Call for Papers: San Francisco PCA Conference, March 2008

Goodness, I have missed romance.

I've been teaching poetry all summer--or, rather, teaching teachers to teach poetry, thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities--and starting tomorrow, I'll swing into pedagogical action once more, this time with a different workshop series, just for Chicago-area middle school teachers (grades 6-8, that would be: say, ages 11-14), again on poetry.

Now, I like poetry as well as the next guy. OK, more. Much more. But in the heat of summer, a boy's thoughts lightly turn to thoughts of love. Home at last from a family vacation, I'm eager to catch up on Laura's posts and add a few of my own about the few (the happy few) romance novels and novella's I've read in the past few months. For now, though, let me simply post this little missive: a Call for Papers for the Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association's next National Conference, which will be held in San Francisco, March 19-22, 2008.

Ahem!

CALL FOR PAPERS: Romance Fiction

We are considering proposals for sessions organized around a theme, special panels, and/or individual papers. Sessions are scheduled in one-hour slots, ideally with four papers or speakers per standard session.

Should you or any of your colleagues be interested in submitting a proposal or have any questions, please contact one or both of the area chairs (see below). Please feel free to forward, cross-post, or link to this call for papers.

We are interested in any and all topics about or related to romance fiction: all genres, all kinds, and all eras.

Some possible topics (although we are not limited to these):

• Individual Novels or Romance Authors
• Definitions and theoretical models of romance fiction
• New Directions in Category Romance (recent and forthcoming lines, changing demographics, etc.)
• New Directions in Romance Scholarship (historicist, formalist, queer-theoretical, etc.)
• Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Romance, and same-sex love within predominantly heterosexual texts
• Genre-Bending and Genre-Crossing authors and texts (erotic romance, SF romance, chick-lit, crossover texts, etc.)
• African-American, Latina, and other Multicultural romance
• Young Adult romance
  
• History of Romance Fiction and its major subgenres (major authors and texts, turning points in the development of the genre or any subgenre)
• Romance on the World Stage (texts in translation, romance mangas, non-Western writers, readers, and publishers)
• Romance communities and the Romance Industry: authors, readers, associations, publishers, websites, blogs

If you are a romance author and are interested in speaking on your own work or on developments in the romance genre, please contact us! Last year’s author panel, featuring papers from Jennifer Crusie and Mary Bly (Eloisa James) with Suzanne Brockmann as a respondent, was a highlight of the conference, and we would love to have one or more such panels this year as well, in whatever format you prefer.

Presenters are encouraged to make use of the new array of romance scholarship resources on line, including the romance bibliography (http://www.romancewiki.com/Romance_Scholarship), the RomanceScholar listserv (http://mailman.depaul.edu/mailman/listinfo/romancescholar), and the academic blog on romance fiction, Teach Me Tonight (http://teachmetonight.blogspot.com).

Submit a one-page (150-250 word) proposal or abstract (via regular mail or e-mail) by November 1, 2007, to the Area Chairs in Romance:

Eric Selinger
Dept. of English
DePaul Univ.
802 West Belden Ave.
Chicago, IL 60614
773-325-4475
eselinge@depaul.edu

Darcy Martin
Women's Studies
East Tennessee State University
(423) 439-6311
martindj@etsu.edu