SASA 2022 Conference Theme: Resistance and (Re)Generation

With authoritarianism and nationalism on the rise in the US and abroad in recent years, “resistance” has become a keyword for activists, stressing the importance of organized, conscience-based opposition to governmental oppression. Resistance can take many forms, including traditional and nontraditional public protest, liberation pedagogy, and a variety of artistic expressions. Resistance responds not only to the actions of governments but also to broader power structures (economic, racial, gendered) that support violence and oppression. “(Re)Generation” signals the productive aspect of resistance — resistance as building, energizing, and creating, not simply opposing. “Generation,” of course, also brings to mind the demographics of age and the interactions (sometimes productive, sometimes fraught) among different “generations” of activists and scholars.

For the 2022 SASA conference, we are inviting interdisciplinary papers and roundtables that explore moments (literary, historical, cultural) of resistance and regeneration within national and transnational contexts. And we welcome papers and sessions that explore how scholars’ research, teaching, and/or service perform meaningful cultural work within and beyond their particular academic settings. Further, we ask scholars to consider where and how that public intellectualism/public scholarship fits into the research and teaching agendas of American Studies scholars. 

For more information, read the CFP.