CFP: AMERICAN PLAY: SPORTS, GAMES, ENTERTAINMENT, AND FANTASY IN AMERICAN CULTURE

CFP: AMERICAN PLAY: SPORTS, GAMES, ENTERTAINMENT, AND FANTASY IN AMERICAN CULTURE

A special international conference jointly sponsored by the Middle Atlantic
American Studies Association (http://www.hbg.psu.edu/hbg/research/maasa) and the Great Lakes American Studies Association (http://www.ohiou.edu/glasa) in Rochester, New York,
USA, in cooperation with the Strong National Museum of Play.

Date of Conference: April 4-5, 2008
Deadline for Submission of Proposals: December 14, 2007
Electronic Submission: massa_glasa08@yahoo.com
Location: Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester, New York
(http://www.strongmuseum.org) USA.
Conference Hotel: Hyatt Regency Rochester
Contact: Professor Simon J. Bronner, American Studies Program, The Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, 777 West Harrisburg Pike, Middletown, PA 17057-4898 USA, 717-948-6039 (o), 717-948-6724 (fax), sbronner@psu.edu.


Proposals for papers and presentations are invited for a special conference addressing the theme of American Play: Sports, Games, Entertainment, and Fantasy in American Culture to be held at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, April 4-5, 2008. Play is conceived broadly in this call and proposals are invited that explore and expand the definition and application of play in American Studies. The organizers are especially interested in interdisciplinary perspectives on play across the life span, including adulthood and old age; cultural meaning of play and entertainment in theme parks, film, literature, television, advertising, and political protest; uses of fantasy in new media and technology,
including video gaming and the Internet; material and visual culture of play, including toys, furniture, dress and the body, costuming, sports, and board games, for adults as well as children; the topography of play, including parks, stadiums, playgrounds, and gyms; play in consumer
culture, including intertextual connections between merchandise and film, music, advertising, and television; relationships between play and work, and the idea of leisure and recreational industries as they have historically emerged in the United States and its border regions,
especially in Canada; verbal play, including humor, speech, jokelore, and legendry; intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and age in sports and recreation; the ethnography of play behavior, especially controversial traditions such as pranks, hazing, gestures, and extreme
sports; comparative cultural analyses of games, sports, and entertainment in the United States and other countries.

Proposals for individual papers and presentations (15-30 minutes for each presentation, depending on the number of presenters in a session) should include one sheet with title, name and affiliation of author, and 150-300 word abstract. Another sheet should include a brief CV
or biographical statement with full contact information of the presenter, including email.
Proposals for panels, roundtables, and workshops should include a summary of the panel's concept and a list of participants and special roles (chair, discussant, respondent). Send materials by email BEFORE DECEMBER 14, 2007 to maasa_glasa08@yahoo.com. Proposals will be evaluated by a program committee composed of representatives from the sponsoring
organizations of the Middle Atlantic American Studies Association and the Great Lakes American Studies Association, and notices will be sent to presenters in February 2008.

Publication of papers from the conference will be encouraged. Presenters will be invited to submit papers for a special issue subject to peer review in the American Journal of Play, edited by Dr. Jon-Paul Dyson. The American Journal of Play is intended to increase national awareness and understanding of the critical role of play in learning and human development and the way in which play illuminates the cultural history of the United States.

The setting of the Strong National Museum of Play is significant for this conference because it is the first and only major museum in the world devoted to the study and interpretation of play. The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York (already home to the National Toy Hall of Fame and the world's most comprehensive collection of toys, dolls, and other play-related artifacts) nearly doubled in size in 2006 to 282,000 square feet after a $37 million expansion.
Attendees at the conference will have an opportunity to tour the collections of the museum
in addition to having the benefit of free admission to the exhibitions. To encourage family participation, the Strong National Museum of Play will extend a 50 percent discount to family members accompanying attendees (an adult needs to accompany visitors under 17). Rochester
is also an attractive destination for American Studies students and scholars because
of famed material and visual cultural institutions, such as the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, Genesee Country Village and Museum, Susan B. Anthony House, Mount Hope Cemetery, and the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester. Significant nearby attractions include the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, Corning Museum of Glass, Hill Cumorah-Mormon Historical Site, Sonnenberg Gardens Mansion State Historic Park, and the Jell-O Gallery. The setting of the Strong National Museum of Play is also significant in its representation of the collaboration of public heritage professionals, academic institutions, and community scholars that has been a priority of the sponsoring organizations. The organizers especially want to encourage opportunities for exchanges among
public and academic sectors and lively discussions among participants on the theme of play. It
is a theme, the organizers want to emphasize, that merits interpretive work characteristic of American Studies as play affects significant aspects of American life and letters, including public
policy, education, family and human development, environment, and media.


For more information, contact Simon J. Bronner at
sbronner@psu.edu
Simon J. Bronner, Ph.D.
Distinguished University Professor of American Studies
and Folklore
Coordinator, American Studies Program
Director, Center for Pennsylvania Culture Studies
The Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg
777 West Harrisburg Pike
Middletown, PA 17057-4898
717-948-6039 (o)
717-948-6724 (fax)
sbronner@psu.edu

CFP: Fun and Games: The Principle of Pleasure in Art and Architecture

CFP: Fun and Games: The Principle of Pleasure in Art and Architecture
Location: Iowa, United States
Call for Papers Date: December 7, 2007
Conference Date: March 7-8, 2008

CALL FOR PAPERS:
Fun and Games: The Principle of Pleasure in Art and Architecture 23rd Annual Graduate Art History Symposium, 7-8 March 2008
The University of Iowa School of Art and Art History, Iowa City, Iowa
Keynote address: Professor Margaretta M. Lovell (The University of California at Berkeley), “Winslow Homer, the Adirondack Mountains, and the Great Camps: Scenes of Instruction, Predation, and Play”

Art and architecture are serious stuff. We have no time for fun and games. Or do we? References to play, entertainment, and leisure abound in the discipline—from an Athenian amphora adorned with dice players and signed by Exekias to enigmatic Maya “ballcourts”; from Judith Leyster’s paintings of comic figures to woodblock views of festivals by Utagawa Hiroshige; from Marcel Duchamp’s “malic” chessmen to much of Claes Oldenberg’s entire oeuvre. In the last half a century or so, an interest in the subject has permeated the scholarly literature and become integral to a range of methodological approaches. Robert Venturi offered lessons on the forms of the Las Vegas Strip, while T.J. Clark drank in the leisure activities of modern life. And Jacques Derrida took pleasure in jouissance, while Henry Louis Gates “signified” a provocative reading of African American trickster figures.

The graduate students of The University of Iowa Art History Society have decided that it is high time we made time to consider this zenith of “lowbrow” subject matter. AHS hereby solicits applications for participation in our 2008 graduate student symposium on Fun and Games: The Principle of Pleasure in Art. Papers may treat works of any genre, historical period, or geographical designation. Proposals must take the form detailed below. Final papers must be 20-25 minutes in length. Proposals must be postmarked by December 7, 2007.

Topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:
●Art that treats, or relates to, pleasure, play, leisure, and entertainment (subjects might include tourism, sports, reading, shopping, games, dancing, music, gardening, or humor)
● “Entertainment architecture”—spaces and places created for amusement, sport, or leisure activities (for example, museums, opera houses, festivals, world fairs, tourist attractions, and gardens)
●Artists/architects as entertainers

Proposals must include the following components:

●A 1-2 page, double-spaced abstract following The Chicago Manual of Style guidelines
●A copy of the applicant’s curriculum vitae
●A brief letter of support from the applicant’s graduate advisor Proposals should be sent, as hard copies, to the following address:

● Attn: Megan Masana
The University of Iowa
School of Art and Art History
150 Art Building West
Iowa City, Iowa 52245-7000

With the authors’ permission, a selection of participants’ papers will be published in Montage, the online journal of The University of Iowa Art History Society (http://www.uiowa.edu/~montage/). AHS will provide a small honorarium to accepted participants, as our final budget permits; further information will be provided upon acceptance. Participants will be required to submit their papers, in full, four weeks prior to the event. For more information, contact Symposium Chair Megan Masana, at masanam@aol.com.

Attn: Megan Masana
The University of Iowa
School of Art and Art History
150 Art Building West
Iowa City, Iowa 52245-7000
email: masana@mchsi.com
Email: masanam@aol.com

Visit the website at http://http://www.uiowa.edu/~montage/symposium/2007/