AAAS Conference 2017:
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
The Changing Nature of American Studies"
Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, November 3-5, 2017
Organized by the Department of English and American Studies, University of Salzburg
Call for Papers:
Ever since American studies was introduced to Austria in Salzburg in 1947, students of American studies have been fascinated by its component of free open dialogue between researchers and learners and its broadening of horizons and expectations. Participants of the first seminar for American studies stayed at the lakeside palace, Schloss Leopoldskron, once owned by Max Reinhardt, the Austrian-born American theater and film director. They shared rooms and meals during intensive weeks of lectures and discussions with some of America’s most talented scholars (including literary critics F.O. Matthiessen and Alfred Kazin, and anthropologist Margaret Mead). For them, and many who followed, it was a life-changing experience. For some, it still is.
American studies in Europe (1947-2017) was inclusive from its start: in a sense it was the study of modernity, or even futurity, hopeful, sublime or repugnant. American studies nourished Cultural studies, a new star breaking on the academic horizon, as well as focusing on inter-American Studies, which added additional spatial elements. If the contributions of European Americanists were sometimes too easily overlooked by their North American counterparts, their work remains some of the finest in the field. The fact that American studies continues as an important and bustling field in Austria today, seventy years later, is due to the lasting influence of their work.
The continuity of American studies lies not only in its ever-ready willingness to tackle frontiers and enourage discourse, but also in the continuities, transgressions, and interruptions of the United States itself. In this spirit, the title of Joyce Carol Oates’s 1966 story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” resurfaces in the context of recent Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan’s lyrics. This conference seeks questions and answers on where American studies has been, where it is, and where it is going. On this seventieth anniversary, the AAAS meets in Salzburg to discuss the past, present and future of American studies - and of the Americas.
Possible areas of investigation include, but are not limited to:
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Passionate new discoveries and directions in American studies
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Transcending boundaries: the spoils and merits of multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary research
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Transatlantic/pacific mobility, human or digital
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America’s image in European culture, past, present, and/or future
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Writing about the Americas
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Scholarship and activism, past, present, future
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Europe and European scholarship, its place in American studies and culture
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Research on the history of American studies
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Pre- and post-racial and feminist eras
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Linguistic influences and crossovers
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Teaching-related activities
Organization: The conference will be organized by Hanna Wallinger and Joshua Parker (University of Salzburg)
Location: The conference will be held at Schloss Leopoldskron (http://www.schloss-leopoldskron.com)
Contact: Proposals for entire panels are more than welcome. For paper and panel proposals, please send your abstract (about 200 words, suitable for 20-minute papers) and a short scholarly biography (in one file) by May 15, 2017 to the conference organizers: joshua.parker@sbg.ac.at and Hanna.wallinger@sbg.ac.at