Call for Papers

"The American Campus Novel in the 21st Century”
Seminar organized within the framework of the
annual ACLA conference in Chicago, March 19-22nd, 2020.
The campus novel, an Anglo-American genre, having as its protagonists alternately students, teaching staff, and full professors, acts as a barometer measuring the state of the nation and education. While critically commenting on campus life, often spotlighting subversive behaviors and contesting the status quo, the campus novel portrays the individual’s struggle for personal advancement and definition of one’s own identity and values. It serves as a battleground for concepts and ideologies pervasive in the times it depicts. Many established American and British authors, and a few international writers living and working in the US, explored the potential of this subgenre, especially its satirical penchant and “pejorative poetics” (Kenneth Womack), in order to comment on contemporaneous issues.
This seminar aims to explore the various interactions between academe and the real world primarily in contemporary American campus fiction in connection with modern day discourses and trends, but it can also tackle non-fiction and film/TV series. Proposals may concern campus fiction, academic life writing, and film about academia, and the following areas and topics:
• Indigenous studies
• Postcolonial studies
• Race studies
• Queer and feminist theory & gender studies
• Ecocriticism and environmental studies
• Posthumanism and animal studies
• Trauma, illness, and disability studies
• Critical university studies
• Refugees, migrations, and immigration
• Cosmopolitanism
• Digital media and technology
• Religion
• Media and journalism
• Politics and activism

Please apply via acla.org (portal opens September 1st) before September 23.
Information about the seminar: https://www.acla.org/american-campus-novel-21st-century

Please direct all queries to marta.lysik@uwr.edu.pl.
Marta J. Lysik
Assistant Professor
Department of Literary and Documentary Genres
Institute of Journalism and Social Communication
The University of Wroclaw
Fulbright Visiting Scholar 2019-2020
Department of English
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Carnegie Mellon University
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