*** CALL FOR PAPERS ***
In its ninth issue, aspeers will feature a general section and a topical focus. While the general section accepts submissions on any American studies topic (e.g. revised versions of term papers or chapters from BA theses), the topical section will focus on the theme of “American Youth,” calling for submissions that reflect on the diverse roles and meanings of ‘youth’ in American culture.
Please find the two calls for papers below. More information can also be found at www.aspeers.com/2016
We would be very grateful if you could point your students to this opportunity to get published early on in their career and to gain experience with the process of publishing academic work. We are certain that you have students you find worthy of submitting something and look forward to seeing contributions from your MA students.
=== General Call for Papers ===
For the general section of its ninth issue, aspeers seeks outstanding academic writing demonstrating the excellence of graduate scholarship,
the range of concerns scrutinized in the field, and the diversity of perspectives employed. We thus explicitly invite revised versions of
term papers or chapters from theses written by students of European Master (and equivalent) programs. For this section, there are no topical
limitations. Contributions should be up to 10,000 words (including abstract and list of works cited). The submission deadline is 18 October
2015.
=== Topical Call for Papers on “American Youth” ===
When Theodore Roosevelt spoke of America as a “young giant of the West,” a “nation glorious in youth and strength,” at the Republican National Convention in 1900, he inserted himself into a long rhetorical tradition: Whether in promise or in criticism, identifying ‘youth’ with America and calling the US a nation that is yet to grow up constitutes a well-established trope in discussions of ‘Americanness.’ At the same time, adolescence and youth are core concepts at the heart of American literature and culture, and they are at the center of many contemporary debates. From the ‘American Dream,’ a coming-of-age story of sorts, to debates about the education sector, from moral panics about ‘juvenile
delinquency’ to stories about America’s youngest entrepreneurs, and from Huckleberry Finn to the controversial No Child Left Behind Act, childhood and adolescence are focal lenses in thinking about ‘America,’ inviting at least two complementary perspectives: one in which youth is a trope frequently tied to ‘America’ and one in which youth is a concern with deep cultural resonance in American culture.
For its ninth issue, aspeers thus dedicates the topical section to “American Youth” and invites European graduate students to critically and analytically explore the particular relationship between notions of youth and American culture. With a host of disciplines–ranging from political science and history to medicine, legal studies, literary and cultural studies, economy, and beyond–devoting scholarship to this topic, we welcome papers from the various fields, methodologies, and approaches that comprise American studies as well as inter- and transdisciplinary submissions. Potential paper topics could cover (but are not limited to):
* explorations of the role of youth, childhood, or adolescence in American literature, broadly conceived, including movies, novels, video games, TV shows, graphic novels, or other texts that talk about coming of age
* discussions of the cultural history of childhood, of notions of youth, or of growing up as they intersect with categories of difference such as race, class, or gender
* analyses of the politics of childhood, be they contemporary or historical, and on how these speak of social dynamics within American society* papers that approach youth via its complementary ‘other,’ (old) ageaspeers, the first and currently only graduate-level peer-reviewed journal of European American studies, encourages fellow MA students from all fields to reflect on the diverse meanings of youth for American culture. Please note that the contributions we are looking for might address or go beyond the topical parameters outlined above. We welcome term papers, excerpts from theses, or papers specifically written for the ninth issue of aspeers by 18 October 2015. If you are seeking to publish work beyond this topic, please refer to our general Call for Papers. Please consult our submission guidelines and find some additional tips at www.aspeers.com/2016.
Contemporary Women's Writing Association 