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X CONGRESO SAAS / 10th International SAAS Conference
Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), 14-16 April 2011

THE BACKYARD OF THE U.S. MANSION: Critical readings of poverty and wealth in the United States

In the subtitle of one of his well-known books, David S. Landes asks Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor, a matter that can apply to whole nations, territories and peoples, whether collectively, individually or by class. Historians, philosophers, creative writers, politicians, anthropologists, and sociologists have been debating on the issue for ages and the assumption is that the debate will continue till poverty is eradicated from earth, if such a blessing ever happens. In the United States, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the gulf between the haves and have-nots has steadily widened since the 1970s, and has dramatically peaked in the current economic crisis. The 10th International SAAS Conference, to be held at the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, will offer a space of reflection on the cultural, social, historical, and ideological dimensions of the binary poverty and wealth in the past and present of the United States of America. Some issues to be addressed at this international meeting will be:
- Cultural constructions of poverty and wealth. From material factors to the ways poverty/wealth is lived, negotiated and represented.
- The pervasiveness of poverty in cultural works: the force and social impact of the creative ideologue.
- Material and ideological contradictions. The poor/wealthy binary in the discourse of American individualism. Still awaiting an American union strike.
- The denial of class as a defining feature of American life. What’s un-American about the discourse of class? Why is class less of an issue than race, ethnicity and gender? How is class inflected by race and gender?
- Poverty and Wealth across the border. How does poverty travel across the USA national borders?
- Migration, immigration, and the pursuit of (material) happiness.
- Technological expectations for an unknown future. From the Industrial Revolution to the posthuman condition: Utopias and dystopias in American culture, literature, and the arts.
- From the American Dream to consumerism or the commodification of happiness. Old dreams of Exceptionalism and the ever-present invisibility of poverty in American history and the arts.
- Ecological poverty versus industrial wealth? Ethical readings of the wealth/poverty divide in the post-Katrina USA.

- Human rights and political denial: Post-9/11 USA, War on Terror and the reinstallation of American Exceptionalism.

LIST OF PANELS

1) Small Presses and Innovation: Drawing Larger Circles in Society and the Market

Panel Chair: Manuel Brito
Institution: Universidad de La Laguna
E-mail: mbrito@ull.es

2) ‘Heading for a Change’: Deconstructing the Upward-Mobility Ethos in American Literature and Culture

Panel Chair: Mercè Cuenca
Institution: Universitat de Barcelona
E-mail: mcuenca@ub.edu; marta_bosch@ub.edu

3) Literature from the Golden State: California as a Land of Wealth and Poverty

Panel Chair: Eusebio De Lorenzo
Institution: Universidad Complutense de Madrid
E-mail: delorenzo@filol.ucm.es

4) Life-Writing and its ‘From Rags to Riches’ Variations

Panel Chair: Isabel Durán
Institution: Universidad Complutense
E-mail: idurangi@filol.ucm.es

5) LULUs: Not in the US backyard

Panel Chair: Carmen Flys Junquera
Institution: Franklin Institute, Universidad de Alcalá
E-mail: carmen.flys@uah.es; imelda.martin@unileon.es

6) Poverty and Wealth in the House of the South

Panel Chair: Constante Gónzalez
Institution: Universidade da Santiago de Compostela
E-mail: constante.gonzalez@usc.es; carmen.manuel@uv.es

7) Land/Scapes on the USA Stage: Theatrical Interventions in the Land of Opportunity

Panel Chair: Noelia Hernando Real
Institution: CSEU La Salle- UAM
E-mail: noelia.hernando@uam.es

8) We Are Poor, We Are Rich: Representations of Barrio Life in Chicano Popular Art and Culture

Panel Chair: Amaia Ibarraran Bigalondo
Institution: Universidad del País Vasco/ Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
E-mail: amaia.ibarraran@ehu.es

9) Super-Diversity in Migratory Patterns

Panel Chair: Aitor Ibarrola Armendáriz
Institution: Universidad de Deusto, Bilbao
E-mail: ibarrola@fil.deusto.es

10) Currency Collapse, Moral Collapse: Material and Spiritual Poverty in Cormac McCarthy’s Fiction

Panel Chair: Carmen Méndez
Institution: Universidad Complutense de Madrid
E-mail: cmmendez@filol.ucm.es

11) ‘Garbage in the Backyard of the US Mansion’: Chicano/a Food Traces and the Identification of Cultural Consumerism

Panel Chair: Juan Ignacio Oliva
Institution: Universidad de La Laguna
E-mail: jioliva@ull.es; npascual@ujaen.es

12) The Poetics of Poverty in American Poetry

Panel Chair: Viorica Patea
Institution: Universidad de Salamanca
E-mail: vioricap@usal.es

13) Staging the Body as a Space of Wealth and Poverty in American Contemporary Theater

Panel Chair: Eulalia Piñero Gil
Institution: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
E-mail: eulalia.pinero@uam.es

14) ‘God Shed His Grace on Thee’: Exceptionalism and its Implications for Economics and Class in the United States

Panel Chair: Michael A. Rockland
Institution: Rutgers University
E-mail: rockland@rci.rutgers.edu

15) ‘Off the beaten track’: Appalachian Images and Narratives of Poor Mountain People

Panel Chair: Carmen Rueda Ramos
Institution: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
E-mail: m.del.carmen.rueda@upc.edu

16) From Rags to Riches: the Underprivileged and the Affluent in US History

Panel Chair: Antonia Sagredo Santos
Institution: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
E-mail: asagredo@flog.uned.es; larroyo@flog.uned.es

17) Of Majors and Minors: The Rich and Poor Languages of American Cinema

Panel Chair: Boris Vejdovsky
Institution: University of Lausanne, Switzerland
E-mail: boris.vejdovsky@unil.ch

18) Miscellaneous Panel

Panel Chair: Cristina Alsina/Víctor Junco
Institution: Universitat de Barcelona/Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
E-mail: alsina@ub.edu; vjunco@dfm.ulpgc.es

GUIDELINES FOR PARTICIPANTS

- Abstracts of Proposals are to be e-mailed directly to the chair of the selected panel using the form at the end of this file. The deadline for submitting abstracts is October 29, 2010. Panel chairs are expected to accept/reject proposals and have panels set up by November 19.
- Panels cannot have more than THREE contributions each.
- The deadline for the submission of the final and complete version of papers accepted by panel chairs is February 11, 2011.
-All complete papers have to be submitted in electronic format to the panel chair who accepted them. Please, include a brief CV of approx. 300 words, indicating your present affiliation and main publications.
- Before the Conference, all the papers will be circulated among the panel participants.
- The final version should never exceed 2500 words . Panelists will be talking for about 20' and there will be a final round of questions once all panelists have presented their contributions. Panel chairs are also expected to offer a brief summary and comments on the contributions to their own panels.
- Panel sessions should not last more that one hour and thirty minutes, including the question/answer section.
- All participants MUST have registered for the Conference ahead of time (see SAAS web page at http://www.saasweb.org ).
- Panel chairs are also expected to dissuade panelists from simply reading their papers.
- If panelists have any special requirements for their presentations, they should let their panel chairs know as soon as possible and fill up the appropriate section of the form below..

“IMPORTANT: Non-members of SAAS (of all nationalities) are welcome to participate in the conference, but will be required to pay membership dues for one year as well as the conference registration fee. Members of ASA (American Studies Association), need only pay the conference registration fee.”