Masters level graduate students have been graciously invited to submit abstracts for consideration at the 5th annual Queens College Graduate conference. This local conference represents an excellent opportunity for St. John’s University graduate students to gain important experience and make connections in their academic careers.

Please see the CFP in its entirety below.

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Shattering Silences

Challenging Traditions, Inventing Worlds
Conference Date: Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Keynote Speaker: Sarah Blackwood, Associate Professor of English, Pace University

Submission Deadline: February 28, 2018

The fifth annual Queens College English Graduate Center Conference comes at a time where
voices of the disenfranchised are finding the courage to speak out against sexual misconduct
and harassment in the workplace. Time Magazine’s 2017 Person of the Year highlights these
brave figures as the silence breakers because their voices have sparked a movement in
entertainment that has spread to other industries. Many women and men have been silenced by
discriminatory transgressions for fear of losing their careers, trustworthiness, and respect
among peers. However, those who have come forward by vocalizing these indiscretions
demonstrate the power in numbers, and their fearlessness creates a platform for others to break
their silence. This year’s conference hopes to continue the momentum by exploring texts, that
have been muted, subordinated, censored, and repressed by social, political, and economic
powerhouses. In what ways have writers throughout history broken their silence? How have
writers worked with and against various genres and forms to convey their message? We want
to engage in a conversation not only about how texts and readers respond to pervasive, often
oppressive beliefs, but the process of resisting those beliefs and working against accepted
cultural norms.

 Silenced Voices
• Feminist Interventions
• Queer Dissent
• Children’s Narratives
• Intersectional Analysis

Bodies and Space
• Transnational Subjects
• Migrant Imaginaries
• Disability and the Body
• The Body, Science, and Literature

Literary Disobedience
• Resisting Censorship
• Building Institutions
• Authenticating Lives
• Speaking Truth to Power

Genre Trouble
• Hybrid Texts
• Popular Literature
• Comics and Graphic Narratives
• Experimental Memoir

To Submit a Proposal
Please send proposals of 250 words or fewer to QCEnglishMAconference@gmail.com by
February 28, 2018. Proposals should be pasted in the body of the email. Please include your full
name and the name of your program and school. All Queens College MA, MFA, and MS Ed
students are welcome to submit, as well as master’s students from other universities. If you
have any questions, please email QCEnglishMAconference@gmail.com.

Keynote Speaker Biography
Sarah Blackwood is Associate Professor of English and Director of American Studies at Pace
University. She researches and teaches American literature, culture, and art with a particular
focus on nineteenth-century visual culture, African American literature, and the history of inner
life. She is currently working on a monograph titled The Portrait’s Subject: Inventing Inner Life in

Nineteenth-Century America. She is co-founder and co-editor of the web magazine Avidly and co-
editor of the book series (NYU Press) Avidly Reads. She writes literary and cultural criticism regularly for national outlets.