Tuesday, February 11, 2014

CFP for MLA 2015: Libraries, Archives and Public Memory (Modern Language Association - Vancouver, BC, Canada)

CFP for MLA 2015: Libraries, Archives and Public Memory

How do libraries and archives function as sites for preserving and constructing public memory?
Libraries, archives and other institutions (such as museums, cemeteries, heritage sites, and monuments) all function as sites where the public memory of individuals, events, and cultures are constructed and preserved. One might also add that libraries and archives in shaping memory also shape what is forgotten and repressed. This session is looking for papers that engage the many ways libraries and archives contribute to our understanding and misunderstanding of people, events, and cultures, as, for instance, that of first-nations and first-peoples. How do libraries and archives express and repress public memory? What are the ethical and technical issues involved in building and providing access to materials that will constitute public memory? What is the experience of scholars using library and archival collections as they create their own forms of public memory (articles, books)?
Send one page abstracts by 24 February 2014; David Oberhelman (d.oberhelman@okstate.edu).