The North American Victorian Studies Association invites proposals for its 2011 conference in Nashville, TN:
http://vanderbilt.edu/navsa
We seek papers related to the conference theme of “Performance and Play,” in keeping with the conference’s location in Nashville, a historic center for musical and artistic innovation. Featured speakers will include Tom Gunning, Catherine Robson, and Carolyn Williams. Participants will also have the opportunity to sign up for topic-based seminars in which members pre-circulate 5-page position papers for discussion. Each seminar will be led by an expert in the topic and participants will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis (limit of 15 presenters per seminar).
Conference threads might include:
· Music, musicians, singers, music halls
· Opera, light opera, dance, melodrama
· The theater world: players, playwrights, producers, directors, stagecraft
· Early cinema, magic lantern shows, optical toys
· Audiences, publics, receptions, reviews
· Performances of the self, gender, race, nationality
· Posture, pose, gesture, manner, style
· Timing, training, discipline, skill, perfectionism
· Imitation, impersonation, masquerade, theatricality
· Ceremonies, rituals, routines
· Art-making in public, studio tours, readings
· Performance at home, in private; female accomplishments
· Tourist productions, ethnographic shows
· Leisure, recreation, sport, games, holidays
· Entertainment, fairs, pageantry, parades
· Sexual play, eroticism, dalliance, hedonism
· Gambling, gaming, horse-racing, card games
· Bodies in motion: fighting, fencing, hunting, exercising
· Jokes, jests, wordplay, comedy, playfulness, fun
· Forms of play, linguistic play, nonsense, verse play
· Children’s play, toys, games
Proposals for individual papers should be no longer than 500 words, and should be accompanied by a one-page curriculum vitae. The organizers welcome panel proposals, as well. Panel proposals should include 500-word abstracts for each paper and a one-page c.v. for each presenter, along with a panel title and 250-word panel description. All abstracts will be considered for the conference, regardless of panel acceptance. Proposals for papers and panels should be submitted electronically to navsa2011@gmail.com as an attachment in .doc or .pdf format, and are due by March 1, 2011.
The Hoarding 