Call for Papers!

We warmly welcome you all to a new LAHP student-led activities conference, Gendered Representations in 20th Century American Art & Culture. We are excited to bring you two days of thought-provoking discussions designed to showcase new and emerging approaches to the study of gender construction and identity in American culture, addressing how femininities and masculinities are explored through the modes of music, literature, art, and wider media and cultural apparatus. The aim of this conference is to bring together PhD students and early career academics within the field of American Studies across departmental boundaries, enabling them to share their research and engage in collaborative debates surrounding the role of gender in a culturally and socio-politically tumultuous period of American culture; the twentieth century.

The conference will be held on Wednesday 10th June and Thursday 11th June 2020 in the historical and cultural epicenter of London, at King’s College London’s Strand Campus.

We specifically aim to pose the question: how can examinations of creative practices and cultural products enable a deeper understanding of regionally determined expressions of gendered identity? Whether participants challenge current discourse surrounding gender and American Studies, or discuss the ways in which we as academics shape and pursue the intersection of such disciplines, we intend to create a space wherein interdisciplinary research is produced, debated, and assessed; our call for papers encourages exchange between diverse fields of interest.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following areas:
Articulations of gender and race, class, age, ability, sexuality, etc. in American culture, i.e. literature, music, film, audience engagement, reception, and participation
Exclusion and gender inequalities in American culture
Collaborative practices and the creation of community
Cultural and social memory practices

How to Participate:

We are looking for 20-minute presentations, which may include alternative and creative formats, such as films, digital artworks, lecture performances, etc.

Please submit an abstract (up to 250 words) outlining the paper’s main arguments, methods, and relevance to the conference theme. Submissions should also include your institutional affiliation, paper title, 3-4 keywords, a short biographical note (up to 100 words) and your contact details.

Email both the proposal and biography to genderinamericaconference@kcl.ac.uk by 23.59 GMT on Wednesday, 15th April 2020.

More information is available at kclgenderinamericaconference.wordpress.com, including registration details.

Costs: Participation in and attendance to the conference is free*.
*Please note that while there are potential bursaries for travel expenses, all participants are responsible for covering the majority of costs including possible visa expenses and accommodation.

Keynote Speakers:

We are delighted to announce our two Keynote Speakers: Dr. Rona Cran, Lecturer in Twentieth-Century American Literature and Co-Director of the American & Canadian Studies Centre, and Assistant Professor Dr. Martin Lüthe, Assistant Professor of Culture.

Dr. Rona Cran
Lecturer in Twentieth-Century American Literature
Co-Director of the American & Canadian Studies Centre
University of Birmingham, UK

Rona Cran is Lecturer in Twentieth-Century American Literature at the University of Birmingham, where she is also Director of the Centre for American and Canadian Studies. She is the author of Collage in Twentieth-Century American Art, Literature, and Culture (Ashgate/Routledge, 2014). Her current book project is entitled Multiple Voices: New York City Poetry, 1950-1995; she is also compiling a new anthology of New York City poetry, City of the World: Poems of New York (Fordham University Press, 2021). She has written or is writing articles on New York poetry, American women poet-editors and the mimeograph revolution, Joe Brainard and John Ashbery, Allen Ginsberg and Frank O'Hara, Allen Ginsberg and collage, place, space and identity in Richard Yates, William Burroughs and eating, and William Burroughs and art.

Dr. Martin Lüthe
Assistant Professor
Department of Culture
Freie Universität Berlin (The Free University of Berlin), Germany

Martin Lüthe received his doctorate from the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture in Gießen. He is currently Einstein Junior fellow and assistant professor at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. Lüthe published the monographs “We Missed a Lot of Church, So the Music Is Our Confessional”: Rap and Religion (Lit Verlag, 2008) and Color-Line and Crossing-Over: Motown and Performances of Blackness in 1960s American Culture (WVT, 2011) and is working on a manuscript for Wire Writings: Media Change in the Culture of the Progressive Era.

Conference Organisers:

Sophia Sakellaridis Mangoura
PhD Candidate, Department of Music, King’s College London
Sophia Sakellaridis Mangoura is currently a PhD candidate in the Music Department at King’s College London supported by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership to pursue a thesis in Opera Studies. Previously, she completed her LLB and MSc in Political Science and Sociology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. She holds a Classical Vocal Studies Diploma from the Musical Horizons Conservatory in Athens and now performs as a Soprano. Her major academic interests are centered on gender studies, specialising in operatic femininities.

Robyn Shooter
PhD Candidate, Department of Music, King’s College London
Robyn Shooter is a current PhD student enrolled in the Music department at King’s College London (KCL), undertaking a thesis examining constructions of identity and authenticity in alternative country music. She has previously completed an MMus in Musicology and Ethnomusicology (KCL), an MA in Cultural and Creative Industries (KCL), and holds a BA (Hons) in Comparative Literature (Queen Mary University of London). Robyn’s research is informed by her interdisciplinary background, with interests including popular culture in the United States, countercultural movements in twentieth-century America and Europe, regional identity and the American South, and nostalgic readings of Americana cultural heritage.