CALL FOR PAPERS

Celebrating African American Literature:

Race, Sexual Identity, and African American Literature

September 30-October 1, 2011

Penn StateUniversity

Nittany Lion Inn

http://www.outreach.psu.edu/programs/afamnovel/ (coming soon)

Join us for the next in our series of conferences Celebrating African American Literature, which will focus on representations of race and sexual identity throughout the history of the tradition. Confirmed speakers and presenters include

Sharon Bridgforth

http://www.afterellen.com/people/2008/6/sharonbridgforth

Marci Blackman http://www.marciblackman.com/

Thomas Glave http://thomasglave.com/

Duriel Harris http://www.stlawu.edu/diverse/profiles/harris.html

Trudier Harris http://englishcomplit.unc.edu/people/harrist

G. Winston James http://gaylife.about.com/b/2010/03/31/shaming-the-devil.htm

E. Patrick Johnson http://www.epatrickjohnson.com/

Randall Kenan http://englishcomplit.unc.edu/people/kenanr

Charles I. Nero http://www.bates.edu/x51736.xml

Robert Reid-Pharr http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/new_faculty/reidpharr.htm

We invite paper, panel, and roundtable proposals on theoretical, critical, or pedagogical approaches to texts, topics, and authors, including any of the following:

LGBTQ Literature across histories and genres; Race and Sexual Identity; Interraciality and Same Sex Desire; Masculinity; Community; Sexuality, Desire, and The Harlem Renaissance; Homophobic Expressions; Critiques of Heteronormativity; Intersectionality; Transnational Implications; Comedy; Nationalism, Sexuality and The Black Arts Movement; James Baldwin; Richard Bruce Nugent; Marci Blackman; Ann Allen Shockley; Audre Lorde; E. Lynn Harris; Owen Dodson; Michelle Cliff; Cheryl Clarke, Alexis DeVeaux, Melvin Dixon, Thomas Glave; Shay Youngblood, April Sinclair; Alice Moore Dunbar Nelson; Gloria Naylor; James Earl Hardy; Gayl Jones; Wallace Thurman; G. Winston James; Brian Keith Jackson; Samuel R. Delaney; Helen Elaine Lee; Sharon Bridgforth; Jewelle Gomez; Jacqueline Woodson; Alice Walker; June Jordan; Carolivia Herron; Sapphire; Thomas Glave, and others.

A PSU Outreach event sponsored by the College of the Liberal Arts, the Africana Research Center, the Department of English, the Equal Opportunity Planning Committee, the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Kelly Family Professor Aldon Nielsen, and the African American Literature and Culture Society.

Submit abstracts at AfAmLit@outreach.psu.edu by February 5, 2011. Email notifications will be sent by April 1, 2011. Conference presenters must register by August 15, 2011.

Submit questions about website/travel/lodging/directions to Jlf30@psu.edu

Submit questions about proposals and abstracts to Shirley Moody (scm18@psu.edu) or Lovalerie King (luk13@psu.edu)