble du territoire, le Centenaire de la Grande Guerre constitue, semble-t-il, un événement commémoratif à la hauteur de celui qu’avait constitué, en 1989, le Bicentenaire de la Révolution française. En son temps, le Bicentenaire avait largement contribué au déploiement de travaux de recherches originaux, et qui ont fait date, sur les mises en scène de l’histoire (Martin, Suaud, 1996) et sur les pratiques sociales commémoratives (Garcia, 2000), sur les politiques de la mémoire (Davallon, Dujardin, Sabatier 1993) et leurs transformations sur le temps long (Ory, 1989), sur la « manie commémorative » (Johnston, 1992) ou l’effacement du « surmoi commémoratif » national (Nora, 1992). Le Centenaire de la Grande Guerre fournit ainsi l’occasion de poursuivre cette réflexion en mettant l’accent non tant sur ce qui fait la commémoration mais sur ce qu’elle fait : les pratiques, les usages et les appropriations sociales auxquels elle donne lieu. Parce que, à la différence de 1989, la commémoration de 14-18 se déroule simultanément dans différents pays (Gilles, Offenstadt, 2014), elle permet de plus de s’inscrire d’emblée dans une perspective comparative.
2014 correspond aussi au trentième anniversaire de la publication du premier volume des Lieux de mémoire (Nora, 1984) qui marque le début de l’explosion des publications et propositions théoriques sur la mémoire et la commémoration. Durant ces trois dernières décennies, le « memory boom » s’est confirmé, jusqu’à la récente entreprise d’autonomisation d’une nouvelle discipline : les memory studies (Gensburger 2011).
L’institutionnalisation de ce champ de recherches trouve notamment son origine dans le constat que les sciences sociales savent finalement peu sur ce que fait la commémoration et sur les manières dont elle est reçue (Kansteiner 2002). Ce colloque a ainsi pour objectif de saisir au concret la question des pratiques, usages et appropriations des commémorations à travers l’étude du Centenaire de la Grande Guerre dans ses multiples dimensions, à des échelles variées et à partir de diverses pratiques disciplinaires.
Dans le cadre du Labex Les Passés dans le Présent, la Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale et Contemporaine et l’Institut des Sciences sociales du Politique ont initié deux importantes recherches collectives sur des formes d’appropriations sociales du Centenaire : sur le devenir du patrimoine en ligne liés à 14-18, d’une part, les visiteurs des expositions du Centenaire, de l’autre. D’autres enquêtes d’envergure ont également été conduites par d’autres équipes, en France (Observatoire du Centenaire) comme à l’étranger (Arts and Humanities Research Council). Ce colloque se veut un lieu où confronter l’ensemble de ces travaux, dans une perspective internationale, afin de permettre une réflexion cumulative sur l’épaisseur sociale du Centenaire, certes, mais aussi sur les concepts et les méthodes propres à saisir la présence du passé dans la société contemporaine. A cet égard, des communications qui ne porteraient pas centralement sur le cas de la commémoration de la Grande Guerre pourront être prises en considération dès lors qu’elles s’inscrivent dans la perspective heuristique du colloque.
Les travaux sur les commémorations s’appuient souvent sur la croyance diffuse que les politiques de la mémoire produiraient des effets sur leurs publics. La mémoire de la Grande Guerre est ainsi réputée concerner le plus grand nombre et être porteuse de consensus. Le colloque envisagé entend questionner ces évidences et ce dans différents contextes nationaux et selon des focales variées.
On ne sait guère ce que les individus voient et font quand ils déambulent dans une exposition historique, quand ils participent à une cérémonie du 11 novembre ou quand ils se rendent sur un site historique. Quels sens les visiteurs d’expositions, les audiences des discours et les publics de spectacle et de reconstitution historiques donnent à leurs pratiques ? Que font-ils de ce qu’ils voient ? Par quels prismes nouent-t-ils une relation avec le passé ? Ces pratiques mettent-elles, d’ailleurs, systématiquement en jeu des rapports à l’histoire ? Si on peut penser que ces expériences sont hétérogènes, peut-on établir des typologies raisonnées qui dégageraient des modes typiques d’appropriation de ces dispositifs ?
Plus encore, qui participe aux commémorations ? Dans quels contextes, avec qui et sous quelles formes ? A qui s’adresse la commémoration en termes, notamment, de genre et de catégories socio-professionnelles ? Dans ce cadre, un accent particulier souhaite être mis sur les publics scolaires des commémorations, ce “jeune public”, souvent captif, étant souvent considéré comme l’indicateur du “succès” ou de l'”échec” de tel ou tel événement commémoratif. Le colloque souhaite rassembler des communications qui s’intéressent aux pratiques sociales dans le contexte des commémorations et à leur complexité.
Les travaux disponibles invitent ainsi à aller plus loin et à se demander ce que devient la commémoration à l’écart de la commémoration. Il s’agit alors de s’intéresser aussi à des individus qui ne se rendent guère ou jamais aux célébrations, aux expositions, aux conférences et aux spectacles. Savent-ils que l’année 2014 a été marquée par cet anniversaire ? Comment ont-ils pu, malgré cette distance, rencontrer l’événement ? Que pensent-ils de la Grande Guerre, de la commémoration et de l’histoire en général ? Aux côtés d’enquêtes originales, comme celles qui ont pu être faites à partir de l’analyse des usages du Web par exemple, les organisateurs du colloque sont également intéressés par des chercheurs qui souhaiteraient (re)travailler, dans cette perspective, des matériaux constitués à d’autres fins et à partir d’autres problématiques.
Inversement, d’autres pratiques potentiellement commémoratives demeurent difficilement accessibles aux chercheurs. La commémoration a aussi pris la forme de films et de documentaires diffusés à la télévision ou regardés sur internet qui, souvent, ont réuni des audiences significatives. On connaît encore mal les publics de ces documentaires et de ces fictions, tout comme d’ailleurs, les spectateurs en général des émissions historiques. Il serait important de mieux connaître ces pratiques, la sociographie de ces publics et d’esquisser une sociologie des usages et des réceptions de ces supports.
Enfin, beaucoup d’attentes pèsent sur les politiques de la mémoire que ce soit en termes de transmission de connaissance et de valeurs citoyennes, que ce soit en termes d’éducation à la tolérance, au vivre-ensemble et à la paix, notamment à travers un recours discuté aux « émotions ». Les travaux présentés veilleront ainsi tout particulièrement à interroger ces dimensions des pratiques commémoratives. Comment des enquêtes empiriques nous permettent-elles de penser, et de repenser, les questions de l’« émotion », de la transmission et des effets civiques des commémorations du Centenaire de la Grande Guerre ?
English presentation
The Centenary of the Great War has become a major commemorative event. In France, through the range of events it has inspired, and their distribution throughout the country, this Centenary has become as significant an event as the Bicentenary of the French Revolution was in 1989. At the time, the Bicentenary was a significant contribution to the development of original landmark studies, on the staging of history (Martin, Suaud, 1996), and on commemorative social practices (Garcia, 2000), on memory politics (Davallon, Dujardin, Sabatier, 1993) and their transformations over the long term (Ory, 1989), on “commemorative mania” (Johnston, 1992) or the erasing of the national “commemorative superego” (Nora, 1992). The Centenary of the Great War thus provides the opportunity to pursue this reflection by emphasising, not so much who is commemorating but what the commemoration is doing: the practices, the uses and the social appropriations that arise from this. Unlike in 1989, the Commemoration of the First World War is taking place simultaneously in different countries (Gilles, Offenstadt, 2014). It therefore allows us to immediately incorporate a comparative perspective.
The year 2014 corresponds to the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Lieux de mémoire (Nora, 1984, published in English as Realms of Memory, 1996) which marks the beginning of the explosion of publications and theoretical propositions on memory and commemoration. Over the last thirty years, there has been a “memory boom”, leading up to the recent emergence of a new discipline: memory studies (Gensburger 2011). The institutionalisation of this field of research has its basis in the observation that social sciences actually know quite little of what commemoration does and the ways in which it is used (Kansteiner 2002). This conference thus aims to concretely address this question of practices, uses and appropriations of commemoration, through the study of the Centenary of the Great War, in is various dimensions, at differing levels and through different disciplinary practices.
In the context of the project Labex: The past in the present, the International Contemporary Documentation Library (Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale et Contemporaine) and the Institute for the Social Sciences of Politics have begun two important collective research projects on the forms of social appropriation of the Centenary. One looks at the future of on-line heritage linked with World War One, and the other at the visitors of the Centenary commemorative exhibitions on the other. Other large scale studies have also been conducted by other teams, in France (Observatoire du Centenaire) and overseas (Arts and Humanities Research Council). This conference aims to be a place where the range of work in this area can be brought together to allow a cumulative reflection on the social depth of the Centenary, but also on the concepts and methods that are specific to the study of the place of the past in contemporary society. In this respect, papers that do not directly concern the case of the commemoration of the Great War will be considered if they fall within the heuristic perspective of the conference.
Research on commemoration is often based on diffuse beliefs that memory policies have an effect on the public. The memory of the Great War is thus believed to concern most people and to be consensual. This conference aims to challenge these self-evidences, and to do so for different national contexts and according to different focus points.
We know little about what individuals see and do when they attend a historical exhibition, when they participate in a ceremony commemorating November 11, or when they visit a historical site. What meaning do those who visit exhibitions, listen to speeches or attend performances or historical reconstructions give to these practices? What do they do with what they see? Through what kind of prisms do they connect with the past? To what extent do these practices systematically involve a connection with history? If we think of these experiences as heterogeneous, is it possible to construct reasoned typologies that identify key ways of appropriating these events?
Moreover, who participates in these commemorations? In which contexts, and with who, and in what forms? Who makes up the commemoration’s intended audience, particularly in terms of gender and socio-professional categories? In this context, particular attention should be paid to the school visits, these “young spectators” who are often a captive audience and are considered as indicators of the “success” or “failure” of a particular commemorative event. This conference aims to bring together communications that focus on social practices in the context of commemoration and on their complexity.
The current research encourages us to go further and to ask what happens to commemoration outside commemorative events. What of the people who never or hardly ever attend commemorative celebrations, exhibitions, conferences or performances? Do they know that the year 2014 was marked by this anniversary of war? How did they encounter this event, in spite of their distance from it? What do they think of the Great War, or the commemoration of history in general? Alongside original empirical research, such as that conducted on the use of the internet for example, the conference organisers are also interested in researchers who would like to (re)visit, material collected in other contexts and for other questions, from this perspective.
Inversely, other potentially commemorative practices remain difficult for researchers to access. Commemoration also takes the form of films and documentaries shown on television or available online, which often attract significant audiences. We still don’t know much about the people who watch these documentaries or these fictions; just as we know little about the spectators of historical programmes in general. It would be important to have a better knowledge of these practices, the sociography of these populations and to begin to sketch a sociology of the use and reception of these materials.
Finally, there are significant expectations associated with memory policy, whether in terms of the transmission of knowledge and civic values, in terms of education to tolerance, to social cohesion and peace, particularly through the use of “emotions”. The work presented here will be particularly attentive to the way they address these aspects of commemorative practices. How do empirical studies enable us to analyse, and re-analyse questions of “emotion”, transmission and the civic effects of the commemorations of the Centenary of the Great War?
Partners/ Partenaires
La Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine (BDIC)
L’Institut des Sciences sociales du Politique (ISP)- UMR CNRS 7220
Le Laboratoire d’excellence Les Passés dans le Présent (Labex PasP)
Les Archives Nationales (AN)
La Mission du Centenaire de la Grande Guerre
L’Université Paris Lumières (UPL)
Organising Committee/ Comité d’organisation
Sylvain Antichan (Labex PasP)
Isabelle Chave (Archives Nationales)
Sarah Gensburger (CNRS – ISP)
Benjamin Gilles (BDIC)
Rosine Lheureux (Archives Nationales)
Jeanne Teboul (Labex PasP)
Valérie Tesnière (BDIC)
Sofia Tchouikina (Université Paris Saint Denis)
Scientific committee / Comité scientifique
Not yet finalised.
En cours de composition.
Proposals for papers (in French or English) must be sent before December 15 2015, to: revisitingcommemoration@gmail.com
Les propositions de communication (en français ou en anglais) doivent être envoyées avant le 15 décembre 2015 à : revisitingcommemoration@gmail.com.
They must specify the main theme, clearly present the problem they address, and the methodology and sources they mobilise (maximum 1500 words). Proposals may be submitted in French or English. Publication of the conference proceedings is planned for the end of 2016.
N’excédant pas 1500 mots, elles devront indiquer l’axe principal auquel elles se rattachent, présenter clairement la problématique, la méthodologie et les sources/données mobilisées. Les propositions peuvent nous être adressées indifféremment en français ou en anglais. Une publication des actes du colloque est envisagée à la fin de l’année 2016.
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6. Call for Papers: Writing Lives Across the Disciplines
March 18-20, 2016
The aim of this conference is to draw together scholars and writers from a variety of backgrounds to discuss the dimensions of writing lives broadly conceived. In what ways do the disciplines inform the ways in which life writing is practiced and perceived? What do interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives bring to the creation of life narratives?
We invite papers and panels on topics such as:
Theoretical problems in biography
The relationship between academic and popular biography
Written lives as historical sources
Best practices in biography writing
Biography writing in the disciplines (sciences, arts, social thought)
Biographies of objects and material culture
Memoir, autobiography, and biography
Life narratives/life writing as sources for study
Fictional life writing
Memoir, memory, and history
Life writing and poorly documented people
Please send an abstract of 250-300 words to Craig McConnell (cmcconnell@fullerton.edu) by December 18, 2015.
“Writing Lives Across the Disciplines” is the Fourth Annual CSUF Liberal Studies Conference. For more information about Liberal Studies at CSUF, see http://lbst.fullerton.edu/
Contact Info:
Craig McConnell
Department of Liberal Studies
California State University Fullerton
Contact Email:
cmcconnell@fullerton.edu
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IABA-L: A LIST FOR LIFE WRITING
International Auto/Biography Association
sites.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/iaba/home
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7. Call for Submissions: Letters (12/18/2015) Special Issue of Mosaic
Mosaic: a journal for the interdisciplinary study of literature
Call for Submissions
Letters
Mosaic invites innovative and interdisciplinary submissions for a special issue on the theme of philosophy’s, literature’s, or any other discipline’s, letters. Traditionally, letters have been regarded as “non-serious” or at least as superfluous to the critical enterprise proper (consider Kant’s division of Plato the letter-writer from Plato the philosophical father). But can letters themselves be considered critical forays and/or keys to the inheritance of scholarly work? Might letters put the serious/non-serious opposition into question? For this special issue, Mosaic encourages submissions that bring letters to light in relation but not limited to the following themes: understanding a writer’s or artist’s body of work; alternate histories; friendship; auto-bio-graphy; archival and digital repository research; email and electronic posting.
Mosaic follows an electronic submission process. If you would like to contribute an essay for review, please visit our website for details: www.umanitoba.ca/mosaic/submit. Email any submission questions to mosasub@umanitoba.ca. Submissions must be received by: December 18, 2015.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: We welcome submissions that conform to our mandate.
Essays may be in English or French and must represent innovative thought (either in the form of extending or challenging current critical positions). Mosaic does not publish fiction, poetry, or book reviews.
Mosaic publishes only original work. We will not consider essays that are part of a thesis or dissertation, have been published previously, or are being considered for publication in another journal or medium.
Preferred length of essays is 7,000 words, to a maximum of 7,500 words. Parenthetical citations and works cited must follow the conventions of the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd ed.) or MLA Handbook (7th ed.). Essays may feature illustrations.
Mosaic’s anonymous peer-review process requires that no identifying information appear on the electronic version of the essay itself. Submissions that meet our requirements are sent to specialists in the specific and general area that an essay addresses. Anonymous but complete transcripts of the readers’ reports are sent to the author.
Address inquiries by email to:
Dr. Dawne McCance
Mosaic, a journal for the interdisciplinary study of literature
University of Manitoba, 208 Tier Building
Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T
2N2 Canada
Tel: 204-474-8597, Fax: 204-474-7584
Email: mosasub@umanitoba.ca
Submissions: Submit online at www.umanitoba.ca/mosaic/submit
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IABA-L: A LIST FOR LIFE WRITING
International Auto/Biography Association
sites.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/iaba/home
Last updated: 20 November 2015
