Call for Panels XXVII AISNA Biennial Conference
Vulnerabilities:
Weaknesses, Threats, Resilience in the U.S.A. and in Global Perspective
21-23 September 2023
Department of Philosophy, Social Sciences and Education
University of Perugia
Polo scientifico-didattico di Narni, Centro di Ricerca sulla Sicurezza Umana
(CRISU)
WHAT, WHEN AND WHERE
The COVID-19 pandemic has alerted us not only to the state of our health, but also to an endless list
of vulnerabilities. The environment, personal freedoms, the role of science and medicine, tourism,
labor and work conditions, migration, economics, domestic and social life, to quote only some of the
fields affected by the pandemic, have undergone profound changes in their structures and in the way
we perceive them.
Thus the aim of this conference is to tap into our new awareness in order to address representations
and histories – past and present – of vulnerable aspects of life, be it the life of individuals, of literary
characters, of social structures, of the environment, or of any other culturally identifiable text or
context.
Vulnerability being the main theme, it can be broken down into multiple sub-topics and encompass
established and innovative critical approaches to American Studies, including but not limited to
cognitive, disability, animal, trauma, dream, celebrity studies, as well as gender, race, class and
politics.
An investigation of vulnerability inevitably involves its opposites, and the way it is responded to:
from the all-American virtue of resilience, to problem-solving, and pragmatism, the reactions to
weakness and threats can provide a paradigm of counterhegemonic responses that question the
definitions of “vulnerable”.
Center and periphery, porosity, domestic and international, home and the wild, are spatial definitions
that involve vulnerable as well as strong practices and phenomena, whose mutual interaction,
dialogue, confrontation and contrast can be the focus of proposed papers.
Since the concept of vulnerability is historically and culturally determined, we encourage the study
of vulnerable social (ethnic, national, class, gender, racial) groups, but we must be on the alert for
those who capitalize on the purported weakness of minorities or on the need to protect hegemonic
bulwarks (borders, purity, family, race, privilege). We must be aware that fictitious vulnerabilities can
be weaponized to attack and weaken freedoms through, for instance, uses and abuses of censorship.
The mediating potential of vulnerable assets should also be taken into account, as they could serve to
balance the instability of systems. Historical research and literary criticism can provide a gauge for
the oscillation of the idea of the vulnerable versus the un-attackable in texts, social and cultural
strategies, groups and phenomena.
Vulnerability also acts as catalyst for violence, oppression, discrimination, opacity, and fraud, but at
the same time it can function as a site for secrecy and dissidence that proves productive rather than
destructive. Recent studies have suggested that our present is marked by an “endless disclosure”,
where the catchword is mandatory transparency. The so-called transparency society, apparently
rooted in the visibility of social networks, has indeed been traced back to Early Modernity, connecting
self-exposure to discourses on power and surveillance and to their opposites: vulnerability and
freedom.
Besides history and literature, the panels will ideally address the (past or future) vulnerability of such
entities as archives, printed texts, performances, literary canons, translated texts, religions,
democracy, and educational institutions.
Within the frame of critical approaches sketched above, vulnerability and its sub-themes can be
investigated including, but not limited to, the following fields and topics:
Activism
Autobiography / Autobiographical Literary Criticism
Body Shaming
Cultural Appropriation
Diaspora Studies
Digital Humanities
Disability Studies
Environmental Studies / Ecocriticism
Film Studies / Star Studies / TV Series
Food Studies
History of Sexuality
Human Rights
Intellectual Property
International Relations
Literary Criticism / Literary History
Medical Humanities
Memory Studies / Memorialization / Memoryscapes
Museum Studies
Popular Culture
Prison Studies
Social History
Soundscapes
Sports Studies
Textual Poaching
Transcultural Studies
Transmediality
Trauma Studies
Urban Fiction
Utopian / Dystopian Literature
YAL (Young Adult Literature) / Children’s Literature
Youth / Age Studies
DEADLINE AND HOW TO APPLY
TIMELINE
The deadline for panel proposals is February 27th, 2023. The submitted proposals will be reviewed
by the conference organizer committee and the AISNA board. A selection of panels will be issued by
March 13th, notified to the submitters by email, and published on the Conference website. By May
2nd paper proposals should be sent to panel coordinators, who will notify accepted participants by
May 15th.
Submissions should be written in English and include:
• a panel title
• a clearly stated description of the proposed topic in no more than 250 words
• contact details of the panel’s coordinator or coordinators (max. 2), including professional affiliation.
Each panel will host no less than two papers, including the coordinator’s or coordinators’. Panels with
more than four papers will be split into 2 sessions. We remind aspiring coordinators that their task
will include a brief introduction of the speakers, a strict monitoring of the observance of the allotted
20-minute time for each presentation, and a supervision of the following question and answer session,
aimed to stimulate a fruitful discussion in the last but essential part of each panel. All panel proposals
should be sent by e-mail to the conference organization at the following address:
aisna23unipg@libero.it