Call for Papers    

Coastal Cultures/Islands and Rims: Remapping the Realm of American Studies
February 17-20, 2005
Bi-annual meeting of the Southern American Studies Association (SASA)
Cook Conference Center
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Deadline: December 1, 2004

Co-sponsored at LSU by the Program in Louisiana and Caribbean Studies; The Department of English; The Department of History This conference will consider the ways in which culture spills over regional, national, and geographical boundaries, and indeed, how various cultures seem to be portable. As always, however, any proposal in the fields of American Studies will be considered.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Professor Eric Sundquist, UCLA
A Reading by Louisiana novelist Ernest J. Gaines

The Conference banquet will feature Louisiana cuisine and Cajun/Zydeco Music Optional tours of Old and New State Capitols; local plantations; swamp tours; LSU Museum of Art;

Possible topics relating to the conference theme include:

The Black Atlantic; Americans Abroad; American Writers and the Caribbean; Diasporas: South Asian, Jewish, African; The City as Cultural Island; African American Writers and Caribbean Roots; Postcolonial Theory and Regionalism; Coastal America/Coastal Mexico: Convergence and Difference; Caribbean History and American Identity; Myths of the Mississippi; Haiti and the United States; Cuba, Florida, and the Politics of Propaganda; Louisiana as Caribbean Enclave; History of the American Seacoast; Native Americans of the Coastal Wetlands; The Plantation System in the U.S., Mexico, and the Caribbean; Coastal Manifestations of Slavery; Cultures of the Coastal Frontiers; The Ohio as Boundary and Highway; Queering Tourism in the South and the Caribbean New England/Canada, and Cultural History; New England/Old England; Rio Grande, Rio Doloroso; Poetry of the Rivers; Rivers and the Conquest of the Americas; Francophone Cultures of Coastal Maine and Louisiana; Italian American Culture on the Coasts; California and Baja: Complications and Community; River, Island, and Coastal Cultures of the Pacific Northwest; Hawaii, the Pacific, and Empire; Women?s Studies of the Americas; Transatlantic Literary Relations; Musical Extensions to and from the U.S.; Transnational Religious Movements; Film and Videos as Portable Culture; Translation as Bridge and Barrier The Upper Midwest/Canada; Texas, the Southwest and Mexico The American South and the Caribbean; Coastal South American/Central American Influences on American Culture; Miami, Houston, and New Orleans as Caribbean Cities; International Aspects of Florida; Native Cultures Across National Divides; Hybrid Forms of Material Culture; Carnival Traditions of the Coasts and the Islands; Rivers and Regions; Pan-Pacific Relations and American Studies; Maps and culture; Chinese Culture of the American Coasts; American Foreign Policy and Immigration to Coastal Cities; The South Asian Diaspora in the Caribbean and the Coastal U.S. South.

Please send proposals for individual papers or complete panels to:
Professor John Lowe Registration:
Department of English before January 25: $90
Louisiana State University (Includes banquet)
Baton Rouge, LA 70803 send check or money
email: jlowe_at_lsu.edu order to John Lowe
fax: 225-578-4129 Registration/banquet for
phone: 225-578-3177 graduate students: $65

Deadline for proposals: December 1st, 2004

Accommodations:
Cook Conference Center Hotel
3848 W. Lakeshore Drive
Baton Rouge, LA 70808
(225) 383-2665
Rates: single/double, $89; triple, $99; quad, $109.
Suites: single/double, $109; triple, $119; quad, $129.

A complimentary full buffet breakfast is served each morning in the Shaquille R. O’Neal Lodge. Reservations must be made by January 25, 2005