Links and Call For Papers

Laura Vivanco

Thanks to Twitter, I've got a lot of links to share:

In "History in Color: A Black American Romance Roundtable"

Kianna Alexander (author of two multicultural historical romance series), Piper Huguley (author of inspirational historical romances), Lena Hart (writer of sensual to steamy interracial romances), and [...] Alyssa Cole [...] discuss our personal experiences as romance writers, the current state of multicultural historical romance, and our thoughts on the future of historicals that feature people of color as the heroes and heroines.

USA Today's Christyna Hunter attended the recent

What Is Love? Romance Fiction in the Digital Age Symposium. [...] One of the panels that I found interesting was the one discussing the romance canon. If you are anything like me, a definition had to be researched before the full effect of the panel could be appreciated. According to Merriam-Webster, a canon is "a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works." The term is mostly a phrase for academics, and that was largely the case for this panel, which included two authors and three professors. Notably missing: librarians. In fact, there were no librarians on any of that day's panels, though the occasion was held in one of the many buildings of our national library.

So here's my chance to add insight to the conversation from a couple of librarians. I'd like to introduce Wendy Crutcher and Kristin Ramsdell.

She does so in "Love in the Stacks: Which books should be part of the romance canon?" and "Love in the Stacks: Romance canon as librarian tool?"

Jodi McAlister has written up her observations on "Reproductive Futurism and Cruel Optimism: Romance at PCA, Day 1" and "Race, Libraries, and the Academic Heroine: Romance at PCA, Day 2".


CFP: EUPOP 2015
Humboldt University of Berlin, July 29th – 31st 2015 Deadline: Monday, April 27th, 2015

Individual paper and panel contributions are welcomed for the fourth annual international conference of the European Popular Culture Association (EPCA), to be held at the Humboldt University of Berlin (Hauptgebäude, Unter den Linden 6, Berlin) from July 29th – 31st 2015.

EUPOP 2015 will explore European popular culture in all its various forms. [More information here.]


Call for Presentations: Gender and Love/The Gender and Love Project
Mansfield College, Oxford, UK, 20th September – 22nd September 2015
Deadline: Friday 1st May 2015

The “Gender and Love” project calls for reflections on the interaction between gender and love and how this nexus of ideas pertains to self-perception, (dis-)ability, ethics, religion, kinship, bonding, nationality, globalization, environment, etc.  The project welcomes elaborations on gender and love in all forms, styles, and media, past or present. [More information here.]


CALL FOR PAPERS: New York Metro American Studies Association
Guttman Community College, NY, Saturday, November 14, 2015
Deadline: June 1, 2015

The New York Metro American Studies Association (NYMASA) has chosen the theme of “Love” for our 2015 annual conference. We invite papers, presentations, performances, and exhibitions that explore the cross-disciplinary, transnational, and trans-historical possibilities embedded in the concept of love. [More information here.]