CFP: “But Fighting Back!”: Images of Resistance and Revolutionary Change in African-American Literature across the Ages

The Langston Hughes Society invites proposals for its annual panel at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) conference on the vital topic of images of resistance and revolutionary change in African-American literature. Submissions are due by July 1, 2022.

The Society organizers believe this panel is incredibly timely. National conversations on antiracism, coupled with the rise in anti-CRT legislation that if passed would ban the teaching of texts this panel aims to highlight, cause them to revisit literature of the not-so-distant past for the important lessons it has left behind. Therefore, they are particularly excited to receive proposals for presentations that draw connections between the authors of the Harlem Renaissance and revolutionary writers of the present as we work to trace the heritage of resistance in Black-authored texts. Papers with a focus on Hughes are especially welcomed, though not required.

Proposals for this panel should be approximately 250 to 350 words in length and should be submitted, with a brief biographical statement, in a Microsoft Word file to Dr. Christopher Allen Varlack, President of the Langston Hughes Society. The selected participants will be required to hold membership with the Langston Hughes Society as well as the South Atlantic Modern Language Association in order to present.