Global Migration, American Cultures, and the State

October 31-November 3, 1996, Kansas City, Missouri

The Program Committee for the 1996 American Studies Association (ASA) annual meeting invites colleagues in American studies and all related disciplines to submit proposals for individual papers, presentations, performances, films, roundtables, workshops, or entire sessions on any topic dealing with American cultures, including topics in disciplines that have been underrepresented in American studies research and teaching. All topics—the more imaginative, the better—will be given careful consideration. The greater multi- and interdisciplinarity reflected in a proposal, the greater its chances of acceptance.

The theme of the 1996 ASA meeting is "Global Migration, American Cultures, and the State." The Program Committee envisions a broad range of sessions examining the historical and contemporary significance of transnational and intranational migrations for American society. The committee is interested in proposals that explore the influence of human migrations on the formation, evolution, persistence, and dissolution of American cultures across time, from the early modern period to the present day. In addition, the committee anticipates panels that will connect human migrations to music, dance, film, art, literature, ceremony, ritual, and other forms of expressive, material, and popular culture. The committee encourages sessions that integrate the politics and political philosophy of American immigration, from general considerations of religion, education, and language to more specific analyses of "alienage," "citizenship” and "rights." Issues of identity formation, contestation, legitimation, deployment, and suppression are integral to the meeting's general theme, and the Program Committee encourages panels that examine the racialized and gendered assumptions of cultural production, state power, and national immigration policies. The committee especially invites proposals for sessions that address the influence of capital transfers, technology and communication exchanges, transnational migration networks and labor circuits on the philosophical, cultural, political, and spatial dimensions of the (post) modern American state. In considering all these questions and more-the ASA hopes to encourage dialogue between literacy and cultural studies, critical legal studies, history, and the social sciences.

The Program Committee will look favorably at proposals that challenge the traditional format of annual meetings, such as sessions at which a topic is addressed from a radically diverse disciplinary or historical perspective as well as pedagogically oriented and performance-oriented proposals, multimedia presentations, and sessions that solicit audience involvement. The committee welcomes comparative proposals, especially interhemispheric topics and proposals that compare America's cultures with cultures elsewhere. Finally, the committee wishes to take advantage of the location of the meeting to encourage sessions that make use of Kansas City's cultural and historical offerings.

While anyone may propose sessions or papers for the annual meeting, only ASA members or members of an affiliated international American Studies Association can read papers, chair sessions, comment on sessions, or otherwise participate in the annual meeting. No one should expect to receive stipends or any form of financial assistance from the ASA in order to do so. All participants must be listed as paid on the membership list of their respective American Studies Association by June 30 of the year in which the annual meeting is to be held. All participants are required to register for the meeting.

Proposals may be submitted for entire sessions, presentations, performances, films, roundtables, workshops, or individual papers on any topic dealing with American studies. Proposed presentations should represent work in progress, rather than published work. Please note that each ASA member is allowed to make only one submission; the Program Committee reserves the right to eliminate from consideration altogether those who submit more than one proposal. The Program Committee will organize sessions from individual paper proposals and, on occasion, will combine individual papers with proposed full sessions.

Deadline for receipt of all materials is January 26, 1996. For submission guidelines, contact ASA Program Committee c/o American Studies Association, 1120 19th Street, N.W., Ste. 301, Washington DC 20036. (202) 467-4783.

For further information about the program, please contact either of the two chairs of the 1996 Program Committee. They are Dave Gutierrez, Cochair, Dept. of History, 0104, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, (619) 534-1996, and Peggy Pascoe, Cochair, Dept. of History, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, (80l) 581-5685.