Themes & Call for Papers

From the Boer War to the Great War, and from the Russo-Japanese conflict to the Amritsar Massacre and anti-colonial uprisings, modernism and modernity are shaped by processes of upheaval and reconstruction. Yet while modernism is often treated as an artistic and literary movement characterized by conflict, violence, and despair, it nonetheless strove towards renewed hope and positive transformation. Indeed, such turmoil and upheaval prompted modernist artists, writers, and thinkers to reevaluate human behaviour and cultural expression, and to reimagine the world. At the centenary of the 1919 peace conference, MSA Toronto calls for a broader consideration of processes of upheaval and reconstruction with respect to understanding modernism and modernity at various times and across global spaces. As one of the world’s most culturally diverse cities, Toronto is a fitting venue for investigating and promoting a more complex and inclusive modernism, in which disruption is also a site for expansion, and expansion is joined with processes of inclusion and renewal. The conference invites examinations of literary, visual, performative, curatorial, technological, philosophical and cultural upheaval and reconstruction while exploring the tensions underlying these processes that modernist texts and artworks variously expose, contest, internalize, or overcome. Topics might include:

• Altered identities and communities
• The pain of others and healing
• Ecological disaster and repair
• Grief and reparative commemoration
• Gender, sexuality, and the refashioned body
• Modeling conflict resolution
• Networked communicative systems
• Reconfiguring home
• Revolution and aftermath
• Migration, diversity, and inclusion
• Modalities of decolonization
• Appropriation, expropriation, and reconciliation
• Intersections of apocalypse and utopia

We also invite proposals that speak to two special “streams” that are designed to encourage interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches:

“Indigeneity” which invites attention to the roles of gender, sexuality, class, race, and region; epistemologies and ontologies; artistic and cultural forms; questions of firstness; institutions and legal systems; territoriality; allotment and citizenship; decolonization; renewal and resurgence; and restorative justice and reconciliation.

"Making Modernism in/out of Canada," which explores anthologies, serials, editorial practices, intermediality, national identity, separatism, American domination, architecture, environmentalism, exportation, and movement and migration.

If you are interested in proposing a panel or roundtable to be linked to either of these streams, please make this clear in your proposal.

In order to encourage more international participation, to increase interdisciplinary reach, and to foster more vertically integrated sessions that put younger scholars together with more established ones, the MSA is for the first time inviting individual paper proposals that are not a part of a pre-constituted roundtable or panel proposal. While pre-constituted roundtable and panel proposals do not necessarily need to address one of the conference streams, individual paper proposals must speak directly to one of this year’s conference streams. The MSA Program Committee will vet these individual proposals and organize them into panels and roundtables as appropriate.

The conference organizers for “Upheaval and Reconstruction” thus invite proposals for seminars and workshops (due January 25), individual papers tied to one of the conference streams (due February 8), and panels, roundtables, and digital exhibits (due March 8). We encourage proposals relevant to the conference theme but panel, seminar, and roundtable proposals on all topics related to modernism are welcome. The primary criterion for selection in all categories will be the quality of the proposal, not its relevance to the conference theme. Individuals seeking to create or to participate in a pre-constituted panel or roundtable are encouraged to visit the MSA CFP page or the MSA Facebook page for guidelines on how to develop or promote a panel or roundtable.

All proposals of all types must include requests for AV provisions and disability accommodations.

The MSA values diversity of national origin, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, migration status, ability, class, employment status, and other forms of identity. We encourage conference participants and organizers to take this into account when making proposals for the MSA annual conference.

Hosted by the Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre at Ryerson University, with a coalition of English and Language Departments at the University of Toronto, OCAD University, and York University, this conference takes place at the Chelsea Hotel at 33 Gerrard Street West in downtown Toronto.

Because we wish to involve as many active participants as possible, the MSA limits multiple appearances on the program. Thus, you may participate once, but only once, in each of the following categories:

• Seminar, either as leader or as participant
• Panel or roundtable, as participant (you may also chair a different panel or roundtable)
• “What Are You Reading?” session

For instance, you may lead a seminar, present a paper on a panel, and participate in a “What Are You Reading” session, but you may not present two papers (ie, you may not present a paper on a roundtable and also on a panel). MSA rules do not allow panel or roundtable organizers to chair their own session if they are also speaking in the session. The session chair must be someone who is otherwise not participating in the session. Panel organizers are encouraged to identify a moderator and include this information with their proposals; the MSA Program Committee can also ask another conference attendee to serve as a moderator. Participation in a pre-conference workshop or in a digital exhibition does not constrain other forms of participation.

All those who attend the MSA conference must be members of the organization with dues paid for 2019-2020 (MSA membership runs from July 1 until June 30 each year.) For information on the MSA, please check the website. Participants are expected to present in person.

All queries should be directed to info@msatoronto2019.org or submitted through our contact form.