CFP: "GBS: Global Bernard Shaw" and political theology

Modern Language Association Convention, Los Angeles, California, USA, 6-9 January 2011

www.mla.org/convention

A "Special Shaw Session", titled "GBS: Global Bernard Shaw", is to be organized for this conference.

"Zoo. Why should you travel for pleasure! Can you not enjoy yourself at home?
The Elderly Gentleman. I wish to see the world." –
"Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman", Back to Methuselah

An international celebrity, world traveler, and global citizen, George Bernard Shaw was never at a loss for words on the matter of the world he lived in. This special session seeks papers that think through the entailments of "GBS" as Global Bernard Shaw. Topics may include (but are not limited to): Gender and international feminisms; Colonialism and postcolonialism (from Ireland to India and beyond); Cosmopolitanism; The "transatlantic" Shaw; Nationalism and transnationalism; Geopolitics and world order studies; Conflict, war, and peace; neoliberalism and free-market capitalism; Globalization and modernization; "Empire", "multitude", and "commonwealth" (Hardt and Negri); International Marxist, communist, and socialist movements; Religion and political theology (liberation theology, Zionism, Islamic radicalism, etc.); Cross-cultural performance; Influence, appropriation, and adaptation; Shaw as world literature (canonicity, translation, "the world republic of letters"); Shaw as world traveler

Please send a 250-word abstract and a short CV as e-mail attachment to Charles Joseph Del Dotto (Duke University): cjd@duke.edu

Deadline: 15 March 2010

All participants in convention sessions must be MLA members by
7 April 2010. At the discretion of the executive director, waivers of the membership requirement may be granted for non-scholars (medical doctors, visual artists, etc.) and scholars in the United States and Canada who work in disciplines other than language and literature. The request must be made on the Request for Waiver of Membership form, which is available on the MLA website. The form must be submitted no later than 1 April 2010. Speakers may be granted a waiver once every five years. The speaker's discipline (History, Economics, Psychology, etc.) or profession (curator, archivist, attorney, etc.) must be specified on the form. Please note that waived non-members cannot organize or chair a session.

A member may participate as speaker or respondent only twice (e.g. by organizing and chairing a meeting, reading a paper, or serving as a speaker, panelist, or respondent in one or two sessions) at a single convention.

Participants must indicate their audiovisual needs when they respond to a call for papers and should check with the chair of the session or with the MLA convention office to be sure that the necessary equipment has been ordered on the appropriate program copy forms by 1 April 2010. Because the need for audiovisual equipment is a major factor in the scheduling of meetings (and because the movement of equipment is both costly and hazardous), the deadline is firm.

Limited travel grants for certain participants and attendees who are members may be available. For further information, please visit the MLA website. Each year the MLA Executive Council authorizes very limited funds to provide partial assistance to persons who are not MLA members and who would not normally be expected to attend a professional meeting in the field of language and literature. Those who are eligible to receive such funds include distinguished persons in fields other than those directly represented by the MLA, creative writers who do not have academic positions, and MLA honorary members and fellows. Requests for such funds must be made on the fund-request form (which may be obtained on the MLA website), must be submitted by 15 April 2010, and must explain how the participant would enrich the program.

Calls for papers are simply statements of intent to propose a session; they do not in any way bind the organizer or the Program Committee.