The Annual Conference of the Polish Association for American Studies
organized jointly with the International American Studies Association
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QUICK LINKS:
– Conference Details
– Call for Papers
– Keynote Speakers
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CONFERENCE DETAILS:
Dates: September 25-27, 2024
Deadline for submissions: May 15th, 2024
Deadline for confirmation of acceptance: May 30th, 2024
Deadline for fee transfer: June 15th, 2024
Deadline for the submission of complete articles for journals: November 15th, 2024
Format: Hybrid (Online/On-site Options)
On Site Venue:
University of Białystok,
Faculty of Education,
ul. Świerkowa 20,
15-328 Białystok,
Poland
Conference Languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French
Websites:
https://hospitality-paas.pl
https://iasa-world.org/american-hospitality/
Registration form – CLICK HERE
Organized by:
Polish Association for American Studies and International American Studies Association
Co-Hosted by:
Department of North American Literatures, Faculty of Philology, University of Białystok, Poland
Institute of Literary Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Silesia in Katowice
Academic Board of the Conference:
Chairperson:
Marek Paryż (University of Warsaw, Poland)
Members:
Ewelina Bańka (The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland)
Stefan L. Brandt (University of Graz, Austria)
Gabriela Vargas-Cetina (Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mexico)
Mariya Doğan (Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Turkey)
Edyta Frelik (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland)
Tomasz Jacheć (University of Warmia and Mazury, Poland)
Izabella Kimak (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland)
Katarzyna Macedulska (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland)
Elisabetta Marino (Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, Italy)
Nathaniel R. Racine (Texas A&M International University, USA)
Ahmad Ishtiaque Tapadar (Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Dwarka, New Delhi, India)
György “George” Tóth (University of Stirling, Scotland, UK)
Organizing Committee:
Conveners: Jacek Partyka and Paweł Jędrzejko
Members: Sylwia Borowska-Szerszun, Ewelina Feldman-Kołodziejuk, Marcelina Kalinowska, Jerzy Kamionowski, Anna Maria Karczewska, Magdalena Łapińska, Weronika Łaszkiewicz, Tomasz Sawczuk
On Site Venue:
University of Białystok, Faculty of Education, ul. Świerkowa 20, 15-328 Białystok, Poland
On-Line Links:
To be announced for individual sessions
CALL FOR PAPERS:
In today’s rapidly changing global landscape, hospitality emerges as a pivotal focus in academic discourse, especially within Western geopolitical contexts. Hospitality, as a mode of conduct, garners both ardent enthusiasm and staunch opposition. As a concept, it presents both notable limitations and diverse modalities. This multidimensional notion encompasses a right, a privilege, an obligation, an act of sympathy, and an expression of charity. It shapes and is shaped by various environments, from tangible spaces and places to non-places and heterotopias. Its expansive research potential warrants a thorough, interdisciplinary exploration.
Recent philosophical discussions of hospitality have expanded and deepened, exploring its various dimensions in the context of ethics, politics, cultural studies, and social theory. Among many others, Jacques Derrida, exploring the concept of unconditional hospitality, emphasizes ethical and moral considerations, and questions the limits of our responsibility towards the other; Emmanuel Levinas, known for his ethics of the Other, posits that ethical responsibility to the other is the fundamental basis of selfhood and human interaction, which can be extended to the notion of hospitality as an ethical obligation to welcome and care for the Other; our own Tadeusz Sławek explores the concept of be-little-ment in relation to the Other, and follows Thoreau’s observation of the need to intently listen to the “friend across the pond.” Stemming from Kant’s idea of “world citizenship,” cosmopolitan approaches to hospitality focus on global ethics and responsibilities. It expands the concept of hospitality beyond individual or national gestures to a global scale, advocating for a world where individuals and states are hospitable to all, irrespective of national boundaries, which resonates well with the emerging view of hospitality as a human right – especially relevant in discussions about refugees and migrants. Last but not least, postcolonial and decolonial theories bring a critical view of hospitality into focus, examining how historical contexts of colonialism impact contemporary attitudes and practices of hospitality. This includes a critique of power dynamics and how the legacy of colonialism might influence who is considered “welcome” and who is not. The inability of the leading Western governments to prevent wars has led to the displacement of millions and the global migration of hundreds of thousands of refugees to those very countries, with their responses often further polarizing societies into Willkommenskultur and solidarity versus political populism and xenophobia.
One should also remember that in a world of increasing cross-cultural interactions, hospitality is seen as a vital component of intercultural dialogue and understanding. In our explorations, we wish to focus on how hospitality can bridge cultural divides and foster mutual respect and understanding. Furthermore, with the advent of digital communication and social media, new forms of hospitality have emerged, which begs the question of how virtual spaces can be hospitable or inhospitable and how digitalization changes the way we interact and welcome others. Finally, the emerging field of critical hospitality studies intersects hospitality with critical theory, examining the underlying assumptions, power structures, and societal norms that shape hospitality practices. Seeking to unpack and critique the often-unspoken rules and expectations that govern how hospitality is extended and received, we adopt hemispheric, transoceanic, and trans-local perspectives to answer some of the burning questions of the 21st century.
Conference Aim:
We invite scholars representing disciplines including, but not limited to, literary studies, cultural studies, international politics, ethnology, anthropology, sociology, religious studies, history, historiography, and cultural geography to contribute papers that explore the multifaceted nature of hospitality, both in the context of the US, but also in the context of hemispheric and transoceanic relations of the Americas.
Key Themes:
– Dynamics and Possibilities of Hospitality
– Myths and Realities of American Hospitality
– Aporias and Complexities within Hospitality
– Spatial Dimensions of Hospitality
– Historical Perspectives on Hospitality
– Reinterpretations and Evolutions of Hospitality
– Modalities and Manifestations of Hospitality
– Interplay of Contemporary Hospitality and Historical Contexts
– Sociopolitical Facets of Hospitality
– Intersections of Hospitality with Race, Gender, and Religious Hegemony
– Discursive Constructions of Hospitality
– Historiographical Approaches to Hospitality
– Cultural and Literary Representations of Hospitality
– Hospitality in Visual Arts and Media
– Ecological Considerations of Hospitality
– Philosophical Underpinnings of Hospitality
– Commercial Aspects of Hospitality (Tourism and Travel)
We also invite proposals on other topics in American studies.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Rebecca A. Kobrin (Columbia University, USA) — to be confirmed
Rebecca Kobrin is the Russell and Bettina Knapp Associate Professor of American Jewish History. She works in the fields of immigration history, urban studies, business history, East European history and American Jewish History, specializing in modern Jewish migration. She received her B.A. (1994) from Yale University and her Ph.D. (2002) from the University of Pennsylvania. She served as the Blaustein Post-Doctoral Fellow at Yale University (2002-2004) and the American Academy of Jewish Research Post-Doctoral Fellow at New York University (2004-6). Her book Jewish Bialystok and Its Diaspora (Indiana University Press, 2010) was awarded the Jordan Schnitzer prize (2012). She is the editor of Chosen Capital: The Jewish Encounter with American Capitalism (Rutgers University Press, 2012), Salo Baron: Using the Past to Shape the Future of Jewish Studies in America (Columbia University Press, 2022) and is co-editor with Adam Teller of Purchasing Power: The Economics of Jewish History (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015). In 2015, she was awarded Columbia University’s Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award for her outstanding teaching and graduate student mentoring. Her forthcoming book, A Credit to the Nation: East European Immigrant Bankers and American Finance, 1870-1930 (Harvard University Press, 2024), looks at the lost world of immigrant banking and brings together the literature on American banking, East European Jewish history, and immigration studies. She is one of the principal investigators leading the award-winning digital humanities Historical NYC Project, an award-winning map that visualizes the demographic and spatial changes wrought in New York City between 1850 and 1940.
Saniye Bilge Mutluay Çetintaş (Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Turkey)
Saniye Bilge Mutluay Çetintaş, the President of the International American Studies Association, is an Associate Professor at the Department of American Culture and Literature, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. She received her MA from the University of Maryland at College Park and her Ph.D. from the department where she currently teaches. Her areas of interest include American folk music, cultural studies, literary theory and criticism, contemporary American novel, and life writing. She has published several journal and book articles on related subjects. Her recent book is entitled Geçmişin Öyküleri, Öykülerin Geçmişi: Çağdaş Amerikan Romanlarında Tarihin Sorgulanması (The Stories of the Past, The Past of the Stories: Questioning History in Contemporary American Novels). She received a Fulbright scholarship and conducted research on contemporary American women’s life writing at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Karolina Krasuska (University of Warsaw, Poland)
Karolina Krasuska is Associate Professor at the American Studies Center, University of Warsaw, Poland and the founder of the research group Gender/Sexuality at the ASC. Her research areas include twenty- and twenty-first-century transnational literature, centrally Jewish American literature, and gender/queer studies. She graduated from European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder (2011), was Visiting Fellow at SUNY Buffalo (2007, 2008), and a member of the research group Gender as a Category of Knowledge, Humboldt University, Berlin (2005-2008). Her research has been funded by Heinrich Bőll Stiftung, Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Scholarship for Outstanding Young Scholars), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, National Science Centre, and the Koret Foundation. She is the author of a 2012 Polish-language monograph examining modernist texts from a transnational, gender-oriented perspective and a co-editor of Women and the Holocaust: New Perspectives and Challenges (2015). Her two recent books Soviet-Born: The Afterlives of Migration in Jewish American Fiction (2024) and Poradzieckie (2021) expand her transnational literature interests into the twenty-first century. Karolina Krasuska also translates gender/queer theory into Polish, including Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble (2008). She currently serves as a co-chair of the Gender and Sexuality Division at the Association for Jewish Studies as well as sits on the Executive Committee of the Jewish American Literature Forum of the Modern Language Association.
BECOME A MEMBER TO REDUCE YOUR CONFERENCE FEES:
– Join IASA – CLICK HERE
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CONFERENCE FEES:
On Site Tenured Faculty – Member of PAAS or IASA – 100 EUR
On Site Junior Faculty – Member of PAAS or IASA – 70 EUR
On Site Ph.D. Student – Member of PAAS or IASA – 40 EUR
Online Participant – Member of PAAS or IASA – 30 EUR
On Site Participant Unaffiliated with PAAS or IASA – Conference Fee 150 EUR
Online Participant Unaffiliated with PAAS or IASA – 75 EUR
Conference fees include:
a) Conference materials / Online access
b) Coffee breaks / snacks
c) Conference certrificates
Conference fees do NOT include:
a) Travel costs
b) Accommodation costs
c) Insurance costs
d) Meals
FEE TRANSFER INFORMATION
Wire transfer only:
Recipient:
Uniwersytet w Białymstoku
ul. Świerkowa 20 B
15-328 Białystok
Bank name: Bank Millennium S.A.
Bank address: Stanisława Żaryna 2A, 02-593 Warszawa
IBAN account numer: PL 74 1160 2202 0000 0002 4179 4476
SWIFT code: BIGBPLPW
Country of recipient: Poland
Payment description: “American Hospitality +your LAST NAME”
VISA AND TRAVEL INFORMATION
– Do I need a visa to travel to Poland? (CLICK)
– The Polish Government Visa Information for Persons Traveling to Poland (CLICK)
– The Polish Government Coronavirus-19 Information and Recommendations for Travelers (CLICK)
– Białystok Travel Information (CLICK)
– How to get to Białystok (CLICK)
ACCOMMODATION INFORMATION
Bearing in mind that in September 2024 Białystok will host a number of international conferences, it is highly recommended that you book your stay well ahead of time. The Conference organizers have secured discounted accommodations to be claimed with the password “Hospitality” until June 1st in the hotels listed below:
- Esperanto Hotel (8 double rooms) – CLICK HERE (Password “American Hospitality”)
- Best Western Hotel Cristal (10 single and 10 double rooms) – CLICK HERE – reserve by phone or email: +48 85 74961100, e-mail: recepcja@cristal.com.pl (Password: “Hospitality”)
- Hampton by Hilton Hotel Białystok – CLICK HERE FOR QUICK RESERVATION LINK / CLICK HERE FOR PRICELIST (Password “American Hospitality”)
- Hotel Pod Herbem (10 rooms) – CLICK HERE (Password “Hospitality”)
- Center for Orthodox Culture (6 single and 4 double rooms plus segments with shared bathrooms for groups) – CLICK HERE (Password “Hospitality”)
If you wish to use other types of accommodation, click on the links below:
– AIRBNB (CLICK)
– BOOKING COM (CLICK)
– A MAP OF HOTELS IN THE VICINITY OF THE VENUE (CLICK)
PUBLICATION OPPORTUNITIES:
Selected full-fledged papers will be considered for publication in two ranking journals:
Review of International American Studies
Crossroads. A Journal of English Studies
Please, observe the stylesheet and article size requirements (consult appropriate sections of the journal websites above)
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
– Abstract Length: 250-350 words
– Include: Author’s Name, Email Address, Affiliation, ORCID Number, Presentation Title, Presentation Abstract, 5 Keywords, and a 250-350 word Biographical Note.
– Formatting: MLA Handbook (9th edition) guidelines
– Image Submissions: Print quality (min. 300 dpi), with permissions/licenses for copyrighted material.
IMPORTANT: Incomplete submissions will be automatically rejected.
HOST UNIVERSITIES:
University of Białystok – CLICK HERE
University of Silesia in Katowice – CLICK HERE
CO-ORGANIZING INSTITUTIONS:
Polish Association for American Studies – CLICK HERE
International American Studies Association – CLICK HERE
TIME ZONE CONVERTER:
The Białystok time is Central European Time (CET) which is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. For online sessions, please coordinate your local time with the time in Białystok. When in doubt, please visit the following website or scan the QR code below:
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20230825T130000&p1=1447
REGISTRATION FORM – CLICK HERE