The Forty-Third Annual Byzantine Studies Conference
University of Minnesota in Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN.
October 5-8, 2017

The Byzantine Studies Association welcomes submissions by March 1, 2017 using its online system for the 2017 BSC to be hosted by the University of Minnesota in Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN.

Papers from a wide range of medieval disciplines, and on diverse topics related to Byzantine Studies are encouraged. Notice of acceptance or rejection will be sent by email by March 15. For inquiries, please contact the 2017 BSC Program Chair, Sarah Brooks (brooksst@jmu.edu).

The BSC is the annual forum for the presentation and discussion of papers on every aspect of Byzantine studies and related disciplines, and is open to all, regardless of nationality or academic status. It is also the occasion of the annual meeting of the Byzantine Studies Association of North America (BSANA).

Full CFP instructions: http://www.bsana.net/conference/index.html.

Proposals are submitted as individual abstracts. Proposals consist of:

1. Your contact information; a proposed title; and, if part of a panel proposal, proposed panel information (see below).
2. A single PDF copy of the 500-word or less, blind abstract (title only, no name), formatted and submitted according to the detailed instructions.

ANZCA 2017
Communication Worlds: Access, Voice, Diversity, Engagement
University of Sydney
4-7 July, 2017

Conference Website

What are the worlds of communication we inhabit, create, and reshape? And how can we interpret the dynamic expansions and contractions of our mediascapes?

ANZCA 2017 invites reflections on ancient, modern and future communication worlds, colonial and postcolonial worlds, activist and start-up worlds, ecologies, ecosystems and environments. We are interested in analyses of novel and emergent systems, such as the world of sensors, bots, algorithms and computer automation; historical studies of media evolution, transformation and obsolescence; or comparative studies of transnational phenomena and the scope of global social interaction.

We will also explore what is worldly (and unworldly) about communication in Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and their regions—pondering how the spaces, places, locations, and times of communication zones in Asia and the Pacific relate to counterparts in other parts of the globe. Different types of ‘worlding’ enable and/or inhibit our access to, voice, participation and engagement in media and communication spheres. With this in mind we seek papers that also consider the following concepts:

• Access: What lies in and outside these symbolic worlds? Who has access to them and who is excluded? What are the boundaries, frontiers, borders, bridges, gulfs, and federations of different communication worlds? What knowledge, skills, resources and strategies enable us to enter these worlds? What forms of presence do these environments support, and absences to they suggest?
• Voice: Who decides, on what terms, with what consequences, who has voice in, and gets listened to, in our communication worlds? What are the design, infrastructure, technology, communication channel, repertoire, style, recommendation and preferencing decisions that shape these worlds to suit some and not others?
• Diversity: How can we reimagine communication worlds for cultural and media diversity? What are the potential options for reformatting, rethinking, and reconfiguring policy, practice, platforms, possibilities, participation, and the politics of plenty (and scarcity), if we think communication, in all its guises and potential matters?
• Engagement: How do we invite and recruit people to interact in our worlds? How might we gauge the depth, breadth or scope of their interests and responses, participation and contribution? And how might we understand the emerging social and power relations among distinct groups of workers—those making hardware, software, and infrastructure; professional content makers, immaterial and precarious labourers—and audiences, users, communities, publics, and others?

We welcome a wide range of submissions for papers and panel on this topic of communication worlds, spanning all areas of contemporary media and communications studies, policy, and practice.

You may submit a full paper, an abstract (oral-only presentation), or a panel proposal.

The deadline for submissions is Friday 3 March 2017 and all will be initially reviewed by the conference team in consultation with stream coordinators. Please submit your abstracts to ANZCA2017 EasyChair submission (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=anzca2017) by Friday 3 March. For those submitting full papers for consideration in the proceedings, the deadline is Monday 1 May.

Please note that with ALL types of submission, EasyChair will require an abstract as well as an uploaded document.

To view the full CFP and full conference details, please visit: http://anzca2017.com/call-for-papers.

“Show thy queere substance”: The Queer, the Early Modern and the Now
Department of English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, University of Westminster
Friday 7 July (evening) and Saturday 8 July, 2017

A 2015 episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race saw the work of Shakespeare make a perhaps rather surprising appearance on the show. In the episode, titled ‘Shakesqueer’, the season eight queens performed in rewritten Shakespeare plays – Romeo and Juliet became ‘Romy and Juliet’ and Macbeth became ‘Macbitch’. In 2016, the Globe gave us a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Helenus (played by male actor Ankur Bahl) rather than Helena, transforming the relationship with Demetrius (and indeed Lysander) into an overtly queer one. At exactly the same moment, Russell T. Davies inserted a lesbian kiss into his BBC adaptation of the same play – a kiss which prompted Katie Hopkins to declare “I don’t want Shakespeare queered-up so you feel more at home”.

This queer cultural exploration of the Early Modern is happening at the same time that academic scholarship continues to use queer theoretical frames as a way of illuminating and interrogating Early Modern texts and contexts. Notably, this can be seen in John S. Garrison’s Friendship and Queer Theory in the Renaissance: Gender and Sexuality in Early Modern England (2013); Simone Chess’ Male-to-Female Crossdressing in Early Modern English Literature: Gender, Performance, and Queer Relations(2016); and Will Stockton’s forthcoming Members of His Body (2017), amongst many, many others.

This one-day symposium seeks to ask two questions: firstly, what can queer frames tell us about Early Modern texts and contexts? Secondly, in what ways can the Early Modern (be it literature, culture or politics) speak to queer cultures in the present? Or, what do queer reiterations of Early Modern texts and contexts achieve in the present?

Topics may include but not be limited to:

• the intersections between queerness and race in both Early Modern texts/contexts; and contemporary reiterations of Early Modern cultural artefacts;
• queer uses of Early Modern texts in the contemporary;
• queer readings of Early Modern texts or contexts;
• what it means to suggest that a “queered-up” Shakespeare (for example) might make one feel “more at home”;
• consideration of contemporary productions of Early Modern plays which draw out queerness or which introduce queerness;
• queer history/histories.

Abstract of 250 words, accompanied by a short bio, should be submitted to Kate Graham at k.graham1@westminster.ac.uk by March 3, 2017.

Further details can be found at: www.showthyqueeresubstance.com

The symposium is supported by the Queer London Research Forum and the Department of English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the University of Westminster.