Welcome to SAAS

Call For Papers for Our Next Conference

"A Return to (What Never Was) Normal: Discourses of (Ab)Normalcy in US Culture, Literature, Arts, and Politics; Past, Present, and Futures"

PANEL 14

14)"The Limits of the (Ab)Normal: Native American Literature, Art, And Activism"
Panel Chair: Silvia Martínez Falquina, Universidad de Zaragoza
E-mail: smfalqui@unizar.es

As a result of the crisis that started in 2020—with the COVID pandemic, the aggravated climate emergency, and the inevitability of armed conflict—we are bearing witness to a new turn of the transmodern paradigm and its dominant narrative of globalization. As suggested by the idea of the "new normal," we are in the process of mourning for a kind of life that we have lost, perhaps forever, as we imagine the future that awaits us, trying to come to terms with overwhelming uncertainty by holding on to hopeful values like solidarity, resilience, and interconnectedness. Yet, the notion of the (ab)normal, based on a specific understanding of the order vs. chaos binary, is contingent on perspective; the normal is in the eye of the beholder. This panel is aimed at examining Indigenous perspectives on the crisis, as well as culture-specific imaginings of the past and the future. It invites submissions which deal with representations of the (ab)normal in Native American literature, art, and activism. Some examples include (but are not limited to):

• The limits of the normal, the normalcy of limits

• The normal that never was: settler colonialism as abnormality

• Indigenous lessons about the climate emergency

• Recent developments of Indigenous activism (NoDAPL, MMIWG, Land Back, etc.)

• The pandemic, climate change, and their impact on Native peoples

• The impact of social distance measures on Indigenous communities

• The representation of uncertainty, vulnerability, interconnectedness

• The representation of trauma and mental health

• The war, the changing world order, and its impact on Native peoples

• Local and global solidarity movements

• The changing face of Native women's leadership

• Crisis and trauma in Native American history

GUIDELINES FOR PARTICIPANTS

Abstracts of Proposals are to be e-mailed directly to the chair of the selected panel using this form. The deadline for submitting abstracts is October 15, 2022. Panel chairs are expected to accept/reject proposals and have panels set up by November 7.

Non-members of SAAS (of all nationalities) are welcome to participate in the conference, but will be required to pay membership dues for one year as well as the conference registration fee. Members of ASA (American Studies Association), AISNA (Associazione Italiana di Studi Nor-Americani), APEAA (Portuguese Association for Anglo-American Studies) and HELAAS (Hellenic Association for American Studies) need only pay the conference registration fee.

Further guideliness for participants can be found here.