Pre-Organized Panel Calls for PapersA Pre-Organized Panel consists of three- or four-paper presentations coordinated by an organizer based on a unifying subject, which may or may not be related to the convention theme. While not required, should the organizer be so inclined, a Pre-Organized Panel with three papers may include a respondent. The organizer also has the option to include a paper of his/her own on the panel. Individual proposals to a Pre-Organized Panel are due to the organizer by his/her imposed deadline but no later than April 25 (please see the calls for papers below for more information). After soliciting, reviewing, and selecting individual proposals, all organizers must submit a Pre-Organized-Panel proposal to the MMLA by May 01. The following materials are required for consideration:
For a helpful resource that breaks down the primary components of a strong abstract, visit Karen Kelsky's "How to Write a Paper or Conference Proposal Abstract" page on her website, The Professor is In. While considering travel and migration narratives, recent scholarship – such as that of Cristina Rivera Garza – has focused on the role of the body in these accounts. In her book The Restless Dead, Rivera Garza emphasizes that language is a “fraught relationship involving bodies in tense, volatile contact with other bodies as they partake in the creation and recreation of our material worlds. There are layers of collective work behind and beneath each word we employ; there is history, strife, tragedy, loss, blood, and hope.” Following this line of thought, in our panel we invite discussions that explore how literature, art, film, or other cultural products influence, challenge, or disrupt perceptions of travel and movement, particularly cross-border movement and migration. Papers that examine the role of bodies and embodiment in shaping or challenging dominant narratives about movement and migration are particularly welcome. For consideration as a panelist, please send a 250 word abstract and 2 page CV to Cara Kinnally ([email protected]) and Michael Mosier ([email protected]) by April 25.
Panel Organizer: Joe Hansen
Deadline for Submission: April 25, 2025
Contact Email: [email protected] This panel seeks to coalesce a body of work upon the vegetative world of Louisa May Alcott. What is Alcott’s relationship to various plants and plant products in her life and writings? She makes wide usage of a variety of vegetation in her works, from the poisonous flower that dooms Evelyn to a vegetative state in “Lost in a Pyramid, or the Mummy’s Curse,” to the hashish that brings together Mr. Done and Rose in “Perilous Play,” to the “frostbitten apple” that falls from a bough at the end of Transcendental Wild Oats, itself a vegetatively titled work parodying the vegetatively titled Fruitlands experiment. All of this is not even to mention the plethora of vegetative imagery in Flower-Fables. Is there a consistent approach to vegetation as a concept that Alcott takes, or does she have many approaches? Are flowers different from fruit? Does every rose have its thorn? Paper topics may include, but are not limited to, Alcott on...
For consideration for the panel, please submit an abstract (250-350 words) to Joe Hansen ([email protected]) via an email with the subject MMLA Abstract by April 25, 2025. Current membership in the Midwest Modern Language Association is not required to submit, but all presenters must be members by the time of the convention. The Midwest Modern Language Association Convention, “The Humanities is Where Hope Lives,” takes place November 14-16, 2024, in Milwaukee, WI at Marquette University. While primarily an in-person event, the schedule will include a limited number of fully virtual sessions held throughout the convention. Please include in your abstract submission whether or not you can attend the conference in-person. |