2023 CALL FOR CONFERENCE
The conference took place in person at
Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, TX
May 18-20, 2023
The American Association for Italian Studies invites members to help shape the intellectual trajectory of the next annual conference by proposing panels and roundtables for AAIS 2023.
The conference will take place in person at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, TX May 18-20.
While only a very few members have expressed some reservations about the Texas location, the officers are nonetheless sensitive to what a Texas conference site might represent. For this reason, and in consultation with the Conference Subcommittee, which includes representatives from the Association’s three Caucuses, we have taken some measures that we hope will allow us as scholars of Italian Studies to lean in to, and not away from, an engagement with contemporary issues that are playing out across North America and intersect, refract, and illuminate currents in Italian Studies that are not limited to a contemporary frame or context.
To that end, the Call for AAIS 2023 features several changes, listed here below, while chiefly maintaining the familiar format.
AAIS 2023
Keynote Theme: “Biopolitics and Body Politics”
Keynote co-presenters: Rosi Braidotti, Distinguished University Professor Emerita Utrecht University, and Rebecca Messbarger, Professor of Italian and Art History and Director of Medical Humanities, Washington University. In addition to delivering their own addresses, presenters will also deliver prepared responses to the other’s presentation.
Suggested topics for panels and roundtables.
In addition to the AAIS practice of inviting proposals for panels and roundtables. Members are specially encouraged to consider proposing panels (either fully constituted or by way of a call, per AAIS practice) that address the following, transhistorical themes:
· banned books and censorship in times of struggle
· weapons and arms, their manufacture and control
· outside the Law: renegades, rebels, anarchists
· civil disobedience: liberties and limits
· Migrations/Immigrations: Overland Pathways and Configurations
· boundaries/barriers, and nation formation
· books, their circulation, and cultural literacy
· invasions: “foreign” and otherwise
ADDITIONAL INNOVATIONS, AAIS 2023
We are organizing an encounter of reproductive rights activists in Italy with local, Dallas-Fort Worth organizations for dialogue and comparative conversation.
Colleagues from Institutions that do not support travel to Texas
Some colleagues (e.g., from California public colleges and universities) are disallowed, per State policy, to seek reimbursement for travel to Texas, among other states. To these colleagues: we will miss you in 2023 and look forward to seeing you in 2024. However, we do not want to lose contact with you if your institution will not reimburse you for travel to Texas!
For these colleagues only, some virtual access will be given to a limited number of specific, highlighted Conference events. (Appropriate documentation is required)
AAIS 2023 is an in-person event.
More details on this new policy to follow.
A broad conference call to disciplines within IS
Aligned with the mission of the AAIS, conference organizers invite members to propose panels that approach Italian Studies through interdisciplinary and intersectional lenses representing a broad array of approaches and historical contexts.
We encourage participation from colleagues working in, but not limited to, fields such as
African and African American Studies Geography
Anthropology History and Intellectual History
Art, Art History & Visual Arts Literary Theory
Architecture Studies Medieval and Renaissance
Classics Music
Comparative Studies Performance and Theater
Critical Race Studies Philosophy
Environmental Studies Political Science
Gender Studies Queer Studies
Film and Media Women’s Studies
Conference Awards
· The Graduate Student Travel Award is open to all graduate students. Six awards of $500 will be awarded via an application process. Dates will be announced.
· The 2022 AAIS Book Prize is already open for submissions. Categories: Literary and Cultural Studies; Visual Studies (including Art History, Film and Media); History Society, and Politics (including Intellectual History and Philosophy); and First Book. Submission deadline: January 5th, 2023. Awards announced at the banquet, May 20, 2023. For information, contact Nicoletta Marini-Maio (marinin@dickinson.edu).
· The Women’s Studies Caucus (WSC) Award is open to ABD doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and adjunct faculty members who will present their research on any aspect of women and gender studies at the annual AAIS conference.
Continued Innovations, AAIS 2023
- Executive Council Conference Series: “Broadening Perspectives, Intersections, Italies” AAIS 2023 will feature, for the second time, a series, proposed, organized, and sponsored by the Executive Council that seeks to highlight expanded canonical parameters of research unfolding across myriad inter-related subfields in the humanities, the arts, cultural studies, and the social sciences. A specific objective of the ECCS is to contribute to field-wide initiatives increasing the representations of voices and viewpoints that have historically been under-represented in the Association, its events, and membership.
- Conference App for the Program. As part of continued efforts to trim our carbon footprint, AAIS 2023 will continue using an App that manages both registration and the Program.
- AAIS 2023 “Inviat@ speciali”. The program of up to five volunteer “inviat@ speciali” covering the conference continues in 2023 as “special correspondents” take the pulse of what they hear, notice, and perceive of the conference proceedings.
- The 2023 AAIS Business Meeting will take place online Friday, June 2, 2023. All members are invited to attend.
- AAIS 2023 continues with the new practice, part of the Association’s efforts toward greater inclusion, of inviting graduate students at the PhD level (not only ABD) to participate. No supporting letter from the dissertation director is required.
Texas Christian University is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for the campus community and visitors. TCU is a weapons-free campus and all firearms, whether openly carried or in a concealed manner, are strictly prohibited on the TCU campus and other TCU property except for limited exceptions for which it has policy.
TCU recognizes the rights of individuals to engage in constitutionally protected free speech and public assembly. The TCU Police Department also recognizes its responsibility to protect the rights of persons who choose to engage in such activity in a reasonable manner. However, when the activity infringes on the rights and safety of others, the activity loses constitutional protection and may become a violation of law or University policy.
The TCU Police Department’s mission is to provide a safe learning environment for students, faculty, staff, and visitors through mutual respect and shared responsibility of community policing. Its stated core values are service, integrity, and respect.
MEMBERSHIP AND REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS
PLEASE NOTE CHANGES
In order for panels, roundtable and individual proposals to be considered, your AAIS membership must be current and active.
o You must renew your AAIS membership by February 1, 2023.
o Your Association membership will be valid until January 31, 2024.
o No panels will be accepted with participants who do not have active membership.
o All participants must register for the conference, and pay registration fees (different from membership dues).
Registration fees will be announced shortly.
Please note: Payments for both membership and conference registration fees will be processed online-only.
AAIS 2023: Deadlines at a glance
REVISED PRACTICE FOR CfP CIRCULATION
PLEASE READ:
CfPs (for proposed panels and roundtable) will not be submitted to the conference committee for approval. CfPs must be posted directly in the AAIS forums.
CfPs will be included weekly in the newsletter and then listed in a single document before December 10.
January 27, 2023: All proposals due to panel and roundtable organizers with title, brief abstract (150-200 words), and short bio.
February 1, 2023: All proposed Conference participants must have renewed and current, active membership (with paid membership dues).
February 14, 2023: All completed panels and roundtables due at conference.aais@gmail.com (please see below for proper formatting).
February 23, 2023: Organizers will receive notification of panel acceptances
March 30, 2023: Early Bird Conference Registration closes
April 30, 2023: All AAIS 2023 participants must have paid conference registration fees.
Please consult Conference Guidelines for complete norms for organizers, chairs, and speakers.
Use the following for each proposed panel or roundtable:
TITLE OF SESSION OF ROUNDTABLE (IN CAPS)
Organizer: Name, Affiliation, email address
Chair (if different from Organizer): Name, Affiliation
Name, Affiliation, Title of presentation in quotation marks for each session participant
Name, Affiliation for each roundtable participant
AAIS 2023 Conference Subcommittee
Nicholas Albanese (Conference Coordinator, Texas Christian University)
Michela Baldo (University of Birmingham, Queer Studies Caucus)
Eva Del Soldato (Executive Secretary, AAIS; University of Pennsylvania)
Valeria Federici (Events Coordinator, AAIS; University of Maryland)
Cosetta Gaudenzi (Treasurer, AAIS; University of Memphis)
Juliet Guzzetta (Michigan State University, Women’s Studies Caucus
Nicoletta Marini Maio (Vice President, AAIS; Dickinson College)
Ellen Nerenberg (President, AAIS; Wesleyan University)
Carmela Scala (Critical Race, Diasporas, and Migration Caucus; Rutgers University)
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