IX International American Studies Association
World Congress

New Challenges for American Studies in the 21^st Century

Alcala de Henares, Madrid, Spain, 8-10 July 2019

Call for Papers

The International American Studies Association (IASA) and the Instituto Franklin-UAH are pleased to extend a warm welcome to scholars representing a variety of approaches to American Studies to contribute to the transcultural debate concerning the new challenges that the discipline faces in the new, post-truth, alt-fact dominated era.

This IX IASA World Congress marks the twentieth anniversary of the quixotic project to found IASA and thereby internationalize the field of American Studies as a global scholarly enterprise that de-centered both the object of study and the discipline as monolithic and monaural national enterprises.

The city of Alcalá de Henares is an ideal venue for the first IASA reunion in Spain. The birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes, its streets and buildings resonate with Cervantinian echoes. America and American Studies are inextricably implicated in the biography of Cervantes and the genesis of the modern novel since, were it not for the rejection of Cervantes's application to sail to the New World, the world might have never had Don Quixote. We are greatly interested in papers that address the Spanish masterpiece and his author in the context of our discipline, and envision an especial volume dedicated to Cervantes and the Americas.

Alcalá de Henares is very close to Madrid (about 31 kilometers or 20 miles) and has easy access to the international airport of Madrid-Barajas, the busiest in the country. Transportation between the two cities is very convenient, with trains departing from the station Atocha to Alcalá every 15 minutes. The University boasts state-of-the-art facilities, as well as historic buildings like the Rectorado, which symbolize the convergence of the past and the present in one of the oldest universities in Spain. While the city of Alcalá offers multiple options for accommodation, the local organizers have secured a large number of rooms at one of the halls of residence of the university  at very affordable prices.

With the International American Studies Association’s investment in the decentralized, hemispheric or transoceanic perspectives, presentations offering a comparative reflection would be particularly welcome.

Issues to be addressed include, but are not limited to, the following areas of study:

1. New Paradigms of American Studies

2. Resisting the Assault on the Humanities

3. Populism and/in the Trump Era

4. International Relations and Political Unions from an American Studies Perspective

5. Class, Race and Gender in Americanist Culture Studies

6. PC in American Studies Today

7. Cervantes and Beyond: American Studies and the Spanish Literary Canon

8. The Americas in a Comparative Perspective

9. Immigration: Hemispheric and Transoceanic Perspectives

10. Translating the Americas

11. American Studies and Post-Humanism/Non-Humanism/Anti-Humanism

12. The Greening of American Studies

Submission of proposals: Proposals should include a title, an abstract of 250-300 words and a short biography (100-150 words). Proposals must be submitted through the Congress website.

Deadline: January 31th, 2019. Conference updates will be made available on the Congress website <http://www.institutofranklin.net/en/events/ix-international-american-studies-association-world-congress/>.

Presentations: Each speaker will have a maximum of 20 minutes to discuss his/her topic and each session will be organized into thematic panels. Participants will receive a certificate of attendance and participation. Proposals for panels containing three papers on related topics are also welcome.

All presenters must be active IASA members at the time of the conference

Publication: After the Congress, the organizing committee will announce the deadline for the submission of the articles for peer-reference. Selected articles will be submitted to peer-reference with the view to the publication in one of the following two venues:

• Review of International American Studies (a SCOPUS-listed learned journal of the International American Studies Association) for selected papers meeting the requirements of the journal’s profile (see: http://www.rias-journal.org)

• A Post-Congress multi-author monograph published under the joint auspices of IASA and the Instituto Franklin-UAH for other Also, a separate monograph on Cervantes and the Americas, if there are enough contributions on the topic.

The preselection of the submissions will be carried out by the Editorial Committee.

Conference venue: The conference will take place at the Instituto Franklin-UAH, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.

(C/ Trinidad 1, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid)

Organized by: International American Studies Association and Instituto Franklin-UAH

For further information: www.institutofranklin.net

Or contact: laura.rey@institutofranklin.net