SFPS Monthly Mailing: June 2017

1. Calls for Papers

1.1 Innovation & Experimentalism in Translation and Translation Theory Translation ‒ Postgraduate Translation Symposium (Deadline: 14 July)

1.2 (Im)mobility: Dialectics of Movement, Power and Resistance ‒ Conference (Deadline: 30 July)

1.3 MSA Forward: The Memory Studies Association’s Postgraduate Programme (Deadline: 1 August)

1.4 Slavery, Memory and Literature ‒ Workshop (Deadline: 1 August)

1.5 Afropolitan Literature as World Literature ‒ Edited Collection, Bloomsbury Publishing (Deadline: 1 August)

 

2. Job Opportunities

2.1 Assistant Professor (Research and Teaching) in French Studies (Closing Date: 17 July)

2.2 Deputy Language Director (French) ‒ Senior Teaching Associate (Closing Date: 17 July)

2.3 Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Contemporary French Studies (Closing Date: 31 October)

2.4 Tenure Track Assistant Professor of French/Francophone Caribbean Studies (Closing Date: 31 October)

2.5 Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Sub-Saharan African History (Closing Date: 1 November)

 

3. Announcements

3.1 Comics and Nation Conference (13-14 July)

 

4. New Titles

4.1 Queer Maghrebi French: Language, Temporalities, Transfiliations (Liverpool University Press, 2017)

4.2 Subtitling African American English Into French (Peter Lang, 2017)

4.3 Littératures migrantes et traduction (Presses Universitaires d’Aix-Marseille, 2017)

4.4 The Colonial Legacy in France: Fracture, Rupture, and Apartheid (Indiana University Press, 2017)

4.5 Postcolonial Interruptions, Unauthorised Modernities (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2017)

4.6 The Colonial Legacy in France: Fracture, Rupture, and Apartheid (Indiana University Press, 2017)

 

1. Calls for Papers 

1.1 Innovation & Experimentalism in Translation and Translation Theory Translation (Postgraduate Translation Symposium)

University of East Anglia 7th Biennial Postgraduate Translation Symposium

18th and 19th November 2017

Innovative and experimental practices push the boundaries of a discipline, taking it in different directions, challenging existing thought and offering exciting new horizons. Innovation may come from outside – a challenge from other disciplines or cultures – or from within: a reaction against traditional approaches. At many points in history translation itself has been a vehicle for innovation, importing new forms across cultures, or making seminal texts available to new cohorts of readers. Experimental translations can help us to see texts in a new light, or reflect anew upon the task of translation. Globalisation means that translation is increasingly required in many varied areas of public life, and technological developments, especially via the internet, mean that the role translation can play in everyday life is changing.

This postgraduate symposium will grapple with the new and the radical.

Discussion will focus on innovative or experimental developments in literary translation practices, in translation theory, across the history of translation and in the practical applications of translation. We hope to ponder both new critical developments, and new creative opportunities. We will consider the challenges, and explore whether innovation has its limits. We will also consider where innovation and experimentalism may lead the future of Translation Studies.

Keynote speakers: Dr Rocío Baños Piñero, UCL; Professor Catherine Boyle, KCL; Professor Tom Cheesman, Swansea; Clive Scott, Emeritus Professor, UEA.

Scope: We invite proposals for papers on the theme of innovation and experimentalism in translation and translation theory. Areas to be considered by papers may include, but are not restricted to:

• the shock of the new – creative opportunities
• innovative or experimental translation strategies: for example, hybrid or multi-modal translation; collaborative translation; multi-lingual translations; ‘prismatic’ translation
• performing innovative translations
• innovation via interdisciplinarity
• innovation prompted by globalisation, or via intercultural exchange
• innovative translation practices as political intervention
• technical innovations in translation – for example, computer-assisted translation, automated translation; innovations in audio-visual translation
• historic innovations in translation
• innovative or experimental directions in Translation Studies
• publishing innovations in translation
• advantages, challenges, risks and limits of innovation and experimentalism

Abstracts for conference papers should be sent to translationsymposium@uea.ac.uk by Friday 14th July 2017. Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words. Please include a short biographical note, of no more than 200 words.

If you would prefer to offer a poster presentation, please contact us. Posters should be A1 and can be printed at UEA – there will be a dedicated poster session.

Experimental approaches to this topic are encouraged – please contact us with any practical considerations.

Papers/posters selected for presentation at the symposium will be confirmed by 25th August 2017.

Registration fee UEA students and students at CHASE institutions – free. £20.00 (other students/unwaged); £30.00 (full price). Registration will be required for all delegates – registration will open later in the year.

Contact details: translationsymposium@uea.ac.uk

Symposium generously supported by: The Faculty of Arts and Humanities, UEA; the CHASE Doctoral Training Partnership; the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT).

For more information, see https://www.uea.ac.uk/lcs/pg-translation-symposium-innovation-and-experimentalism-in-translation-and-translation-theory.

 

1.2 (Im)mobility: Dialectics of Movement, Power and Resistance 

LAHP Student-led Interdisciplinary Conference 2017

Keynote speaker: Dr Alexander Samson, UCL

The London Arts and Humanities Partnership is pleased to announce the cross-disciplinary student-led conference (Im)mobility: Dialectics of Movement, Power and Resistance, which will be hosted by The London School of Economics (28 November 2017).

We live in a time in which global mobility is one of the central themes of several political agendas. It is subject to contestation, resistance and attempts of redefinition, in debates that are often shaped around the narrative of ʻidentities under threatʼ. Building on the ‘mobility turn’ theorized by sociologist John Urry (2007), Stephen Greenblatt, in his manifesto on Cultural Mobility (2009), began to explore the ʻtension between individual agency and structural constraintʼ, in both the present and the past. This cross-disciplinary conference aims to investigate the dynamics of mobility and immobility in relation to structures of power. How does (or did) power regulate the mobility and immobility of people, objects and ideas across time and space? Inversely, in which ways have matters of movement resisted and altered injunctions placed upon individuals, groups and/or objects by those in power? What effects do such dialectics of movement have in reshaping the cultural and social realms?

We invite PhD students and early career researchers from any department within the Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences to contribute with 20-minutes papers that address, but are not necessarily limited to, the following issues:

• (Im)mobility and construction of social and cultural identities
• (Im)mobility, law and freedom
• Migration
• Translation, language mobility and power
• Bodily (im)mobilities and disability
• Maps, travelogues and postcolonialism
• Movements of people in urban and rural environments
• Hidden or concealed mobilities of people, objects, ideas (e.g., smuggling, trafficking, resistance to censorship)
• Mobility of academics and intellectuals
• Digital technologies, social media, flow of information and politics
• Artistic, literary and musical interpretations of mobility-power dynamics

To submit a paper, please send a presentation title and an abstract of approximately 300 words, along with your CV and contact details, to lahp.mobilities@gmail.com by 30 July 2017. Applicants will be notified of the outcome by the end of August 2017.

Some small bursaries are available for presenting attendees travelling from outside of London. Enquiries should be directed to lahp.mobilities@gmail.com. 

For more information, see http://translating.hypotheses.org/771.

 

1.3 MSA Forward: The Memory Studies Association’s Postgraduate Programme

13-16 December 2017, University of Copenhagen

The Memory Studies Association’s second annual conference (http://www.memorystudiesassociation.org/call-for-papers-2017/) provides a forum for PhD students to explore the connection of their research to Memory Studies. MSA Forward offers a platform for exchanging ideas with a cohort of early researchers, learning about recent developments in Memory Studies and interacting with key academics in the field. Through flash presentations, PhD students will have the opportunity to discuss the specific ways their research connects with Memory Studies and to receive feedback from established scholars. MSA Forward will host a career café and a PhD dinner before the conference begins, and a methodology workshop during the conference itself.

We invite proposals for 5 minute flash presentations which explore the role of Memory Studies in individual PhD projects. What connections does your PhD thesis establish with Memory Studies? In which ways do your case studies or primary texts engage with issues of remembrance and forgetting? Which methodology do you use and why? Are the memory frameworks you employ transcultural, transnational, multidirectional, palimpsestic, or something else?

Please send proposals of no more than 200 words as well as a short biography by August, 1st. For organizational reasons, please make sure that you only upload one file (proposal & bio in one document).

If you encounter any difficulties, contact us via info@memorystudiesassociation.org

Letters of acceptance will be sent out around September, 1^st.

From more information, see http://www.memorystudiesassociation.org/conference-2017-msa-forward/.

 

1.4 Slavery, Memory and Literature (Workshop)

Paris, October 18-19 2017

Columbia Global Center and EHESS

Over the last 3 decades, slavery and its social and cultural legacies has been an important subject of commemoration, scholarship and artistic exploration as well as a site of public debate. In this workshop, we engage this question from the vantage point of literature, understood in the broadest sense as textual, visual or cinematic depictions of slavery across genres ranging from memoirs, diaries and travel literature to novels, documentaries and feature films. We ask how, at different moments, ‘literature’ has contributed to the transmission (or the repression) of the memory of slavery.

The engagements of literature with slavery take many forms. Literary texts have borne witness to the realities and practices of slavery both from afar and in the most intimate ways. Literature has helped to shape the cultural memory of colonial slavery both by contributing to the repression of atrocities in the formation of national imaginaries and through the preservation and actualization of the memory of slavery in for example emergent Caribbean (Vivian Nun Halloran 2009, Catherine A. Reinhardt 2008) or African (Laura T. Murphy 2012) literatures. And literature has served and continues to serve to explore, reinterpret and perhaps counter the colonial archives that were so closely intertwined with the practices of slavery.

In this workshop, we invite researchers to engage in discussion of literature and slavery in relation to central questions of memory, testimony and the formation of archives.  We raise questions such as: what is the relation between history and memory in literary representations of slavery;who narrates on behalf of whom and to what ends; what are the central metaphors, storylines and topoi of literary representations of slavery? What kind of identities and political realities are created or enabled by texts, what are the performative effects of literary language , and how do we understand different textual and oral representations of slavery within literary, cultural and political histories? We strive for a cross-disciplinary discussion of the ways in which textual (and other) representations shape and counter the formation of cultural memory of colonial slavery, encouraging contributions relating to recent discussions in different fields on the importance of representations for the formation of a cultural memory of slavery (Myriam Cottias 2007, Françoise Vergès 2006, Ana Lucia Araujo 2012) and of the related processes of forgetting and silencing (Gert Oostindie 2011, Michel-Rolph Trouillot 1995, Madeleine Dobie 2010).

Of special interest is the ways in which the politics of remembrance and forgetting reinforce and challenge global relationships shaped by colonialism. This entails looking at the role of cultural memory in the formation of diasporic identities (Paul Lovejoy et al. 2008, Paul Gilroy 1993, Alan Rice 2010), the way in which different histories and practices of memory and memory politics around the Atlantic interact and clash (Araujo 2015, Elisa Bordin and Anna Scacchi 2015) and of the role of memorialization in contemporary Africa (Bayo Holsey 2008, Mitch Kachun 2006, Rosalind Shaw 2002).

In recent years, greater accessibility of the colonial archives, especially through digitization, has also highlighted both the importance and the limits of these archives as the basis for memory practices, spurring a new wave of artistic interpretation of and interaction with the archives (Simone Osthoff 2009) and scholarly reflection of the relationship between different forms of representation and the archive (Ann Laura Stoler 2010).

A central problematic is the very possibility of capturing and transmitting events through witnessing and testimonies. This relates to the few but important historical testimonies from slaves (Nicole N Aljoe 2011, Sandra E. Greene 2012, Deborah Jenson 2011) – of interest here both for the narratological and historical specificities of these texts and the for later importance of these texts for the remembrance of slavery – and to contemporary testimonies from victims of slavery (Ana Maria Lugão Rios & Hebe Mattos 2005) and fictional reconstructions of the experience of slavery.

In order to encompass a variety of representations, we invite papers on both canonical, well known forms of literature like the novel, the theatre and poetry and non-canonical and alternative forms of literature, including autobiographies, diaries, essays, travel writing, account books, ethnographic depictions etc. And the relationship between textual and other forms of representation, e.g. visual (Marcus Wood 2000, 2010, Nicholas Mirzoeff 2010) bodily, and performative forms of memory practice. We welcome papers that thematize the transatlantic, Mediterranean, African and Indian slavery in the period from 1400 until today. Topics of interest therefore include (but are certainly not limited to):

• The importance of literature for the cultural memory of slavery.
• The history of slave narratives and their importance for the memory of slavery
• Later literary imaginings of slavery in contemporary literature
• Resistance to the dominance of the written document in literature; performance and visual culture
• The importance of the memory of colonial slavery to resistance and awareness of contemporary form of slavery
• The relation between an historical approach and an approach based in memory studies
• Comparison between different forms of representation of slavery
• Uses of the past in later and/or contemporary periods
• The incorporation of non-canonical forms of literature on slavery in literary history

The seminar is the second in a series preparing the book Comparative Literary Histories of Slavery, eds. Mads Anders Baggesgaard, Madeleine Dobie and Karen-Margrethe Simonsen in the series of literary histories made by CHLEL under the ICLA, Publishing House: John Benjamins Publishing. Two other volumes engage with the topics of Slavery, Literature and Emotion and Authorship, Literary Culture and Slavery.

Please send 100-200 word abstracts for 20 min. papers to madsbaggesgaard@cc.au.dk no later than August 1, 2017 along with a short biographical note.

Participation is free, but participants will have to cover their own costs for travel and lodging. Lunches will be provided. For information on recommended accommodation and other practical matters please do not hesitate to write madsbaggesgaard@cc.au.dk The seminar is hosted by the research project Reading Slavery at Aarhus University, Denmark, see readingslavery.au.dk.

For more information, see https://networks.h-net.org/node/3177/discussions/184192/%E2%80%9Cslavery-memory-and-literature-workshop-paris-october-18-19-2017.

 

1.5 Afropolitan Literature as World Literature (edited collection, Bloomsbury Publishing)

Afropolitanism currently inflects many academic and popular conversations about African literature. The term is mobilized to celebrate African influence in the world and to characterize the proliferation of African literature that is disconnected from the daily lives of average people residing on the continent. It refuses victimhood for Africans in the wake of patronizing representations by the likes of CNN, BBC, and KONY 2012 and sells a version of Africa ready-made for western reading tastes.  It represents a formidable ideology formulated by Achille Mbembe, among others, and a way to sell $30 novelty T-shirts to American hipsters. In short, Afropolitanism is contradictory and controversial: it is liberating but confining, African but western-orientated, and academic but steeped in popular culture.

This collection intends to intervene in numerous debates about Afropolitan literature, especially in relation to its worldliness and cosmopolitanism. By addressing the theoretical foundations established by Mbembe and Gikandi, as well as popular usages by writers like Helon Habila and Taiye Selasi, Afropolitan Literature as World Literature will address a variety of discourses that have thrust Afropolitanism into a vital role in discussions of both African literature and World Literature, the latter itself a persistent and controversial contemporary interlocutor.

To wit, we welcome articles on the most prominent Afropolitan authors, such as Chimamanda Adichie, Teju Cole and NoViolet Bulawayo, but we also invite theoretical interventions and articles that consider less prominent or emerging writers and texts. Papers that explore the following questions (as well as others) surrounding Afropolitan literature and its relationship to World Literature are particularly sought:

How do the concerns of Afropolitanism intersect and depart from considerations of World Literature? World Literature at its worst is unmoored from local contexts and Afropolitanism is often accused of being disconnected from the lived realities of Africa.  While detractors and supporters of both Afropolitanism and World Literature abound, how do these fields meaningfully intersect?

How should the issue of translation, whether linguistic or cultural, as a major preoccupation of World Literature, inform discussions of Afropolitanism?

Afropolitanism is criticized at times for commodifying Africanness for easy consumption. While Afropolitans have invited some of these critiques, what is lost in these often hasty and polemic rebukes of the most circulated literary representations of Africans?

Many authors who write about Africa balk at being characterized as an “African writer” because of the restrictions they see inherent in the term. Is the term Afropolitan a similar constraint or does its global pretensions, while maintaining a connection to Africa, provide a broad enough framework to overcome the fear of narrow pigeonholing?

Much of the attention on Afropolitanism centers on politics, gender, geography, and representation but what formal qualities also help define it? Is there an Afropolitan aesthetic?

Afropolitanism is often accused of being non-political and eschewing previous ideologies, such as Pan-Africanism and Afropessimism. However, Wole Soyinka and others have pointed out that an African literature that is ideology-eschewing is itself ideological. How can we reimagine the so-called non-political nature of Afropolitan literature as explicitly political?

Abstracts (300-500 words) for proposed articles should be submitted by August 1, 2017 to the editor of the proposed collection, James Hodapp, at jh53@aub.edu.lb.   By August 20, potential contributors will be contacted regarding the status of their abstract. The proposal for this collection, entitled Afropolitan Literature as World Literature, was invited by Bloomsbury Publishing’s “Literatures as World Literature” series for inclusion in the series (https://goo.gl/ECdoFl). Ultimately, articles should be between 6000 and 8000 words including notes, and are due December 1, 2017.  All articles will be peer reviewed.  Please feel free to contact the editor early and ask send any questions about the collection.

For more information, see https://africainwords.com/2017/06/18/cfp-afropolitan-literature-as-world-literature-deadline-1-august-2017/.

 

2. Job Opportunities 

2.1 Assistant Professor (Research and Teaching) in French Studies

Closing Date: Monday, 17th July 2017

Job Type: Research & Teaching

Department: French & Francophone Studies, University of Nottingham

Salary: £34956 to £46924 per annum, depending on skills and experience. Salary progression beyond this scale is subject to performance.

The School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies is looking to enhance its current research and teaching strengths in the area of French Studies through the appointment of a new Assistant Professor in French Studies. This is a permanent, full-time post which is available from 1 September 2017.

Preference will be given to candidates who can demonstrate expertise in either French Film & Media Studies or contemporary French politics, society, and institutions. The purpose of this role will be to lead and deliver individual and/or collaborative research and teaching in either of those two areas. The role holder will be expected to make a significant contribution to their unit through research, teaching and administrative management.

Informal enquiries may be addressed to Dr Jeremy Lane, email jeremy.lane@nottingham.ac.uk. Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.

The University of Nottingham is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.

For more information, see http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/jobs/currentvacancies/ref/ART187317.

 

2.2 Deputy Language Director (French) (Senior Teaching Associate)

School of Modern Languages, Bristol, UK

Salary: £36,001-£40,523 per annum

Closing date: 17 July 2017

The University of Bristol seeks to appoint a full-time Deputy Language Director (Senior Teaching Associate) in French language from 1 September 2017.

French Studies is an integral part of a dynamic and forward-looking School of Modern Languages in the Faculty of Arts. French language is studied by highly qualified and well-motivated undergraduates either as a mandatory part of a Single Honours degree, as part of a Joint Honours degree with another modern language or (as part of a Joint Honours degree) with another subject. French language is also taught as an option to students from all Faculties of the University and as part of the University-wide Language Programme.

The Deputy Language Director in French language will be expected to contribute flexibly across the full range of language teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level. The successful candidate will also support the Language Director in French in the management of the language team and to ensure that the French curriculum continues to be innovative and forward looking in its approach to the challenges of language learning in the 21st century. The appointed individual will also make a substantial administrative contribution to language-related activities and the administration of the Year Abroad.

We wish to appoint a candidate who can show initiative and support an instrumental role for the French Department in the life of the School. In particular, we are committed to an enterprising outlook, engaging with potential partners both within the University and in the city of Bristol and beyond.

The successful candidate will have native or near native competence in French and English, a relevant postgraduate qualification and extensive experience of language teaching in the HE sector.

The closing date for applications is midnight Monday 17 July 2017.

Interviews will be held in the week commencing 24 July 2017.

Applications must be made using the University of Bristol’s on-line application system. Informal enquiries should be directed to Mrs Fabienne Vailes, Language Director for French at f.vailes@bristol.ac.uk or Dr Ian Foster, Director of Foreign Language Teaching at ian.foster@bristol.ac.uk.

For more information, see http://www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/details.html?nPostingId=6186&nPostingTargetId=23401&id=Q50FK026203F3VBQBV7V77V83&LG=UK&sType=SR#.WUpI-nrMOuE.

  

2.3 Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Contemporary French Studies

The Department of French and Italian in the School of International Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (SILLC) at the University of Arizona invites applications for a tenure-track position beginning August 2018 at the rank of Assistant Professor in the field of French Studies with an emphasis on the contemporary period (from the late 19th century through the present). Area of specialization is open. Possible areas of interest include but are not limited to: literature, comparative literature, theater, cinema, visual culture, new media, France and/in Europe. The Successful candidate will teach graduate-level courses in French as well as upper-division undergraduate language, literature, and cultural studies courses in French and general-education courses in English in face-to-face, hybrid, and on-line formats. The new hire will also have the ability to work effectively with faculty, staff, and students from a variety of diverse backgrounds. We seek candidates with strong potential for research and publication, demonstrated excellence in teaching, and commitment to mentoring undergraduates and graduate students. Near-native proficiency in English and French is required. Ph.D. in French or French/Francophone Studies, French Cultural Studies, Comparative Literature, or a related field must be in hand by the time of the appointment.

Review of applications will begin on October 31, 2017. Candidates are asked to submit (all in English unless otherwise noted): 1. Cover Letter, which must address philosophy of teaching, as well as current and future research, and include contributions to diversity and inclusiveness. 2. CV 3. Writing Sample (Save as ONE PDF FILE — Two writing samples, one in French and one in English. Samples may be published papers or dissertation chapters) 4. Teaching Evaluations (from the past three years, if available) 5. Portfolio—(save as one pdf file) to include at least two sample syllabi (one for an undergraduate French course and one for a graduate course in the area of expertise of the candidate) and sample teaching materials. Please note: You will be asked to provide contact information for three professional references within your application. At least one of these letters should speak directly to your teaching ability. The three references you list will receive an email upon the successful submission of your application. This email will ask your references to provide a letter of reference for you by December 11, 2017.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Maintain an active research and publication agenda.
• Teach two courses per semester based on departmental needs. The candidate will be qualified and expected to teach French courses in language, literature, and culture for the undergraduate major and graduate courses for the Masters in French as well as lecture courses in English for the General Education program.
• Engage in service through committee work and outreach.
• Participate in the “Arizona in Paris” summer program on a rotating basis.
• Faculty are expected to contribute actively to University of Arizona initiatives focused on fostering diversity and inclusive excellence, enhancing student engagement, and mentoring students including those from underrepresented backgrounds
• Expand collaborations with community and business partners.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Ph.D. in French or French/Francophone Studies, French Cultural Studies Comparative Literature (or a closely related field) in hand by August 1, 2018.
• Excellent record of college-level teaching, including demonstrated ability to teach courses in French.
• Native or near-native fluency in French and English.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Excellent, interdisciplinary research in the field of Contemporary French Studies.
• Demonstrated excellence with online/hybrid teaching; facility with multimedia technology, and an aptitude for teaching large lecture courses.
• Experience using innovative teaching methods and/or curricular design to effectively engage a diverse student body.
• Interest and/or experience with digital humanities.
• Preference will be given to candidates with evidence of excellent teaching. 

For more information, see https://uacareers.com/postings/19664.

 

2.4 Tenure Track Assistant Professor of French/Francophone Caribbean Studies

The Department of French and Italian in the School of International Languages, Literatures and Cultures (SILLC) at the University of Arizona is seeking to hire an Assistant Professor of French with an area of specialization in Caribbean studies. We are looking for a dynamic, interdisciplinary scholar and excellent teacher in the area of Francophone Caribbean culture. The successful candidate’s research profile should be interdisciplinary and approach the Caribbean from a global perspective and might include work on contemporary cultural expression (poetry, music, novels/narrative fiction, film/media studies, theater, popular/folk forms) and/or work on slavery/plantation culture (historical, sociological). It is preferred that the candidate’s research and teaching expertise intersect with one or more of these areas: transatlantic studies, archipelagic studies, digital humanities. The successful candidate will teach graduate-level courses in French as well as upper-division undergraduate language, literature, and cultural studies courses in French and general-education courses in English in face-to-face, hybrid, and on-line formats. The new hire will also have the ability to work effectively with faculty, staff, and students from a variety of diverse backgrounds. We seek candidates with strong potential for research and publication, demonstrated excellence in teaching, and commitment to mentoring undergraduates and graduate students. Near-native proficiency in English and French is required. Ph.D. in French or French/Francophone Studies, Comparative Literature, or a related field must be in hand by the time of the appointment. This is a benefits-eligible position and the appointment starts in August 2018.

Review of applications will begin on October 31, 2017. Candidates are asked to submit (all in English unless otherwise noted): 1. Cover Letter, which must address philosophy of teaching, as well as current and future research, and include contributions to diversity and inclusiveness. 2. CV 3. Writing Sample (Save as ONE PDF FILE — Two writing samples, one in French and one in English. Samples may be published papers or dissertation chapters) 4. Teaching Evaluations (from the past three years, if available) 5. Portfolio—(Save as ONE PDF FILE) to include at least two sample syllabi (one for an undergraduate French course and one for a graduate course in the area of expertise of the candidate) and sample teaching materials. Please note: You will be asked to provide contact information for three professional references within your application. At least one of these letters should speak directly to your teaching ability. The three references you list will receive an email upon the successful submission of your application. This email will ask your references to provide a letter of reference for you by December 11, 2017.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Maintain an active research and publication agenda.
• Teach two courses per semester based on departmental needs. The candidate will be qualified and expected to teach French courses in language, literature, and culture for the undergraduate major and graduate courses for the Masters in French as well as lecture courses in English for the General Education program.
• Engage in service through committee work and outreach; participate in the Arizona in Paris summer program on a rotating basis.
• Faculty are expected to contribute actively to University of Arizona initiatives focused on fostering diversity and inclusive excellence, enhancing student engagement, and mentoring students including those from underrepresented backgrounds.
• Expanding collaborations with community and business partners.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Ph.D. in French/Francophone Studies, Comparative Literature (or a closely related field) in hand by August 1, 2018.
• Excellent record of college-level teaching, including demonstrated ability to teach courses in French.
• Native or near-native fluency in French and English.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Excellent, interdisciplinary research in the field of Francophone Caribbean studies.
• Demonstrated excellence with online/hybrid teaching; facility with multimedia technology, and an aptitude for teaching large lecture courses.
• Experience using innovative teaching methods and/or curricular design to effectively engage a diverse student body.
• Interest and/or experience with digital humanities.
• Preference will be given to candidates with evidence of excellent teaching. 

For more information, see https://uacareers.com/postings/19667.

 

2.5 Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Sub-Saharan African History

The Department of History at Loyola University Maryland invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship in the history of Sub-Saharan Africa, with a preference for the modern period. Applicants should demonstrate a commitment to undergraduate teaching, the promise of significant scholarship, and a commitment to service. The successful candidate will teach a 100-level survey of African history and a rotating sequence of undergraduate upper-division courses in her or his specialty. The standard teaching load is three courses per semester, with expectations for scholarship and service to the department and the university. Participation in Loyola’s African and African American Studies program is likely. Appointment will begin in August 2018. Ph.D. is expected by that date.

Preliminary interviews will be conducted at the AHA annual meeting in January 2018. To apply, please visit https://careers.loyola.edu/ to submit a cover letter, -teaching evaluations, CV, three letters of recommendation, and a copy of graduate transcripts. Paper applications will not be accepted. Questions regarding the position or users of Interfolio recommendations should contact Dr. Sara Scalenghe, Chair African Search Committee at sscalenghe@loyola.edu. All materials must be received by November 1, 2017. All applications are confidential.

Loyola University Maryland is a selective liberal arts university in the Jesuit Catholic tradition. The university is committed to intellectual excellence and social justice as it prepares students for a diverse and changing world. Recognized as a leading independent, comprehensive university in the northeastern United States, Loyola has a beautiful historic Evergreen campus in Baltimore and Graduate Centers in Timonium and Columbia. Loyola enrolls over 4,000 students in its undergraduate programs and about 2,000 students in its graduate programs.

In recent years, Loyola has undergone dramatic growth and development, adding numerous academic programs and positions. Global Studies, which entails a number of history courses, has been among the largest growth areas. Loyola also currently offers study abroad programs or exchanges in twenty countries, including two in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Loyola is committed to fostering an inclusive environment and seeks applicants from all backgrounds who can contribute to its educational mission. Loyola is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, and welcomes applications from underrepresented groups. Additional information is available at www.loyola.edu. For more information, see https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=55047.

 

3. Announcements               

3.1 Comics and Nation Conference

13th – 14th July 2017, Bangor University

Keynote speaker: Professor Charles Forsdick

In recent years, the rise of the ‘graphic novel’ has boosted academic interest in comic art from different disciplines and fields of study. Graphic texts, in their multiple forms and genres, have been a cultural manifestation reflecting societal changes, historical tensions and also their effects on individual stories since their inception. Comics have also been instrumental in the construction of national identities, both in nation-states and in stateless nations.

This conference aims to put into dialogue scholars working on a variety of cultures and disciplines to provide a forum for the discussion of the interrelation between comic art (comic books and strips, cartoons and caricature) and nation, placing special emphasis on text/image creation from minority cultures (e.g. Brittany, Catalonia, Corsica, Galicia, Kurdistan, Mapuche, Quebec, Scotland, Wales, etc.) but also including those from nation-states (e.g. China, France, Italy, Japan, Spain, UK, etc.).

Programme: http://comicsandnation.bangor.ac.uk/programme.php.en.

 

4. New Titles 

4.1 Queer Maghrebi French: Language, Temporalities, Transfiliations (Liverpool University Press, 2017)

By Denis M. Provencher

This book investigates the lives and stories of queer Maghrebi and Maghrebi French men who moved to or grew up in contemporary France. It combines original French language data from my ethnographic fieldwork in France with a wide array of recent narratives and cultural productions including performance art and photography, films, novels, autobiographies, published letters, and other first-person essays to investigate how these queer men living in France and the diaspora stake claims to time and space, construct kinship, and imagine their own future. By closely examining empirical evidence from the lived experiences of these queer Maghrebi French-speakers, this book presents a variety of paths available to these men who articulate and pioneer their own sexual difference within their families of origin and contemporary French society. These sexual minorities of North African origin may explain their homosexuality in terms of a “modern coming out” narrative when living in France. Nevertheless, they are able to negotiate cultural hybridity and flexible language, temporalities, and filiations, that combine elements from a variety of discourses on family, honor, face-saving, the symbolic order of gender differences, gender equality, as well as the western and largely neoliberal constructs of individualism and sexual autonomy.

For more information, see https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/products/74472.

 

4.2 Subtitling African American English Into French (Peter Lang, 2017)

In Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, African American character Mookie throws a rubbish bin through the window of the pizzeria he works for, which is owned by an Italian American family. Translators often find themselves in a position of moral ambiguity similar to that of Mookie: at the nexus between cultures, translators have to make clear statements through their choices, with sometimes dramatic consequences.

Drawing on the fields of translation studies, sociolinguistics and film studies, this book analyses the French subtitling of African American English in a corpus of films from the United States. After describing African American English and analysing how this variety is often portrayed in films, the book explores the implications of resorting to the use of non-standard forms in the French subtitles to portray linguistic variation, paying special attention to the consequences of juxtaposing two linguistic varieties on screen. This book goes beyond the mere case study and examines the relevance of the concepts of domestication and foreignization in the context of subtitling.

For more information, see https://peterlangoxford.wordpress.com/2017/06/14/subtitling-african-american-english-into-french-published/.

 

4.3 Littératures migrantes et traduction (Presses Universitaires d’Aix-Marseille, 2017)

Alexis Nouss, Crystel Pinçonnat et Fridrun Rinner, dir.

Difficile de définir la notion de littérature migrante. Sous l’angle de la traduction, la catégorie devient pourtant plus identifiable. Les littératures migrantes ont pour principale caractéristique de produire une vaste translation culturelle d’un champ à l’autre, soit que l’écrivain ait adopté la langue du pays d’accueil et opère lui-même le processus de transfert, soit qu’il écrive encore dans sa langue d’écriture première et que ce travail appartienne au traducteur. Comment dès lors, écrivain ou traducteur, traduisent-ils à destination d’un lectorat qui les ignore ou ne les reconnaîtra pas des références culturelles, des accents ou autres distorsions phonétiques, voire des éléments relevant de codes minorisés ? Si l’écrivain allophone peut avoir recours à des pratiques translinguistiques massives dans son texte, le traducteur dispose-t-il, dans sa pratique, d’une même liberté ? Ce sont là quelques-unes des interrogations auxquelles le volume se propose de répondre.

Pour ce faire, trois questionnements sondent la République mondiale des Lettres, dans une progession allant du plus au moins subjectif. La première partie, « Constructions identitaires », s’attache aux processus d’élaboration de soi entre individuel et collectif. La deuxième partie traite des « Stratégies d’écriture » comme autant de mécanismes scripturaires spécifiques mis à jour. « Circulation des textes », enfin, invite à la traversée de vastes espaces littéraires transnationaux.

Pour en savoir plus, voir: http://www.fabula.org/actualites/a-nouss-c-pinconnat-f-rinner-dir-litteratures-migrantes-et-traduction_80124.php?utm_source=dlvr.it.

 

 

4.4 The Colonial Legacy in France: Fracture, Rupture, and Apartheid (Indiana University Press, 2017)

Ed. by Nicolas Bancel, Pascal Blanchard, Dominic Thomas; trad. by Alexis Pernsteiner

Debates about the legacy of colonialism in France are not new, but they have taken on new urgency in the wake of recent terrorist attacks. Responding to acts of religious and racial violence in 2005, 2010, and 2015 and beyond, the essays in this volume pit French ideals against government-sponsored revisionist decrees that have exacerbated tensions, complicated the process of establishing and recording national memory, and triggered divisive debates on what it means to identify as French. As they document the checkered legacy of French colonialism, the contributors raise questions about France and the contemporary role of Islam, the banlieues, immigration, race, history, pedagogy, and the future of the Republic. This innovative volume reconsiders the cultural, economic, political, and social realities facing global French citizens today and includes contributions by Achille Mbembe, Benjamin Stora, Françoise Vergès, Alec Hargreaves, Elsa Dorlin, and Alain Mabanckou, among others.

For more information, see http://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/the-colonial-legacy-in-france.

 

4.5 Postcolonial Interruptions, Unauthorised Modernities (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2017)

Postcolonial Interruptions, Unauthorised Modernities is a ground-breaking work that revaluates the cultural and political understandings of the world today from the perspective of the south. Largely located in the Mediterranean, and in understandings of a ‘southern question’ that extends beyond local and national confines, the arguments and perspectives proposed seek to explore the historical formation and political configurations of a multiple modernity.

Drawing upon the interdisciplinary lines of thought developed within cultural and postcolonial studies, the work develops a concept of heritage beyond the concerns and obsessions of the Anglo-American world. It offers a counter-hegemony construction of the figure of the migrant and ‘other’ as a disruptive force in the construction of the idea of the West. It proposes a rethinking of the geo-political economies of knowledge and power, lived and viewed from elsewhere. This accessibility written book should be of interest to anyone interested in the construction of modernity and the future of postcolonial studies.

For more information, see  https://www.rowmaninternational.com/book/postcolonial_interruptions_unauthorised_modernities/3-156-aa7f40cf-741c-4437-8676-4eda04a90b25.

 

4.6 Paris, capitale du tiers monde: Comment est née la révolution anticoloniale (1919-1939) (La Découverte, 2017)

By Michael Goebel

Ce livre retrace l’expansion, au cours de l’entre-deux-guerres, de l’anti-impérialisme mondial, mouvement dans lequel Paris joua un rôle de tout premier plan. La Ville Lumière accueillit en effet d’innombrables futurs leaders tiers-mondistes qui vinrent y faire, sans même le savoir, leur formation politique – formation qui, en retour, les mènera vers l’une des plus fantastiques déflagrations révolutionnaires de l’histoire. Dans ce Paris incroyablement cosmopolite où affluaient les âmes errantes venues du monde entier, on pouvait ainsi croiser Hô Chi Minh, Zhou Enlai, Léopold Sédar Senghor, C. L. R. James, George Padmore, Messali Hadj ou le révolutionnaire indien M. N. Roy. En étudiant le contexte sociopolitique parisien dans lequel ces apprentis activistes évoluaient, ce livre nous plonge dans des complots d’assassinat prétendument ourdis par des étudiants chinois, dans des manifestations menées par des nationalistes latino-américains, ou simplement dans la vie quotidienne des ouvriers algériens, sénégalais ou vietnamiens.

Sur la base de rapports de police et autres sources de première main, Michael Goebel montre le rôle de force motrice essentiel joué par les mouvements migratoires et les interactions vécues au sein des milieux immigrés dans le développement de l’opposition à l’ordre impérial mondial, qui a fait se croiser les histoires de peuples issus de trois continents.

S’appuyant sur les travaux de l’histoire globale et impériale, et sur les études des questions migratoires et « raciales » en France, ce livre ne propose rien de moins qu’une compréhension renouvelée des origines de l’idée de tiers monde et de tiers-mondisme.

For more information, see http://editionsladecouverte.fr/catalogue/index-Paris__capitale_du_tiers_monde-9782707194404.html.