Book Presentation with ASFS VP Gemma King: Jacques Audiard (Manchester UP)

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The Australian Society for French Studies Vice-President Gemma King will discuss her recently published book Jacques Audiard (Manchester UP, 2021) at an event organized for the SCMS French and Francophone Scholarly Interest Group and Franco-Screens. She will also offer recommendations for teaching Audiard’s films and will share how she has approached teaching some of Audiard’s films in her own classes.

Please register via eventbright to receive the Zoom details. This event will be held on Friday 29 April at 6am AEST to accommodate as many people as possible across time zones.

Contact Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp (lkealhofer@uri.edu) and Michael Gott (Michael.Gott@uc.edu) with any questions.

Call for Papers – Inaugural ASFS / WiF:Oz Research and Networking Event

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The Australian Society of French Studies, in collaboration with Women in French: Australia, is delighted to announce its first mid-year Australian French Studies symposium. For this inaugural one-day event (split over two half days on account of time differences) we would like to invite colleagues in French Studies from around the world to present any aspect of their research – whether it is a work-in-progress, full paper or an overall taste of what they do – in order to encourage new collegial collaborations. 

Instead of requesting papers around a specific theme, we are particularly keen to hear from colleagues working on new projects, undertaking research Fellowships, testing out new ideas, or who wish to hear the thoughts of others as they shape their research. We are also interested in creating a ‘speed-dating’ style session where researchers can give a brief, 10-minute outline of what they do. We welcome colleagues at any stage in their career, from PhD and Early Career through to leading researchers and senior academics. We are also keen to hear from those working on new collaborative projects who wish to share their experiences through round table discussion. 

The event will take place online on 14th and 15th July 2022. Please send a 200-250 word abstract for papers (approx 15 minutes) as well as a short author bio to wifaustralia@gmail.com by 31st May 2022. If you would like to submit a full panel, please add to the above a brief 100 word introduction to your panel.

N.B.: Timezones

The first half day will be run from the UK and will take place on 14th July (this will be accessible to European time zones (afternoon of 14th July) and also EDT and CDT in North America (morning of 14th July)).

The second half day will be run from Australia and will take place on 15th July (this will be accessible to Australian and South Pacific time zones (morning of 15th July) and also all other North American time zones (afternoon of 14th July)).

ASFS Mentorship Program

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The Australian Society for French Studies is again extending the mentorship program for colleagues seeking extra support in their careers. Colleagues may seek mentorship for a specific professional goal, such as a promotion application, job search or grant application, and mentees may include but are not limited to postgraduate and ECR candidates. Mentees will be paired with a suitable member of the Society able to advise on their goals, and each pair will decide how often and where to communicate (e.g., Zoom, email) depending on their needs. This is an informal and collegial initiative designed to support colleagues at a range of stages in their academic careers.

If you are interested in becoming a mentor and/or mentee, please click on the appropriate link below and submit it by 15 May 2022.

Mentee Form – ASFS Mentorship Program

Mentor Form – ASFS Mentorship Program

New Job in French – Lecturer (Level B) at the University of Sydney

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The Department of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Sydney is seeking to appoint a Lecturer at level B, with expertise preferably in the field of French and Francophone Cultural Studies (cultural, historical or literary studies) or socio-linguistics but other areas relevant to French and Francophone Studies will be considered. 

Your key responsibilities will be to:

  • maintain a research profile compatible with the Department’s research programmes through publication and research grant application
  • coordinate and teach language units in the French and Francophone major including at all levels from Beginner to Advanced
  • coordinate and teach culture units at all levels and adapt to Departmental needs with regard to curriculum development
  • participate in teaching collaboration including team-teaching of undergraduate cultural units in the Department and School
  • supervise honours and postgraduate research students in French and Francophone Studies 
  • work flexibly and collaboratively in a team environment and assume roles in administration and planning in the Department and School
  • coordinate and help promote French and Francophone Studies within the university and to the community.

About you

We are seeking a Lecturer who has:

  • a PhD in French or Francophone Studies
  • native or near native competency in French and English 
  • a strong record of peer-reviewed publications relative to opportunity 
  • demonstrated experience and commitment to innovative teaching and course development in French and Francophone Studies, including language and culture courses
  • experience in designing and teaching French-language modules at different levels with demonstrated success in promoting student retention and achieving high levels of language competency
  • demonstrated ability, relative to opportunity, to develop and maintain an active research program including research grant applications
  • evidence of their capacity to work flexibly and collaboratively in a team environment and to assume roles in administration and planning in the Department and School.
  • excellent time management and interpersonal skills.


Desirable for appointment is your:

  • experience of interdisciplinary teaching and research 
  • experience in developing and implementing innovative teaching including but not limited to digital teaching methodologies
  • experience in research-led teaching
  • ability to undertake collaborative research
  • record of successful honours and research student supervision relative to opportunity
  • demonstrated academic administration skills.

Apply

Applications (including a cover letter, CV, and any additional supporting documentation) can be submitted via the University of Sydney website by 24 April 2022.

Call for Applications: Australian Society for French Studies School Liaison and Community Outreach Fund

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Rationale:
The aim of the School Liaison and Community Outreach Fund is to support the learning of the French language and francophone cultures and to contribute to the growth and vitality of French-speaking communities across Australia. The Australian Society for French Studies, with support from the Embassy of France in Australia, will make up to two annual awards of a maximum of $500 each.

  • These awards will assist members in their initiatives:
    • to foster collaborative exchanges with community organisations;
    • to promote French teaching in schools;
    • to engage in intellectual development in subjects related to those which they are teaching and which will allow them to help students bridge the gap between school and university.

The scheme also acts as a forum for keeping members up-to-date with curriculum developments and deepening the Association’s ties to Australia’s French-speaking communities.

Eligibility and Application:
All ASFS members are eligible to apply. One round of funding will be offered per year, with a maximum of $500 awarded per project.

To apply, please provide the following details (in no more than two A4 pages):

  1. Event Summary
    1. Details of the event, including: a rationale for the theme and associated activities; aims; date, time and location of the event; description of target audience; anticipated number of participants; plans for promoting the event;
    2. Details and roles of the organising team;
    3. Details and roles of other professionals/practitioners to be invited;
    4. Predicted outcomes of the event, including: publications or other plans for pursuing future collaborations across sectors.
  2. Budget
    1. Breakdown of costs to be incurred;
    2. Complete list of other funding possibilities (secured or proposed).

Deadline:
Please send applications to Leslie.Barnes@anu.edu.au by 20 May 2022.

Société Australienne pour les Études Françaises Fonds de Liaison Scolaire et de Services à la Communauté

Justification :
L’objectif du Fonds de Liaison Scolaire et de Services à la Communauté est de soutenir l’apprentissage de la langue française et des cultures francophones, ainsi que de contribuer à la vitalité des communautés francophones à travers l’Australie. La Société Australienne pour les Études Françaises (Australian Society for French Studies, ASFS), avec le soutien de l’Ambassade de France en Australie, propose deux prix annuels d’un maximum de AU$500 chacun.

  • Ces prix visent à soutenir nos membres dans leurs initiatives :
    • de favorisation des échanges collaboratifs avec des organisations communautaires ;
    • de promotion de l’enseignement du français dans les écoles ;
    • d’engagement dans le développement intellectuel des matières qu’iels enseignent, et qui leur permettront d’aider leurs étudiant.e.s à combler l’écart entre le lycée et l’université.

Ce projet servira également de forum permettant à nos membres de se tenir au courant des dernières évolutions au niveau de l’élaboration des programmes d’études, mais il permettra également de renforcer les liens de notre association avec les communautés francophones australiennes.

Éligibilité et Dépôt des demandes : Tout.e membre de la Société Australienne pour les Études Françaises (ASFS) peut déposer une demande de fonds. Un cycle de financement sera offert chaque année, à hauteur de AU$500 pour chaque projet retenu.

Pour déposer votre demande, veuillez fournir les informations suivantes (pas plus de deux pages A4) :

  1. Sommaire de l’événement
    1. Une présentation de l’événement, comprenant : une justification du thème et des activités associées, les objectifs, date et lieu de l’événement, description du public visé, nombre de participants envisagé, stratégie de promotion de l’événement ;
    2. Informations sur le rôle de l’équipe organisatrice ;
    3. Informations sur le rôle des intervenant.e.s invité.e.s ;
    4. Résultats et impact de l’événement : publications éventuelles et/ou stratégies pour poursuivre une collaboration future entre différents domaines ou secteurs.
  2. Budget
    1. Répartition des dépenses occasionnées ;
    2. Liste complète d’autres possibilités de financement (obtenues ou proposés).

Date limite de dépôt des demandes :
Veuillez faire parvenir vos demandes à Leslie.Barnes@anu.edu.au avant le 20 mai 2022.

Call for Submissions: Bypassing Paris? / “Se passer” de Paris?

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Please consider submitting to this innovative online discussion forum organized by ASFS members Valentina Gosetti and Heather Williams. Designed to engage scholars in new ways through podcasts, videos, and short written statements, this digital event will also feature presentations and discussions on various platforms to combat “Zoom fatigue” and be accessible to all. Please see below and visit the Transferre blog for more details.

Bypassing Paris?: An Online Multi-Platform Discussion Forum

Online Meet-up Date: Tuesday 10 May 2022

Podcasts, videos, of up to 10-minutes, or short 1000-word written statements, due by Tuesday 20 April 2022

*La version française suit

Question for Discussion: Is It Possible to Bypass Paris?

Organisers: Associate Professor Valentina Gosetti & Professor Heather Williams

The University of New England, Australia & Canolfan Uwchefrydiau Cymreig a Cheltaidd Prifysgol Cymru y Drindod Dewi Sant | University of Wales Trinity Saint David Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies

This is one of the main questions at the heart of some of our recent research projects. It is a central concern within the theoretical framework underpinning Valentina Gosetti’s current Australian Research Council-Funded Project “Provincial Poets and the Making of a Nation” (DE200101206). Its aim is to rediscover and analyse prominent regional voices swept aside by the powerful forces constructing national identity in nineteenth-century France in order to argue for a positive view of provincialism and challenge the division between central and peripheral cultures (and indeed cities). This project hopes to advance a more inclusive and representative literary canon, a new awareness of the crucial role of regional poets, and a new ‘transregional’ theoretical framework to revalue the potential of locality. It is also an integral question of Heather Williams’s research on cultural interfaces. Working on Breton/French and Breton/Welsh cultural dialogues she adopts a multilingual approach that reaches beyond major or colonial languages and focuses on ‘lateral networks’ between minoritized cultures. Our work seeks to critique “French” centralization rather than reproduce it. 

As part of the ARC DECRA project, in partnership with the blog Transferre, and the newly-founded Literary Worlds Research Group at The University of New England (headed by Dr Giulia Torello-Hill in collaboration with Valentina Gosetti), we would like to encourage an open discussion on this core – if controversial – theoretical question: is it ever possible, or even fruitful, to bypass Paris, whenever our aim is to diversify and decentre so-called “French Studies”? We invite anyone interested in this theme to submit podcasts/videos of up to 10-minutes or, alternatively, 1000-word statements. We invite considerations of the question from all possible angles (across the centuries, across different languages and contexts, comparatively, etc.)

FORMAT: We shall upload all the submissions (podcasts, videos, written statements) to an online platform, share them with the participants, and arrange “online dates” for you to discuss your submission with whomever is interested via various online slots taking place on 10 May 2022 around the world. 

This innovative format is designed to combat “Zoom fatigue”, so a live chat or a voice message on platforms like WhatsApp may be a substitute for a video encounter, and a podcast can easily be listened to while going for a walk, lying down, tidying up, according to your preferences and needs.

The long-term goal is a collective special issue on this subject.

Please send your submission (in Breton, English, French, Welsh, Italian, Occitan and please get in touch as we are open to submissions in a multitude of languages) by Wednesday 20 April 2022 via Google Drive link, as an attachment, via Dropbox (whatever easiest for you) or get in touch to know more by writing to valentinagosetti@gmail.com and h.williams@cymru.ac.uk

***

Appel à contribution

“Se passer” de Paris? : une discussion en ligne sur plusieurs plateformes

Date de réunion : le mardi 10 mai 2022

Des podcasts, des vidéos de moins de 10 minutes, ou des textes de moins de 1000 mots à nous envoyer avant le mercredi 20 avril 2022 

Le débat : Est-il possible de “se passer” de Paris ? 

Organisateurs : Associate Professor Valentina Gosetti & Professor Heather Williams

The University of New England, Australia & Canolfan Uwchefrydiau Cymreig a Cheltaidd Prifysgol Cymru y Drindod Dewi Sant | University of Wales Trinity Saint David Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies 

Il s’agit de l’une des questions clés de nos axes de recherche récents. Elle est essentielle à l’approche théorique de Valentina Gosetti dans son projet actuel (financé par l’Australian Research Council) ‘Les poètes provinciaux et la fabrique de la nation’ (DE200101206). Son but est de redécouvrir et d’analyser des voix régionales saillantes qui ont été balayées par les vents puissants de la construction d’une identité nationale dans la France du XIXème siècle afin de proposer une version positive de la provincialité et de mettre en question la division entre centres (et centres urbains) et périphéries culturelles. L’espoir est de pouvoir présenter une tradition littéraire plus inclusive et représentative, ainsi qu’une appréciation renouvelée du rôle essentiel des poètes régionaux et une approche théorique ‘transrégionale’ pour revaloriser la valeur de la localité. La même question fait partie intégrante des recherches de Heather Williams dans le domaine des frontières culturelles. Dans son travail sur les dialogues culturels entre breton/français et breton/gallois, elle adopte une approche plurilingue qui vise à scruter, au-delà des langues majeures ou coloniales, les liens latéraux entre cultures minorées. Notre travail vise à critiquer la centralisation ‘française’ plutôt qu’à la reproduire.

Au nom du projet ARC DECRA, en partenariat avec le blog Transferre, et le tout nouveau groupe de recherche ‘Literary Worlds Research Group’ (créé par Dr Giulia Torello-Hill en collaboration avec Valentina Gosetti à l’University of New England en Australie), nous aimerions encourager un débat ouvert sur le sujet, controversé peut-être, mais essentiel : est-il possible, ou même souhaitable, de se passer de Paris quand notre but est de diversifier et de décentraliser les soi-disant ‘études françaises’ ? Nous invitons ceux qui s’intéressent à la question à nous envoyer des podcasts ou des vidéos de moins de 10 minutes, ou de courts textes de moins de 1000 mots. Nous vous invitons à considérer la question de tous les points de vue (différentes époques, langues, aires géographiques, littératures comparées, etc.)

FORMAT : Nous publierons toutes les présentations (podcasts, vidéos, ou fichiers Word) sur une plateforme virtuelle. Les participants auront la possibilité de les écouter/lire. Nous arrangerons ainsi des ‘rencontres en ligne’ permettant de discuter des vidéos / podcasts avec les chercheurs intéressés, dans une série de réunions en ligne le 10 mai 2022 partout dans le monde.   

Cette formule innovante a pour but de combattre le ‘ras-le-bol du Zoom’ ; ainsi une conversation ou un message WhatsApp peut se substituer à une visioconférence, et un podcast s’écoute facilement en se promenant, en s’allongeant, en faisant le ménage, selon vos préférences et besoins.

L’objectif à long terme est de créer un numéro spécial consacré à ce sujet.

Veuillez nous envoyer vos présentations (en anglais, breton, français, italien, gallois, occitan, ou bien contactez nous, nous accueillons favorablement des propositions de contribution dans d’autres langues) avant le mercredi 20 avril 2022 via un lien Google Drive, en pièce jointe à un email, via Dropbox (faites au plus simple pour vous), ou bien prenez contact avec nous pour discuter, en écrivant à valentinagosetti@gmail.com et à h.williams@wales.ac.uk

Women in French Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher International Symposium

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Please consider attending Women in French’s postgraduate and early career researcher international symposium. Organised by several ASFS members, this virtual symposium focuses on immersion in women’s literature and hybrid media (including photo-texts, bande dessinée, cinema, journals, and other media), with a particular emphasis on immersivity as both a pleasurable and productive feature. It will include presentations from postgraduate students and early career researchers working on questions of gender or feminism in French studies.

Dates: Thursday 13th to Saturday 15th January 2022

Keynote Speakers:

  • Professor Diana Holmes (Leeds)
  • Professor Michèle Bacholle (Eastern Connecticut)
  • Dr Alexandra Kurmann (Macquarie)

See the webpage and download the programme here.
Please register for the event here!

The Immersive Potential of Literature and Hybrid Media in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Day One: Thursday 13th January

Start Times: 4:00 p.m. (UK); 11:00 a.m. (US Eastern Daylight).

Introduction and Opening Remarks

Arline Cravens (Saint Louis), Women in French President

E. Nicole Meyer (Augusta), Women in French Vice-President

Panel 1: Immersive Multimedia

4:15 p.m. (UK); 10:15 a.m. (Madison, U.S.).

Chair: Eric Wistrom

Emma Rossby (Pennsylvania State), “Still Heroes, Moving Parts: Interactivity Redefined in Exaheva’s 2021 Digital Comic Installation”

Andrea Jonsson (Georgia Institute of Technology), “Les friandises et la parole libre: the unexpected joy of listening to strangers speak about anything and nothing in the podcast À bientôt de te revoir” 

Q+A

Panel 2: Immersive Texts by Women and for Women

5:30 p.m. (UK).

Chair: Michèle Bacholle

Viviana Pezzullo (Florida Atlantic), “Feminist Journals in the 1970s as Textual Collective Performativity”

Sandra Daroczi (Bath), “Reading (between) the lines in Monique Wittig’s fiction”

Marie Velikanov (Lorraine), “Texte avec ‘x-reader’: un genre immersif de la fanfiction”

Q+A

Keynote 1: Michèle Bacholle

7:00 p.m. (UK); 2:00 p.m. (US Eastern Daylight); 5:00 a.m. (Brisbane, Aust.).

Chair: Beth Kearney

Michèle Bacholle (Eastern Connecticut), “Losing (and Finding) Oneself in the Lives of Others and in Photo-texts: Isabelle Monnin and Clara Beaudoux”

Q+A

Day Two: Friday 14th January

Start Times: 8:00 a.m. (UK);  7:00 p.m. (Australia – Syd./Melb./Can.).

Keynote 2: Alexandra Kurmann

Chair: Françoise Campbell

Alexandra Kurmann (Macquarie), “Immersion in Literature as Other: The Sartrean Gaze and the Production of Empathetic Reader-Consciousness”

Q+A

Panel 3: Disruptive Waters: Maternity and Political Protest

9:15 a.m. (UK); 8:15 p.m. (Australia – Syd./Melb./Can.).

Chair: Egle Kackute

Josephine Goldman (Sydney), “Intertextual mothering in Guy Gabon’s “La montée des eaux” and Maryse Condé’s En attendant la montée des eaux”

Dakshayani Shankar (Emory), “Womb as Forestry: Feminine Tyranny battling African Despotism in Sony Labou Tansi’s La Vie et demie”

Q+A

Panel 4: Land, Water and Gender

10:30 a.m. (UK).

Chair: Caroline Verdier

Dalila Villella (London), “Maestri’s land-textes: an instrument to rethink social relations and female identity”

Elly Walters (Oxford), “Water and mental unhealth in Amélie Nothomb’s Soif (2019) and Marie Darrieussecq’s La Mer à l’envers (2019)”

Q+A

Day Three: Saturday 15th January

Start Times: 10:00 a.m. (UK); 9:00 p.m. (Australia – Syd./Melb./Can.); 5:00 a.m. (US Eastern Daylight).

Keynote 3: Diana Holmes

Chair: Polly Galis

Diana Holmes (Leeds), “The everyday miracle of reading fiction (and Leila Slimani’s turn to the family saga)”

Q+A

Panel 5: Immersive Cinema

11:15 a.m. (UK); 10:15 p.m. (Australia – Syd./Melb./Can.); 6:15 a.m. (US Eastern Daylight).

Chair: TBC

Sophie Coombs (Queensland), “Portrait de la Cinéaste en tant que Jeune Femme : a Re-reading of Chantal Akerman’s News from Home (1976) as a Journey to Artistic Subjectivity”

Maddalena Eccher (Goldsmiths), “‘Another Word Another Image’: Poetic and Visual Experimentation in the Transformative Narratives of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha”

Alice Hagopian (St Andrews), “Who is Madame Bovary’s Bad Reader? Reflecting on Immersion and the Ethics of Reading with Anne Fontaine’s 2014 Film” 

Q+A

New publication: Nicolas Baudin’s voyage to Australia and the pursuit of science

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We wish to draw attention to this new publication of a volume of essays, ‘Roaming Freely Throughout the Universe’: Nicolas Baudin’s Voyage to Australia and the Pursuit of Science, co-edited by former ASFS President Professor Jean Fornasiero and long-time ASFS member Professor John West-Sooby.

The Age of Exploration not only paved the way for European conquest and trade, it also widened the horizons of science. By the second half of the eighteenth century, the link between travel and science was so widely acknowledged that it had become routine practice to include naturalists in all major voyages of exploration.

The need to study natural phenomena in situ might seem self-evident. Some, however, considered that the main purpose of fieldwork was to collect specimens for the dispassionate examination of specialists back home. Truly meaningful study, they argued, required the kinds of resources that were not available to those in the field. As the renowned French naturalist Georges Cuvier put it, ‘it is only in one’s study that one can roam freely throughout the universe’.

In the context of this debate, Nicolas Baudin’s voyage of discovery to Australia (1800-1804), which included both specialist field collectors and aspiring young savants, proved pivotal. Drawing on a range of archival sources, the essays presented here offer fresh perspectives on Baudin’s scientific voyagers, their work and its legacy. What emerges is a deeper appreciation of the Baudin expedition’s contribution to the pursuit of science, and of those who pursued it.

Please consider ordering this publication for your university’s library.

Maisons de Poètes / Homes of Poets – Entretiens (in) situ

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Suite au récent lancement de leur Carnet Hypothèses Maisons de Poètes / Homes of Poets (https://maphopes.hypotheses.org/), Marie-Clémence Régnier (Université d’Artois) et Bertrand Bourgeois (The University of Melbourne) sont heureux de vous annoncer la création d’une rubrique “entretiens (in) situ”.

La première série d’entretiens podcastés « Maisons de poètes hors les murs » porte sur les entreprises contemporaines de valorisation de Maisons de poètes qui interrogent la « dématérialisation », la « déconstruction », voire la « destruction » au propre comme au figuré, des maisons originelles, soit que la valorisation se fasse hors site (musée, galerie…), soit « virtuellement » grâce à des dispositions numériques (« e-musée », « visite virtuelle » par exemple).

Le premier podcast vidéo vous propose une présentation de l’e-musée Annie Ernaux par sa fondatrice et curatrice, Michèle Bacholle (Professor of French Studies, Eastern Connecticut State University), suivie d’un entretien avec Michèle Bacholle. Les vidéos de la présentation et de l’entretien peuvent être visionnées ici : https://maphopes.hypotheses.org/ateliers   

Un second podcast vidéo constitué d’une présentation du site andrebreton.fr et d’un entretien avec sa curatrice, Constance Krebs, sera très prochainement mis en ligne.

***

Following the recent launch of their research blog Maisons de Poètes / Homes of Poets (https://maphopes.hypotheses.org/), Marie-Clémence Régnier (Université d’Artois) and Bertrand Bourgeois (The University of Melbourne) are pleased to announce the creation of a new “entretiens (in) situ/interviews (in) situ” section.

The first series of video podcast interviews “Homes of poets beyond the walls” examines contemporary projects based on Homes of Poets that explore, literally and figuratively, the “dematerialisation”, “deconstruction” or even the “destruction” of the original houses – whether it be through off-site activities (such as in museums, galleries, or installations) or through digital ventures (e-museums, virtual visits, etc.).

The first two video podcasts include a virtual presentation of the Annie Ernaux e-museum and an interview with e-curator Michèle Bacholle (Professor of French Studies, Eastern Connecticut State University). You can watch both videos here: https://maphopes.hypotheses.org/ateliers.

The next forthcoming video podcast will be devoted to the andrebreton.fr site and will include an interview with its curator, Constance Krebs.

Conference, Nov 20-23: ‘Life Writing: Transnationalism, Translingualism, Transculturalism’

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Colleagues are invited to attend the fourth IABA – Asia Pacific conference, which focuses on the theme of life narratives, encompassing a variety of languages, nations, and media forms.

Transnationalism is an increasingly popular phenomenon, reflecting and responding to the heightened interconnectivity between people and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation states. The current global pandemic has brought issues of interconnectivity sharply into question. In this context, this conference will explore life narratives across a broad variety of contexts.

By discussing life narratives, including in a variety of languages, this conference aims to expand the boundaries of literary studies and its relationships with other media and nations.

The conference will be held in two modes, incorporating face to face and zoom sessions. The face to face location will be announced to registrants, and a zoom link will be circulated to those who plan to attend online.

Conference Dates: 20-23 November 2021

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

Prof. Ricia Chansky, University of Puerto Rico,

Prof. Anne Pender, University of Adelaide

Prof. Liu Jialin, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Prof. Kate Douglas, Flinders University

Organising Committee:

Professor Natalie Edwards natalie.edwards@adelaide.edu.au, Dr. Christopher Hogarth christopher.hogarth@unisa.edu.au, Dr. Kylie Cardell kylie.cardell@flinders.edu.au, Professor Kate Douglas kate.douglas@flinders.edu.au

IABA Asia-Pacific emerges from the central disciplinary association for auto/biography scholars—The International Auto/Biography Association (IABA). IABA was founded in 1999 as a multidisciplinary network that aims to deepen the cross-cultural understanding of self, identity and experience, and to carry on global dialogues about life writing/narrative. IABA Asia-Pacific aims to foster new region-specific conversations and to encourage regional participation in the global IABA conference. Our goal is to develop scholarly networks between life narrative scholars and practitioners in the Asia-Pacific region that support the circulation and publication of high-quality life narrative theory, practice, and pedagogy.

This conference forms part of an Australian Research Council funded Discovery Project on Transnational Narratives of Migration to Australia (Natalie Edwards and Christopher Hogarth, DP190102863). Visit our website here.

Header image photo by Dariusz Sankowski via Unsplash.