CFP: “The (Hi)stories We Create: Narratives of Exceptionalism, Ideology, and Resilience” IAAS Postgraduate Symposium

The Irish Association for American Studies (IAAS) is inviting proposals for its 2021 IAAS Postgraduate Symposium. Proposals are due by September 24, 2021.

This year’s symposium will investigate the narratives that we create  and that are created for us, narratives that obfuscate truths or implement ideology, narratives  that further contextualize events or create understanding, as well as narratives of celebration,  joy and self-care which can exist to counter those long held as empirical truth. 

The symposium will be hosted by Trinity College Dublin School of English. Given the evolving guidance related to in-person events in Ireland, 2021’s IAAS PG Symposium  will be conducted as a virtual event through Zoom over the course of two afternoons on November 5 and 6, 2021.

300-word proposals for ten-minute papers, along with a short academic biography, are welcomed from PGRs and ECRs working in the field of American Studies across disciplines including literature, history, film, politics, music, art, and media.

Paper Topics may include but are by no means  limited to: 

• Narratives of American Exceptionalism, past and present.
• Narratives of resilience, joy, remembrance. 
• Conspiracy theory and constructed reality. 
• Changing ideologies of race, nation, and class. 
• The intersection of nationalist narratives/different visions of Nationhood across the  Americas. 
• What if? Narratives of missed opportunities. 
• Where next? Stories of the future.