New Voices is an annual conference that is run by the graduate students in the Georgia State University English Department. Each conference centers around an interdisciplinary theme which changes from year-to-year. New Voices is affiliated with the Georgia State University’s Graduate English Association.
Our 2025 conference centers around themes of "Renewal and Rebirth." It will take place in February 2025 (final dates TBA). We welcome papers that interpret this theme through a variety of theoretical lenses. There is no cost to participate in the conference.
Please submit your abstract at the following link by January 17th, 2025: https://forms.gle/QWXo97GYXesekwiF6. Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words in length. The papers themselves should be between 15 and 20 pages. Decisions will be released by January 31st, 2025.
Individual Call for Papers:
Flash Fiction Panels
Chair: Kelly Kurtzhals
The Force of Flash Fiction
What is flash? What can constraints do to creativity, and how can restraint inspire freedom? Hear from graduate students in the GSU Creative Writing-Fiction track about plotting the perfect flash piece. This session will contain tips for painting a full picture inside a small window and culminate with an ekphrastic common prompt. Groups will choose semi-finalists for the Flash Fiction Showdown on Saturday evening.
Saturday evening:
Flash Fiction Showdown!
Join us for food and drinks and a celebration of the flash fiction pieces generated by our session on flash fiction writing. Finalists will read their pieces and winners will be chosen by the audience. Hosted by Kelly Kurtzhals, PhD student in Creative Writing, Fiction.
Panel: “Liberation & Renewal: Postcolonial Literature of the 20th-Century and Today.”
Chair: Rachel Pittman
In his Afterword for Ireland and Postcolonial Theory, Edward Said writes, “One of the main strengths of postcolonial analysis is that it widens, instead of narrows, the interpretive perspective, which is another way of saying that it liberates instead of further constricting and colonizing the mind.”
For better or (usually) worse, many of us are legacies of imperialism. We were born and grew up in a particular place because our ancestors lived in that place, and because our ancestors were either survivors, perpetrators, or bystanders of a colonial project. We recognize the ways imperialism and colonization have erased, revised, and shaped histories, cultures, languages, and even landscapes throughout history. This panel seeks papers that explore postcolonial literature from 1900 to the present day as a site of struggle, resistance, renewal, and rebirth. In what ways has postcolonial literature in the last century worked to “liberate” against historical or ongoing oppression? How can postcolonial literature lead to rebirth and restoration? How have 20th century and contemporary writers used literature as a means to preserve memory, culture, art, language, and selfhood against imperialist violence?
Panel: “Perspectives on Contemporary Formalism.”
Chair: Chris Ketchum
In “[I lock you in an American sonnet that is part prison]” from American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, Terrance Hayes refers to the sonnet as “a form that is part music box, part meat / Grinder to separate the song of the bird from the bone.” For centuries, English-language poets have wrestled with the strictures and rewards of traditional forms. This panel will gather working poets and scholars of poetry to discuss the tensions, discoveries, and mysteries of contemporary formalist writing. How do 21st-century poets leverage traditional forms, like villanelles, sestinas, haiku, and pantoums, to explore present-day concerns? Contemporary formalism, here, will be defined as a poet’s intentional engagement with traditional form regardless of their degree of adherence to the form’s original parameters. To be considered as a panelist, please submit an an abstract for an essay on contemporary formalism (the final essay should be no longer than 20 pages) or a sample of your original, form-influenced poetry (the final collection should be no more than 10 pages) by December 15, 2024.
Panel: "Renewal and Rebirth: Resilience in Latinx Literature"
Chair: Laura Vazquez
With many Civil Rights Movements emerging in the late 20th-century, many Latinx authors emerged as they wrote about their hybrid experience within the United States. By the 21st-century, Latinx authors began exploring feminist themes through myth retelling. An example of such work is The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro, a reimagining of the legend of La Llorona. Latinx literature also continues to explore their Queer identity, political topics, and the dual consciousness experienced by Latin-Americans. This panel will explore how Latinx literature serves as a canvas for themes of renewal and rebirth, reflecting the diverse experiences of Latinx communities. We invite papers that examine literary works which articulate processes of transformation—be it personal, cultural, or social. How do Latinx authors depict the struggles and triumphs of individuals and communities in their quest for renewal? What roles do identity, heritage, and community play in these narratives?
Potential Topics Include:
· Literary representations of identity reconstruction in the face of adversity
· The influence of migration and diaspora on narratives of renewal
· Healing through storytelling: trauma, memory, and resurgence
· Misogyny and Machismo themes and the concept of renewal or rebirth in Latinx literature
· New voices and innovative forms reshaping Latinx literary landscapes
· The intersection of art and activism in fostering community renewal
We seek contributions that engage with these themes through close readings, theoretical frameworks, and interdisciplinary approaches. By examining how literature facilitates processes of rebirth and resilience, this panel aims to highlight the transformative power of Latinx narratives in contemporary society.
Panel: “Feminist Literatures.”
Chair: Jennifer Molton
We are pleased to invite submissions for a panel dedicated to feminist literature and its engagement with the conference theme “Renewal and Rebirth.” We seek papers that explore how feminist writers, texts, or movements employ themes of transformation and resilience as a challenge to societal norms. Renewal and Rebirth can be understood as a personal or collective process. Renewal could be a means of reclaiming agency, revising cultural narratives, or reinvigorating feminist thought and activism. Similarly, rebirth could address themes of reimagining power dynamics, reconstructing gender identities, or envisioning new futures in the face of oppression. We are looking to highlight new or underrepresented voices that engage with feminist theory as a tool to deconstruct identities, social structures, and/or stereotypical narratives for the pursuit of liberation and equality.
We welcome a variety of approaches, including but not limited to:
- Reinterpretations of classical feminist texts through the lens of renewal or transformation
- The role of feminist literature in reimagining gender, sexuality, and power
- Ecological and environmental feminist perspectives on rebirth and sustainability
- The intersection of feminist theory with postcolonial, queer, and disability studies in concepts of renewal
- Contemporary feminist literature and its response to social upheaval, political renewal, or global movements
- How literary forms (poetry, fiction, memoir, drama, etc.) enact feminist themes of rebirth and reinvention
Panel: “Renewal and Rebirth in Victorian Literature.”
Chair: Danielle Hestand
We are seeking submissions on Victorian literature of any genre. Along with scholarship on texts from the historical time period, writings on adaptations, historical fiction, steampunk aesthetics, and anything arguably literary related to the Victorian period are welcome. Analysis of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, prose, novels, short stories, novellas, and more all fit the goals of this panel. Any papers should center around the theme “Rebirth and Renewal.” This concept covers any form of looking at something through a new lens, such as applying a recent methodology or adopting a new perspective on a text. Analysis of texts in which characters experience personal growth also adheres to the theme of renewal. Writing about shifting ideas, including how emerging views on religion, worker’s rights, animals, and many other aspects of life, often transformed, also addresses this theme. At the same time, discussing rebirth and renewal can encompass hope that surfaces amidst frightening times. It offers many possibilities for examining Victorian texts.
Panel: “Medievalism(s)”
Chair: Michael Parrish
Mark Twain wrote in Life on the Mississippi that the American South suffers from a “Sir Walter disease,” pointing to a cultural fascination with an idealized medieval past. His satirical novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, further lampooned the South’s romanticized view of the Middle Ages. This enduring influence of medieval Europe, despite ending nearly 700 years ago, continues to permeate the fabric of the United States.
Today, we find traces of medieval inspiration across American culture: in our literature, architecture, art, philosophy, and even our baking flour. But why has the Middle Ages had such a lasting influence over the U.S.? What does this phenomenon say about the American psyche and our ongoing fascination with the past?
We invite papers that explore these questions by examining the persistent influence of the Middle Ages in American contexts, whether architecture, literature, or popular media. From the castles of New England estates to medieval themes in modern fantasy, from chivalric ideals to medieval motifs in pop culture—submissions that consider both expected and unconventional perspectives on the Middle Ages are welcome.
Panel: “Revivals in Nineteenth-Century Romanticisms.”
Chair: Kaitlin Smith
In Romanticism and Feminism, Anne K. Mellor calls for an “opening and reshaping” of the literary canon of English Romanticism. This process of opening and reshaping challenges scholars to diversify the canon that has previously consisted of only six writers, all of whom were male. Mellor goes on to cite a need for feminist and new historicist approaches to the study of English Romanticism in hopes that such approaches will allow for a broader literary canon that includes otherwise excluded writers. In relation, recent scholarship has shifted away from English Romanticism and toward the Romanticisms of other countries such as America and Greece. In consideration of Mellor’s assertion, how might we relate the concept of reshaping the literary canon to reviving misplaced, forgotten, or understudied elements and literatures of other Romanticisms? In turn, how might English Romanticism have influenced or reacted to these other Romantic movements of the nineteenth-century? We invite papers that investigate Romanticism from literary landscapes around the globe, including but certainly not limited to the Global South, English, American, French, and Grecian Romanticisms. Papers that take a variety of theoretical approaches, such as feminist and womanist theories, queer studies, new historicism, deconstructionism, and otherwise are welcome. Submissions are due by December 15th, 2024.
Panel: “Adaptation in Popular Culture,”
Chair: Michael PR Swanson
While the overwhelming prevalence of remakes, sequels, and spin-offs may seem like a product of the modern era, adaptation and iteration are some of our oldest and most reliable narrative tools. Adaptation allows older texts to be “reborn” into new mediums, new perspectives, and new genres. From Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf (2007) to Blind Gaurdian’s Nightfall in Middle-Earth (1998), popular culture is riddled with instances where a classic text is revived through adaptation. In the interest of analyzing this renewal, we are looking for papers discussing how adaptation is implemented in popular culture (such as films, songs, and art), the process of adaptation from a scholarly perspective, translation as adaptation, the "breaking point" of adaptation when it becomes a new story, to what degree the original form is an essential part of the narrative, how adaptation changes the audience of or the audience's relationship to the text; and/or any other aspect of storytelling regarding adaptation and iteration. You may focus on a specific work or the concept of adaptation more broadly. Direct any questions to mswanson8@gsu.edu.
Panel: “Undergraduate Writings and Research.”
Chair: Michael Parrish
Dear Undergraduate Instructors,
Do you have a student who has written an outstanding paper? Encourage them to share their work by presenting at New Voices! The goal of our undergraduate writings and research panel is to provide undergraduate students with a platform to present their creative research and papers, introducing them to the world of academic conferences—ideally, their first of many. We invite instructors to accompany their students to the panel and engage by asking questions about their students’ work. If you're unable to attend, please encourage your student to submit their paper anyway; one of our Graduate Teaching Assistants will be happy to partner with and support them during the event.
Thank you for helping us showcase the next generation of academic voices!