2021 APRIL 8-11, 2021 Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association ACLA 2021 | Virtual Meeting TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome to ACLA 2021 and Acknowledgments. ..................................................................................4 ACLA Board Members ..............................................................................................................................6 Conference Schedule in Brief ...................................................................................................................7 General Information ..................................................................................................................................9 Full Descriptions of Special Events and Sessions .................................................................................10 ACLA Code of Conduct ..........................................................................................................................18 Seminars in Detail: Stream A, 8:30 AM - 10:15 AM .......................................................................................................20 Stream B, 10:30 AM - 12:15 PM ......................................................................................................90 Stream C, 2:00 PM - 3:45 PM .........................................................................................................162 Stream D, 4:00 - 5:45 PM ................................................................................................................190 Split Stream A/A/B ..........................................................................................................................215 Split Stream B/B/B/C. ......................................................................................................................216 Split Stream B/B/B/D ......................................................................................................................217 Split Stream C/D ..............................................................................................................................219 Split Stream C/D/C ..........................................................................................................................220 Split Stream C/D/C/D .....................................................................................................................222 ACLA 2021 3 ACLA 2021 WELCOME AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS On behalf of the ACLA Board, I welcome you all to the first virtual annual meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association. We remain very grateful to all our members who have continued to support the ACLA during the global pandemic. Your generosity has allowed us, in turn, to support our membership at a time that has underscored the precarity of our work as we see humanities department budgets slashed and faculty furloughed or dismissed. It is in challenging times like this that one might question: what is the role of a learned society? Over the past year, we’ve seen the debilitating effects of racism and xenophobia that have rocked the streets of Minneapolis, Atlanta, Chicago, and beyond. This is a time for advancing comparative and cross-cultural study, for scrutinizing systems of power, and for challenging one another to think critically about our own cultural contexts and works. In this sense it is essential for societies like ours to persist and provide a space for scholars of all professional levels to meet and engage with one another. Towards this end, we cut registration fees in half this year to allow wider participation. We are also proud to announce that we have offered an unprecedented number of registration waivers to contingent faculty and graduate students with over 160 scholars adding an important perspective that might, otherwise, may not have been heard. I extend a warm invitation to you all as we welcome two creative writers to our Opening Ceremony on Thursday, April 8th (6:00 - 8:00pm CDT) whose works explore borders, bodies, gender and translation: Natalie Diaz and Cristina Rivera Garza. We continue to offer popular pre-conference events that are of particular interest to graduate students and early career scholars: a workshop on “Publishing Your First or Second Book” organized by the ACLA Publishing Committee featuring senior press editors; a workshop on “Publishing Your First Article” sponsored by the ADPCL; a workshop interrogating “The (Comparative Literature) Dissertation in Theory and Practice” organized by the ACLA Graduate Student Committee; and finally a workshop organized by the National Endowment for the Humanities on “Writing Successful NEH Grants for Faculty and Independent Scholars”. These concurrent workshops will take place on Thursday, April 8th (4:00 - 5:45pm CDT). On Friday, April 9th (12:15 - 1:45pm CDT), we will hold a lunchtime plenary where ACLA President Emeritus Waïl S. Hassan will present on “Geopolitics of Comparison: World Literature avant la lettre”. In the afternoon, we’ve scheduled a “Virtual Roundtable on Ethics of Graduate Advising” organized by our Graduate Student representatives. A plenary planned for Friday, April 9th (6:00-7:30pm CDT) will attend to “The Poetics of Protest, from Africa to Minneapolis,” featuring a conversation between Calvin Warren and R. A. Judy. In place of a keynote this year, we have organized a keynote panel with scholars who have published their first book which we expect will stimulate lively discussion on the topic of “Comparative Studies and the Politics, Logics and the Rhetoric of The New Distribution” (Saturday, April 10th, 12:15 - 1:45pm CDT). I would also draw your 4 ACLA 2021 attention to the ACLA Vice Presidential Panel “Geopolitics of Comparison around the World” (organized by ACLA Vice President Shu-mei Shih and ACLA President Emeritus Waïl S. Hassan) that will meet on April 9th, April 10th, and April 11th from 8:30am - 10:15am CDT. Finally, I sincerely hope that many of you will join me as we acknowledge the accomplishments of this year’s ACLA prize winners during the Presidential Address & Awards Ceremony planned for Saturday, April 10th, 6:00 - 7:30pm CDT. Each year our conference is a joint effort from the ACLA Board, our prize committees, dedicated volunteers, and our staff. Special thanks are due to Nicoletta Pireddu for overseeing the review of thousands of submissions to the conference as Program Committee Chair and Dina Al-Kassim who began her tenure as our new Secretary- Treasurer just this past year. I would also like to acknowledge our Chief Administrative Officer, Monica Felix, as well as our latest addition to the team, Brigid Kennedy, whose efforts were essential to pivoting to our virtual platform this year and overseeing a variety of conference planning logistics. I also thank the academic presses who have adapted to our virtual environment to participate in our Book Exhibit. I look forward to the many fascinating panels scheduled for this year’s conference and will count the days until next year’s meeting when we will meet in person again. Sincerely, Sangeeta Ray ACLA President Professor of English and Comparative Literature University of Maryland ACLA 2021 5 ACLA BOARD MEMBERS ACLA OFFICERS Sangeeta Ray President University of Maryland Shu-mei Shih Vice-President University of California, Los Angeles Rei Terada Second Vice-President University of California, Irvine Dina Al-Kassim Secretary-Treasurer University of British Columbia Monica Felix Chief Administrative Officer ACLA ADVISORY BOARD Waïl S. Hassan Thomas Beebee Past President ADPCL Representative University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Pennsylvania State University Jeffrey Sacks Omar Qaqish Nominations Committee Chair Graduate Committee Chair University of California, Riverside McGill University Walt Hunter Kanyin Ajayi Finance Committee Chair Graduate Student Representative Clemson University Harvard University Nicoletta Pireddu Program Committee Chair Georgetown University Monica Popescu Publications Committee Chair McGill University ACLA Board Elections are held every Fall. Self-nominations are welcome. 6 ACLA 2021 ACLA 2021 CONFERENCE SCHEDULE IN BRIEF For full details on special events and sessions, see page 10. To access all conference events, visit https://acla.secure-platform.com/ and log in using your acla.org account information. Click CONFERENCE SCHEDULE to view a calendar or use the keyword search. Click the Chat bubble in the bottom-right corner of the screen for assistance at any time during the conference. THURSDAY, APRIL 8TH *All times are in central time* 2:30 PM Registration opens 3:00 - 5:45 PM Book Exhibit 4:00 - 5:45 PM Pre-Conference Workshops (All four concurrent workshops described on p. 10-11) - “Publishing Your First or Second Book” - “Publishing Your First Article” - “The (Comparative Literature) Dissertation in Theory and Practice” - “Writing Successful NEH Grants for Faculty and Independent Scholars” 6:00 - 8:00 PM ACLA 2021 Opening Ceremony See page 12 for more information - Poetry reading by Natalie Diaz - Poetry reading by Cristina Rivera Garza FRIDAY, APRIL 9TH *All times are in central time* 8:30 - 5:45 PM Book Exhibit 8:30 - 10:15 AM Stream A Seminars 8:30 - 10:15 AM Special Seminar | ACLA Vice Presidential Panel “Geopolitics of Comparison around the World” See p. 13 for more information. 10:30 - 12:15 PM Stream B Seminars 12:15 - 1:45 PM Lunchtime Plenary See page 13 for more information - “Geopolitics of Comparison: World Literature avant la lettre”. 2:00 - 3:45 PM Stream C Seminars