Lives & Letters Mailing: October 2015
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to another Lives & Letters Mailing. This mailing contains information about:
1. Whites Writing Whiteness: Project news
New article in special issue of Sociology
Blogs: Thoughts on Methodology
2. CALL FOR MEMOIRS/APPEL DE MÉMOIRE
3. Call for Papers – Journal of Narrative Politics
4. Oral history of reading seminar – Thursday November 5th
5. Life Writing as Empathy [Update] (10/8/2015; 9/2016) Special Issue of Concentric
6. Extended Deadline – Excavating Lives: International Auto/Biography Association – WORLD
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1. Whites Writing Whiteness: Project news
There are two items of project news we would like to share:
New article in special issue of Sociology
The most recent issue of Sociology is a special issue entitled, ‘Sociologies of Everyday Life’. Liz’s article, ‘The Scriptural Economy, the Forbes Figuration and the Racial Order: Everyday Life in South Africa 1850–1930’, was published online in the special issue as a ‘Sage Choice’ article.
The ‘Sociologies of Everyday Life’ special issue is free to access *until 26th October* and can be found online here: http://soc.sagepub.com/content/current
Referencing information about the article:
Stanley L. 2015. The Scriptural Economy, the Forbes Figuration and the Racial Order: Everyday Life in South Africa 1850–1930. Sociology 49 (5): 837– 852.
Direct link: http://soc.sagepub.com/content/49/5/837.full.pdf+html
Blogs: Thoughts on Methodology
An article of Liz’s, recently accepted for publication subject to revision, occasioned an interesting comment from one of the peer reviewers. Instead of focusing on particular Forbes collection letter-writers over time, they wrote, what would happen if all the letters in and out were looked at as continual flows. This has led Liz to investigate all the letters in particular years of each decade, so the two approaches can be compared. To read more about her process, and more on this, please visit the blog: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/blog/methodology-analysing-the-forbes-letters/
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2. CALL FOR MEMOIRS/APPEL DE MÉMOIRE
Peninsula: A Journal of Relational Politics
pjrp@uvic.ca
(La version française suit l’anglais)
Memoir. noun. 1. A historical account or biography written from personal knowledge; 1.1 (memoirs) An account written by a public figure of their life and experiences; 2. An essay on a learned subject; 2.1 (memoirs) The proceedings of a learned society. Origin – Late 15th century (denoting a memorandum or record): from French mémoire (masculine), a special use of mémoire (feminine) ‘memory’. (OED)
Peninsula: A Journal of Relational Politics is a journal of political theory open to a broad range of methodological, philosophical, and disciplinary perspectives. Our area of focus is politics; our approach is critical; and our perspective is relational.
Peninsula invites contributions to a special issue that focuses less on a specific topic, theme or form of content, than on a form of expression, a genre or style of writing: the memoir(s). What relationships can be established between the production and publication of memoirs and political life? How do memoirs resemble to and differ from other forms, genres or styles, such as the essay, the monograph, or the ethnographic relation? Is the memoir necessarily a memorializing or self-aggrandizing, heroic text, or can it be a counter-memorializing piece of writing? Can memoirs be read as effective analyses and powerful critiques, or are they primarily personal testimonies of everyday thoughts and actions? Why would one assume that these categories are mutually exclusive?
Authors of memoirs are often already known as political actors in certain circles and networks. They can be retired generals or high officials, for example, but also grass-root activists, up-and-coming analysts, stubborn artists, etc. The pertinence of a memoir seems to be a function of the author’s perceived merit, valor, and accomplishments in the face adversity. In many cases, the production and publication of a political memoir, a more or less autobiographical account of past political deeds, can itself constitute a political deed. Old and new memoirs can also be read as documents of self-reflection, as auto-ethnographies that might take part in mediating the critical transmission of past knowledge, experiences, creations and traditions to present and future generations. Memoirs are sites of recollections, or repositories of memories, and encountering one can be a memorable event. There can transpire a poignant authenticity from the pages of a memoir, but it is also the case that many memoirs are known to have been the works of ghostwriters. One may not be the best person to tell one’s own story, after all!
We invite contributions in the form of memoirs, leaving the theme, the topic or the subject to the authors’ discretion. Indeed, we do not claim to be able to precisely define what text undoubtedly counts as a memoir and what text does not: the exploration of the limits of this form is what Peninsula seeks to encourage with this special issue.
Texts should be submitted to Peninsula (pjrp@uvic.ca) by November 1st 2015.
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Peninsula: A Journal of Relational Politics est une revue de théorie politique ouverte à un large éventail de perspectives méthodologiques, philosophiques et disciplinaires. Notre champ de pensée est politique; notre approche critique; et notre perspective relationnelle.
Peninsula invite des contributions pour la publication d’un numéro spécial dont l’objet d’étude est moins un sujet, une thématique ou un contenu défini qu’une forme d’expression, un genre ou un style singulier : le mémoire. Quelles relations y a-t-il entre la production et la publication de mémoires et la vie politique? En quoi les mémoires ressemblent ou diffèrent-ils d’autres formes, genres ou styles d’écriture ou de paroles politiques telles que la monographie, l’essai, le manifeste, le commentaire ou les relations ethnographiques? Le mémoire tend-il nécessairement à l’écriture héroïque d’un texte commémoratif ou auto-glorifiant? Peut-il, au contraire, donner lieu au travail d’une contre-mémoire? Est-ce que les mémoires peuvent être abordés comme des analyses rigoureuses et de riches critiques, ou sont-ils d’abord et avant tout le témoignage personnel de pensées et d’actions qui tissent les scènes de la vie quotidienne? Y a-t-il lieu de présumer que ces catégories soient mutuellement exclusives?
Les auteurs de mémoires jouissent plus souvent qu’autrement d’une notoriété déjà bien établie dans certains cercles et réseaux. Qu’il s’agissent de généraux ou haut fonctionnaires à la retraite, de militants dans les mouvements sociaux, d’analystes émergents, d’artistes insoumis, etc., la pertinence d’un mémoire semble tributaire du mérite, de la valeur et des accomplissements de l’auteur face à l’adversité. Dans de nombreux cas, la production et la publication d’un mémoire politique, le récit plus ou moins autobiographique d’œuvres politiques passées, peuvent constituer en eux-mêmes des gestes politiques. Les mémoires, qu’ils soient d’un lointain passé ou d’aujourd’hui, peuvent aussi être lus comme des documents d’auto-réflexion, des auto-ethnographies pouvant contribuer à la transmission critique de savoirs anciens, d’expériences, de créations et de traditions aux générations présentes et futures. Le mémoire est un site de réminiscences, une collection de souvenirs dont la rencontre peut être en soi un événement mémorable. Des pages d’un mémoire peut transpirer une authenticité saisissante, mais le mémoire est également connu pour être parfois l’œuvre d’un prête-plume. On peut ne pas être la meilleure personne pour raconter sa propre histoire, après tout!
Nous invitons des contributions sous la forme de mémoire, laissant à la discrétion des auteurs le choix des thèmes et des sujets. En effet, nous ne prétendons pas pouvoir définir hors de tout doute ce qui constitue un mémoire et ce qui ne le fait pas; l’exploration des limites de cette forme d’écriture ou de parole est ce que Peninsula vise à encourager avec ce numéro spécial.
Les mémoires doivent être soumis par courriel à Peninsula (pjrp@uvic.ca), au plus tard le 1er novembre 2015.
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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. Call for Papers – Journal of Narrative Politics
**Please circulate the attached flyer widely across disciplines and with apologies for cross-posting
CALL FOR PAPERS
Journal of Narrative Politics is an open-access interdisciplinary journal that operates to support narrative, autoethnographic, autobiographic, and other forms of experimental writing. We welcome submissions, both long and short, on any topic related to global politics. We also welcome proposals for special issues or forums.
All submissions are fully peer reviewed using a double-open method (authors and reviewers are not anonymous), and authors can expect to receive supportive, ongoing feedback through this engagement. We welcome submissions from writers of all professional backgrounds.
Journal of Narrative Politics is published online at York University in Toronto and was established through a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Latest Issue: http://journalofnarrativepolitics.com/volume-2-number-1-september-2015/
Instructions for Authors and Submission Guidelines:
http://journalofnarrativepolitics.com/instructions-for-authors/
General Inquiries and Submissions: jnp@yorku.ca
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4. Oral history of reading seminar – Thursday November 5th
Dear Colleagues
Please note that the first oral history research seminar of the 2015-16 academic year will take place on Thursday November 5th, not October 1st as originally advertised.
Shelley Trower and Amy Tooth Murphy of the University of Roehampton will be leading the seminar titled, “She used to get lost in a book”: approaching gendered reading through two archives (Memories of Fiction and 100 Families).
The seminar starts at 6pm and takes place at the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, Malet St, London WC1E 7HU.
Seminars are free and open to all and afterwards there is opportunity for discussion over a glass of wine.
We apologise for any inconvenience over the change of date.
Anne Gulland and Joel Morley
Co-convenors, oral history research seminars at the IHR
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5. Life Writing as Empathy [Update] (10/8/2015; 9/2016) Special Issue of Concentric
[UPDATE CFP] Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies
Vol. 42 No. 2 | September 2016
Deadline for Submissions:
October 8, 2015 abstract
December 20, 2015 final paper
Call for Papers
Life Writing as Empathy
Guest editor: Rocío G. Davis
University of Navarra
The last three decades have witnessed the “affective turn” (Clough and Halley 2007) in academic scholarship that traverses the humanities and the sciences. In the wake of Silvan Tomkins and Brian Massumi, cultural theorists (Eve Sedgwick, Adam Frank, Sara Ahmed, Lauren Berlant, Lawrence Grossberg, Sianne Ngai, Ann Cvetkovich, Elspeth Probyn) have explored the complex grammar of emotions as a key site of political mobilization and critical concern. The scholarly interest in emotions, feelings, and affect has increasingly been examined in connection to narrative forms. Suzanne Keen explores the way the narrative turn and the affective turn intersect (2011) while Patrick Colm Hogan discusses how “story structures are fundamentally shaped and oriented by our emotion systems” (2011). At the same time empathy has been at a center of numerous discussions ranging from its relevance to fiction (Keen 2006 & 2007), social justice and contemporary geopolitics (Pedwell 2012, 2014) or civic society (Rifkin 2009).
We are inviting proposals for an issue on the articulation or creation of empathy in life writing, in the context of theories of emotions and emotional cultures. We envision the issue as an interdisciplinary conversation based on a variety of life writing texts, including memoir, diaries, letters, film and documentaries, and online media.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- the creation of empathy within specific life writing genres,
- reader reception and empathy, the aesthetics of empathy,
- teaching empathy through life writing,
- visualizing empathetic processes, memoir and theory of mind,
- empathy and social identities (ethnicity, disability, gender, age, and class),
- memory and empathy,
- the ethics of empathy,
- the rhetorics of empathy, representations of emotions attendant to empathy, and actional and aesthetic empathy, among others. Please send inquiries and abstracts of 300-500 words to concentric.editor@deps.ntnu.edu.tw on or before October 8, 2015. Final essays of 6,000-8,000 words, 5-8 keywords, and a brief bio will be due on December 20, 2015.
Please also attach a cover letter stating that the manuscript is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere. Manuscripts should follow the latest edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Except for footnotes, which should be single-spaced, manuscripts must be double-spaced throughout and typeset in 12-point Times New Roman. For further instructions on documentation, consult our style guidehttp://www.concentric-literature.url.tw/submissions.php
For submissions or general inquiries, please contact us at: concentric.lit@deps.ntnu.edu.tw
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Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies, currently indexed in Arts and Humanities Citation Index, is a peer-reviewed journal published two times per year by the Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. Concentric is devoted to offering innovative perspectives on literary and cultural issues and advancing the transcultural exchange of ideas. While committed to bringing Asian-based scholarship to the world academic community, Concentric welcomes original contributions from diverse national and cultural backgrounds. Each issue of Concentric publishes groups of essays on a special topic as well as papers on more general issues. The focus can be on any historical period and any region.
http://www.concentric-literature.url.tw/
Contact Info:
Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies
Department of English
National Taiwan Normal University
162 Heping East Road, Section 1
Taipei 106, Taiwan
Phone: +886 (0)2 77341803
Fax: +886 (0)2 23634793
Contact Email: concentric.lit@deps.ntnu.edu.tw
URL: http://www.concentric-literature.url.tw
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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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6. Extended Deadline – Excavating Lives: International Auto/Biography Association – WORLD
University of Cyprus – May 26-29, 2016
Call for papers
The tenth IABA World conference, “Excavating Lives,” will be held at the University of Cyprus.
The conference organisers welcome proposals on any topic related to discovery and the absent, hidden or veiled life. In what ways do life writers unearth the past? How are lives layered, erased, replaced, and/or preserved? And how has life writing changed over time, creating possibilities for new definitions?
In Nicosia, the only divided capital in the world, and on an island with a cultural landscape marked by numerous open as well as unexcavated archaeological sites, we consider life writing within the context of liminal spaces, borders, and hidden places.
Join us in Cyprus as we consider lives in an archaeological context, across political, cultural, and social divides, on an island whose rich history has been shaped by conflict and resolution, trauma and healing, forgetting and remembering.
We welcome abstracts from all fields across the humanities as well as papers and presentations from creative writers / arts practitioners.
“Lightning rounds” on specific one-word concepts or topics, with six participants, may also be proposed; each presentation should not exceed five-seven minutes.
Please note: Panels will be organised in “Streams.” Please include your preferred stream name and number when submitting your abstract. For example, subject line should read “IABA 2016 Abstract Submission – Stream 2: Recorded Lives.”
Streams:
Stream 1: Lives (Dis)closed/Revealed
Stream 2: Recorded Lives (Biography and Memoir)
Stream 3: Personal and Public Lives
Stream 4: Remembered Lives
Stream 5: Lives in Crisis
Steam 6: Multimediated/Digital Lives
Stream 7: Lives on the Border
Stream 8: Ecological Lives
Stream 9: Pedagogical Lives
Stream 10: Postcolonial Lives
Stream 11: Queer Lives
Stream 12: Other – Please specify
Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be sent as email attachments to amypro@ucy.ac.cy by October 31, 2015.
Confirmed Keynotes:
Julie Rak (University of Alberta)
Bart Moore-Gilbert (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Guest Readers:
Stephanos Stephanides (University of Cyprus)
Alev Adil (University of Greenwich)
Find us on:
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/iaba2016
Event hashtag: #iaba2016
Conference organisers:
Stephanos Stephanides, University of Cyprus
Amy-Katerini Prodromou, University of Cyprus
Stavros Karayanni, European University of Cyprus
Polina Mackay, University of Nicosia
Please distribute widely.
Conference poster and flyer by Q1tic Design: q1tic.design
All best,
Amy-Katerini Prodromou, Ph.D.
Reviews Editor, Life Writing Journal
Administrator, Women’s Life Writing Network
The Language Centre
University of Cyprus
29 Kallipoleos
P.O. Box 20537
1678 Nicosia
Cyprus
http://www.womenslifewriting.org/
http://lancaster.academia.edu/AmyProdromou
Navigating Loss in Women’s Contemporary Memoir
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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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Last updated: 16 October 2015
