Special Session Proposals for PAMLA 2014 due December 15

  • November 14, 2013
  • Posted by: Elijah Gartin
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Next year’s conference will take place at the Riverside Convention Center in California, October 31-November 2, 2014.  Special Session proposals for the 2014 conference are due to PAMLA’s 2014 First Vice-President Heidi Schlipphacke (University of Illinois, Chicago), by December 15, 2013:  [email protected].  Please send Professor Schlipphacke your name, affiliation, preferred email address, and a session title and brief abstract (@ 50 words).

Special session topics may be on the special conference theme, “Familiar Spirits” (see below for more information about the special theme) or on other topics.

Please note the following:

  • We have general or standing sessions on broad topics that occur every year (such as French, American Literature before 1865, Graphic Novel, Film Studies, Italian, etc.), so special sessions shouldn’t repeat those broad topics. They should be on topics we don’t have general sessions for, or on more focused topics.  See the bylaws for our full list of standing sessions.
  • Should your proposed session be approved, you would act as the presiding officer, working with us to plan and schedule the session (people will have until late April to submit their proposals to you via our online paper proposal submission system, and then you will form your session from those proposals).
  • Please only propose a special session if you are sure you’ll be able to join us in Riverside for the entire conference, and only if you are willing to work with us on the process as a presiding officer (so you need to be in email contact).

  • PAMLA 2014 Conference Special Sessions Theme: FAMILIAR SPIRITS. We invite participants to consider papers and sessions on magic, conjuring, spirits, hauntings, Spiritualism, and manifestations as well as presentations that treat the familiar, familial, and the commonplace in relation to the paranormal, strange, and uncanny. We anticipate rich and vibrant discussions that defamiliarize the known and draw near the mysterious.

We look forward to your session proposals!