Call for Papers
American Literature Association
24th Annual Conference
May 23-26, 2013
The Westin
Copley Place
(617-262-9600)
Conference Director:Â Olivia Carr Edenfield
Conference Fee:Â For those who pre-register before April 15, 2013:Â $90Â
($60 for Graduate Students, Independent Scholars, and Retired Faculty).
 After April 15, the fees are $100 and $75.
                                             Deadline for Proposals:        January 30, 2013
The
 by January 30, 2013, following the instructions on the website:
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The Westin Copley Place Hotel is now sold out.
Please contact A Room With A View for information on the designated ALA overflow hotel. They will secure the lowest available rates within walking distance of The Westin Hotel. In the event that rooms become available at The Westin Hotel due to cancellations, A Room With A View will notify conference attendees and help transfer reservations back to The Westin Hotel in the order in which they were booked.   A Room With A View can be reached at 1-800-780-4343. International Attendees can contact A Room With A View via [email protected]. This is a FREE SERVICE for all ALA attendees.
Our
For reservations, please Go on-line to
https://www.starwoodmeeting.com/Book/ALA2013
or call Westin Central Reservations (1-800-WESTIN-1) as soon as possible and no later than April 15, 2011 and request the American Literature conference rate.Â
If you have any difficulties with the 800 number, you can call the Westin Copley Place Boston Reservations Department directly (617-262-9600), but the hotel prefers that you use the 800 number.
Conference
Details:Â
For the 2013 conference, the
Individuals may also propose papers or panels to the conference director by January 30, 2013. Preference will be given to papers and panels that represent authors, genres, or topics that are not covered by the societies that make up the ALA. Proposals must follow the guidelines described at the end of this notice.
Tentative Conference Schedule:
           Thursday, May 23 2013:            Sessions from 9:00 AM until 6:00 PM
Book Exhibit: 11:00 AM – 5 PM
Opening Reception:Â 6:00 - 7:00 PM
             Friday, May 24, 2013:             Sessions from 8:10 AM until 6:30 PM.
                                                          Book Exhibit: 9 AM – 5 PM  Â
                                                           Special
            Saturday, May 25, 2013:          Sessions from 8:10 AM until 6:30 PM.
Book Exhibit: 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
            Sunday, May 26, 2013:            Sessions from 8:30 AM until 1:00 PM
Book Exhibit:  An exhibit of scholarly books will be held during the second two days of the conference. Thursday will be used to permit exhibitors to set up. About twenty publishers are expected to take part. To have your books represented at the exhibit, ask your publisher to consider taking part in the book exhibit or to contact Scholar’s Choice (see information below), which will organizing exhibits for publishers. Publishers should direct any questions to Alfred Bendixen at [email protected] -- We welcome the participation of publishers and are one of the few scholarly organizations that do NOT charge an exhibit fee. Publishers who are unable to attend, but wish to have a few titles exhibited should contact The Scholar's Choice. They will again be providing the combined book exhibit at our annual conference. Please contact Mary Lynn Howe by email ([email protected]) or phone (585-262-2048 x.111) for more information.
ScholarÂ’s Choice:Â The American Literature Association has again
arranged with The ScholarÂ’s Choice to manage the combined book exhibit for our
meeting taking place May 23-26, 2013 in
“Any members interested in having
their book displayed at the upcoming meeting should contact their publisher
between October 30th, 2012 and March 1st, 2013. The Scholar’s Choice displays on behalf of
the publishers and all requests must come from them, not the individual
authors. If they donÂ’t
already have it, the press may request the appropriate paperwork by emailing
Mary Lynn Howe at
The conference fee covers the costs of the conference including the opening and closing receptions. It does not include any meals. All of those who are on the program are required to pre-register. For those who register before April 15, 2013, the pre-registration rate is $90 ($60 for Graduate Students, Independent Scholars, and Retired Faculty). After April 15, the conference fee becomes $100 ($75 for Graduate Students, Independent Scholars, and Retired Faculty). Registration Information for the conference will be available on the website in January. The website will list the program as soon as it is available –a draft will probably appear during the second week of March. Copies of the printed program will be mailed in late April to those who pre-register.
The easiest
way to find out about the conference and all
Procedures for Author
Societies:Â The representatives of the various author
societies that make up the American Literature Association will organize most
of the program. Societies are expected
to offer their own calls for papers using their websites, email list-serves,
newsletters, other publications, or mailing lists. Each society is also expected to post a call
for papers or announce its plans on this
The
American Literature AssociationÂ’s 24th annual conference will meet at the
The official representatives of each author society should confirm tentative plans for sessions with the conference director by email at [email protected] before Nov 1, 2012. This is essential if any society is requesting more than two sessions and a business meeting. All that is required is an email noting the number of desired sessions and any special requests. If your society, for whatever reason, chooses not to sponsor a session this year, please let the conference director know that.
By January 30, 2013, the conference director should receive an email with the complete program information. That information should follow the following format for each panel:
1.       The subject line of the email should read
ALA 2013: Name of Society. This enables the conference director to file emails
efficiently. Then provide the rest of information as both an attachment (preferably
in WORD) and pasted in. The
2. Provide the program information so that it can be pasted into the final program. Please look at the following sample and then at the specific instructions that follow:
The Sublime in the Poetry of Sample
Organized by the Ima Sample Society
Chair:Â Joseph Goodscholar,
1.        “Irony and Angst in the poetry
of Ima Sample,” Noah Problem,
2.        “The
3.        “Sample’s ‘Mambo’ Poems and the Humor of Mark Twain: Beyond Beauty and Truth,” Uriah Heap, Independent Scholar
Audio-Visual Equipment required: None
Requested slot: Thursday or Friday morning
Business Meeting Requested:Â immediately following panel if possible
Please note that the sample above has no formatting (no bold, no CAPS). Please note that the presentations are listed with numbers and then five spaces and then the information. They are NOT INDENTED as some word processing panels will do automatically unless you turn off auto-format. Book titles are italicized. If the conference organizer can cut and paste, then everything goes quickly.Â
A. Provide the exact Title of the Session as you wish it listed in the Program. (Please try to be both concise and precise). Please do NOT use CAPS or special fonts or highlighting or Bold or any special formatting in any part of the material you send!
B. On the second line, please write Organized by Name of Your Society
C. Then list:Â Chair: Name, Affiliation
D. For each paper, begin with a number, skip five spaces or hit tab, then provide the title of the presentation in quotation marks, and then the correct name of the presenter, and his or her academic affiliation. For independent scholars, you may identify a society, a place, or just note independent scholar or biographer or anything you deem appropriate. For any questions about matters of format and style, please consult The Chicago Manual of Style.
E. You may list a respondent, if appropriate and desired.
F.
Then write Audio-Visual Equipment Required and state NONE or request
the specific equipment desired. The
G.        Because of the complexity of the program, we cannot permit individual societies to request specific time slots, but you may designate two preferred days and request either morning or afternoon. The conference director will attempt to honor all reasonable requests provided the required program information arrives by January 30, 2013, but no promises or guarantees can be made.
H.        Please italicize book-length works and foreign phrases and use quotation marks for   Â
           shorter works.
I.         Please
remind all of your participants that no-one may present more than one paper at
the
J.         Proposals that fail to follow these directions will be returned to the proposer.Â
3.         Please note that the
4.        If you wish to also schedule a business meeting for your society, please request Business Meeting and provide any desired days and times. It is important that you let the conference director know if you wish the business meeting to come before or after a panel. Please note that we cannot guarantee to provide specific times, but we will usually try to put the business meeting directly after one of your sessions.
5.       Please note that we no longer need you to provide the email address or mailing address of your participants since ALL communication with your panel will go through you.
Please include a phone number where you can be reached in the event that the conference director is unable to email you.
The conference director will confirm the receipt of all emails within 3 business days. The conference director may refer you to the website but will never send you an attachment to open, because of the danger of computer viruses. By the second week in March, the conference director will let you know the day on which your panel or panels are scheduled. You should inform your participants of the day and instruct them to register using the information on the website at www.americanliterature.org and explaining that their early registration and payment saves the organization time and money. You will also inform them to check the on-line program for accuracy and to send any corrections to both you and the conference director.Â
WeÂ’ll send a printed program to everyone who pre-registers.Â
6.        If any conference proposal comes in after the deadline, the conference director may be unable to place it on the program and will not be able to consider requests for specific times.
Procedures for Individual Proposals: Individuals may propose either a paper or a panel or round table to the conference director no earlier than December 1, 2012 and no later than the deadline of January 30, 2013. The conference director will give preference to papers and panels on authors, texts, and topics not covered by the member societies of the ALA. Those proposing a paper or panel on a topic represented by an author society should consult with the relevant society before submitting the proposal to the ALA. All proposals must be by email and should be both pasted in and included as attachments (preferably in WORD).
For an Individual Paper: In the subject line of the email, please put ALA 2013 Proposal: and then a brief title of between one and five words. That will enable the conference director to file emails efficiently. Please provide a clear and useful title for your paper and then an abstract describing the paper (usually between 250-600 words) and then a brief discussion of your status (i.e., an Associate Professor who has published a book and several articles on this topic/author; a graduate student who is offering part of his/her dissertation, etc.) or a two-page vita if that is easier. It is important that your abstract enable the conference director and his advisory committee to evaluate the nature of your work. You must also indicate whether you need any audio-visual equipment to present your work. Please provide a phone number (which will only be used if email fails to work for some reason).
In choosing papers, the conference director may need to emphasize the ways in which individual papers contribute to the formation of logical and coherent panels,
.
For a panel:Â Please follow the sample below so the conference director can paste in the panels and round tables that are accepted.
In the subject line of the email, please put ALA 2013 Proposal: and then a brief title of between one and five words. In your proposal, which you should both paste into the email and provide as an attachment (preferably in Word), begin with the information in the sample below.
After providing the panel information in a form that can be pasted directly into the program, please provide a clear description of the panel and its goals, the titles of individual papers, appropriate abstracts for the papers, and a brief description of the participants and their relevant work. It is crucial that you note any audio-visual needs in your proposal. Finally, please provide your phone number (which will only be used if email fails to work for some reason.)
Please consult the following Sample.
The Sublime in the American Gothic Tradition
Organizer
and Chair: Joseph Goodscholar,
1.        “Irony and Angst in the Gothic
Novels of the
2.        “The
3.        “Beyond the Castle: Gothic Transformations in the Humor of American Realism,” Uriah Heap, Independent Scholar
Audio-Visual Equipment required: None
OR: if the organizer is not the chair of the session, then write
Organized by: Name of Individual organizer
And then Chair: Name
Please remember that individuals may NOT chair panels on which they present papers.
Please note that the sample above has no formatting (no bold, no CAPS). Please note that the presentations are listed with numbers and then five spaces then the information. They are NOT INDENTED as some word processing panels will do automatically unless you turn off auto-format. Book titles are italicized. Commas are used to separate the title and presenter and affiliation and there is no period at the end of each listing. If the conference organizer can cut and paste, then everything goes quickly.Â
In evaluating the quality of a proposal, the
Some reminders:
The deadline for all proposals from individuals and panels from author societies is January 30, 2013.
No-one may present more than one paper at an
Please make sure to indicate any audio-visual requests with your proposal. Late a/v requests may not be considered.
Please make sure to follow the instructions
above. The use of electronic submissions
enables the
Participating author societies are required
to advertise the national conference and are expected to post call for papers
or announce their plans on the
The conference director will attempt to acknowledge the receipt of all emails within 3 business days and will try to respond as quickly as possible to all proposals.Â
Please note that the American Literature Association maintains the lowest conference fees of any major scholarly organization because it operates without a paid staff. We cannot help you find a roommate or spend a great deal of time answering personal phone calls. If you have any questions that are not answered by this announcement, please contact the conference director, Olivia Carr Edenfield at [email protected] or Alfred Bendixen, Executive Director of the ALA, at [email protected].
Thank you for your support of the American Literature Association
