North American writers of color have transformed canons through the critical dissemination of alternative histories, cultural practices, epistemologies, styles, political preoccupations, and interests concerning the region’s diversity of communities and nations. Even though many of these authors are now solidly positioned in the literary canon, 21st-century ethnic minority writing has gone through a series of shifts that respond to new post-9/11 traumas, racial profiling, heated debates on the so-called colorblind society, the reconfigured white ethnoscape, the interconnections of the environmental and racial justice movements, the sensitivities and demands of a woke generation, and the destabilization of gendered and racialized categories after #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, among other factors.

Despite the new visibility received by ethnic minority authors (who are winning major literary prizes and public recognitions), their literature is still frequently taught and theorized from the margins or as a mere token or a multicultural supplement to a literary center that is still predominantly Anglo, white, masculine, and heteronormative. This happens most especially in European universities where the field of North American literary studies is often reduced to two or three courses in the curriculum.

The aim of this international symposium is to augment and amplify ongoing transatlantic conversations in the fields of critical race theory and literary studies that are reconsidering terms such as race, ethnicity, indigeneity, identity, mobility, community, solidarity, and futurity, and to explore 21st-century literary texts through an intersectional lens. In a series of thematic panels, we will examine these shifting critical, literary, and pedagogical practices paying special attention to the Obama and Trump eras in a local, national, hemispheric, and global context.

The symposium is organized by the research group LENA: North American Ethnic Literatures in a Global Context (Universitat de València-Universitat Jaume I) and sponsored by the Generalitat Valenciana (Proyecto I+D+i “Reconfiguraciones de género, raza y clase social en la literatura étnica norteamericana de la era Obama/Trump” – GV/AICO/2021/249). Collaborating entities include the Unesco Chair on Slavery and Afrodescendancy at Universitat Jaume I and the Western Literature Association.

More information about the ongoing activities and projects of the research group LENA can be found at https://www.uv.es/lenaval.

Suggested topics may include the following:

• 21st-Century North American ethnic minority literatures: old and new genres, narrative strategies, and styles
• Constructions of race and ethnicity in the 21st century: post-race, transethnicity
• Understanding the North American ethnic debate in a global context: transnational/transatlantic perspectives
• Ethnic-centered theories and pedagogies
• Intersections between the environmental humanities and critical race studies
• Race, gender, sexuality, and class as crossroads in narrative construction
• New social movements and their connections to ethnic narratives and racial formation
• International mobility and mobility justice in literary works
• Circulation, markets, and readers across the Atlantic
• Cross-cultural, cross-ethnic alliances
• Reading North American ethnic minority literatures in translation
• The future of BIPOC writing in the publishing world and in university education

Oral Communications: 20-minute papers can be delivered in English, Spanish or Catalan and, following the conference, we will invite participants to submit full articles to be considered for publication in a high ranked journal.

The deadline for abstracts is January 25th 2023 (extended deadline). Submissions should include a title, a 250-300-word summary, a short biographical note, your academic affiliation, and contact information.

Please send abstract proposals to: lenaresearchgroup@gmail.com

Contact emails: ortel@ang.uji.es, Anna.M.Brigido@uv.es, Vicent.Cucarella@uv.es