Organized around the theme “Islands,” the CEA 48th Annual Conference will take place March 30-April 1, 2017, at the Hilton Head Marriott Resort and Spa on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The College English Association, a gathering of scholar-teachers in English studies, welcomes proposals for presentations on Caribbean Literature for their 48th annual conference. The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2016.

Conference Theme: Islands

For our annual meeting in beautiful Hilton Head, SC, the College English Association invites you to join us in exploring the idea of the island.  The Sea Pine shell ring, over 15,000 years old, once sheltered Native Americans who occupied Hilton Head seasonally.  Gullah and Geechee culture emerged on the island as freed slaves sought sanctuary there at the end of the Civil War.  How, then, are islands in literature and film, as in life, places of desperate refuge and welcome escape?  What respites do they provide? Are islands imagined utopias, or do they offer only barriers and isolation?  Finally, is the study of composition, film, language, literature, and writing, a kind of island amidst the tempest of the current attack on the humanities?

We welcome individual and panel presentation proposals that address Caribbean literatures in general, including—but not limited to—the following possible themes: Caribbean islands as construct, form, metaphor, motif, or icon; Caribbean islands as setting and its impact on character, conflict and resolution, and/or theme in film and literature; The cost of islands; Racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, class, and national identities; Colonization and empire; Nationalism and citizenship; Hybridity, transculturation, creolite, and mestizaje; Resistance and resilience; Migration, exile, transnationalism, and/or globalization; Travel and tourism; Orality and the spoken word; Intertextuality; Diasporic theory and Caribbean literatures; Postcolonial studies and Caribbean literatures; and Comparative literary, historical, political, or cultural analyses of Caribbean literatures.

Call for Papers: In addition to our conference theme, we also welcome proposals in any and all of the areas English and writing departments encom­pass.  We also solicit papers on all areas that influence our lives as academics as well as those that address the profession broadly.

Proposals should be submitted electronically through our conference management database housed at the following web address: http://www.cea-web.org.

Proposals should be between 250 and 500 words in length and should include a title.  Please note that only one proposal may be submitted per participant.  Notifications of proposal status will be sent in early December.

Submitting electronically involves creating a user ID, then using that ID to log in – this time to a welcome page.  A link then will be provided for submitting your proposal under one (or two) of the following appropriate topic areas. Submission Dates: August 15-November 1, 2016.

Membership: All presenters must join CEA by the first of January 2017 to appear on the program.  To join or to find out more information about the organization and conference, please see the CEA website at www.cea-web.org.

Please address comments or questions to Laura Barrio-Vilar, Caribbean Literature Special Topics Chair, at Lxbarriovil@ualr.edu, or Lynne Simpson, CEA Vice-President and Program Chair, at cea.english@gmail.com.

Contact Email: cea.english@gmail.com

[Image above: Miranda by John William Waterhouse; source: http://www.cea-web.org.]

For more detailed information, see http://www.cea-web.org