Call For Papers: Submissions Welcome Until March 28th
The 2022 Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature
4–8 July 2022
nipaluna/Hobart, lutruwita/Tasmania
Coming to Terms, 30 Years On: The Mabo Legacy in Australian Writing
Conference website: https://asal2022.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ASAL2022/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Officalasal2022
On 3 June 1992, the High Court of Australia handed down its decision in Mabo v. Queensland (No. 2). The effects of this decision on understandings of colonisation, race, property, and sovereignty have been far-reaching. As the editors of Mabo’s Cultural Legacy (2021) state, “more than any other event in Australia’s legal, political and cultural history, the Mabo decision challenged previous ways of thinking about land, identity, belonging, the nation and history.”
In the 30th anniversary of the landmark Mabo ruling, ASAL2022 will explore the impact of Mabo on Australian literature and literary culture, broadly defined. It will examine the roles that narrative, and other forms of writing, have played in mediating the Mabo legacy in all its complexity and ambiguity. We are seeking 20-minute papers or proposals for panels that speak to the many and varied impacts and articulations of Mabo on Australian writing and publishing in all its forms: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, theatre, as well as song and screen. We also welcome papers that address the pedagogical impacts of Mabo on the learning and teaching of Australian writing.
As this is the annual conference of ASAL, the program will also feature a stream showcasing new and emerging work in Australian literary studies in any aspect of the field, including pedagogy, publishing, and emerging writing. We warmly invite contributions from emerging and established scholars of Australian literature and from scholars and writers outside the academy who may offer vital perspectives on the public reach and cultural work of Australian literature.
Proposals for themed panels are also welcome.
Topics include but are not limited to:
• First nations publishing
• Truth-telling, reconciliation, and apology
• Stolen Generations
• The History Wars
• The Uluru Statement
• Sovereignty
• Literature and law
• Literature as activism
• First Nations review culture
• Literature, history, and memory
• Post-Mabo literature and storytelling
• First Nations literature and teaching
• Wik and narrating co-existence
• Regional perspectives, voices, and narratives
• Cultural appropriation
• Narrating colonial conflict
• Indigenising the literary curriculum
• Decolonising Australian Literature
• Reading and writing as emancipation or oppression
• Intellectual property
• Transindigeneity
Please submit your proposal to ASAL2022@utas.edu.au (cc. to Robert Clarke, robert.clarke@utas.edu.au) using the subject heading “ASAL 2022” together with:
1. Title of paper
2. 250-word abstract
3. Name, position, organisation, brief bio (100 words max)