“Turn, Turn, Turn” CALS Fall Symposium

The Center for American Literary Studies symposium this fall will be organized by Hester Blum. 

Turn, Turn, Turn: A CALS Symposium

Monday, October 8, 2012, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

In the past decade literary studies has undergone a series of field redefinitions that have been characterized as “turns,” including (but far from limited to) the spatial, temporal, postnational, hemispheric, secular, and ethical turns. Symposium participants will reflect theoretically and methodologically on the moments in which the field of literary studies seems to gather itself and venture in presumably new directions. More broadly, we will meditate on the moments in Americanist literary criticism when momentums shift, when an approach practiced by a few becomes a movement, when there is impetus for change in a field. 

In addition to a plenary talk by Wai Chee Dimock (Yale University), the one-day symposium will feature presentations by the following scholars: Monique Allawaert (University of Wisconsin), Ralph Bauer (University of Maryland), Martin Brückner (University of Delaware), Michelle Burnham (Santa Clara University), Chris Castiglia (Penn State University), Sean Goudie (Penn State University), Jennifer Greeson (University of Virginia), Meredith McGill (Rutgers University), and Geoff Sanborn (Amherst College).