32nd Annual MELUS Conference in Las Vegas

Conference Theme: “TransCulture”

May 3-6, 2018

Hosted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Tuscany Suites & Casino, 255 E. Flamingo Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89169

Deadline for Abstracts: EXTENDED to November 27, 2017

Las Vegas is a transcultural city, rich in racial and ethnic diversity, and UNLV has recently been ranked as one of the most diverse college campuses in the nation. As one of the last major US metropolitan areas built from the ground up in the twentieth-century, Las Vegas is also a transformative and transient city in the American Southwest, where issues of mobility are constantly negotiated and identities are reimagined.

We welcome proposals for individual papers and panels on the broad spectrum of transcultural issues in multi-ethnic literature. Considering the concept of “trans” as relating to that which moves across, beyond, or through, or which enacts a change, topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

 Transamerican and hemispheric collaborations and tensions in multi-ethnic texts

 Transnational and transhistorical dimensions of the multi-ethnic West

 Transformative landscapes and spaces, including, among others, deserts, cities, highways, and borderlands, and in relation to issues of indigenous sovereignty and land claims

 Transience and permanence in migrant, immigrant, refugee, and diasporic experience, and in the context of debates about citizenship and borders

 Transgender and LGBQ identities and experience in multi-ethnic literature and culture

 Transcultural literary representations of popular culture and the entertainment industry

 Transvestism, performativity, and spectacles of gender and sexuality

 Transportation, transit, and mobility in the multi-ethnic West

 Transatlantic routes, identities, and experiences in multi-ethnic literature, including economic and technological considerations

 Transformations in the definitions, status, and criticism of multi-ethnic US literature, and in relation to indigenous and national literary traditions

 Translation and multilingualism in multi-ethnic texts

 Transversing, transgressing, and experimenting with forms and genres, including, but not limited to, film, graphic narratives, spoken word poetry, and multi-genre works

We also welcome proposals on all aspects of multi-ethnic US literature. More information about housing and guest speakers will be available soon. Please send 250-300 word abstracts by Nov. 27, 2017 to melus2018@gmail.com. For more information about MELUS, The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, visit www.melus.org; for more information about the MELUS journal, visit https://academic.oup.com/melus. We hope to see you in Vegas in 2018!