The International David Foster Wallace Society Conference
Austin, Texas – June 4-6, 2020
The International David Foster Wallace Society invites you to attend DFW 2020 in Austin, Texas. Special events at the Harry Ransom Center (home to Wallace’s archive), film screenings, social events, and other presentations will be included, in addition to a wide variety of panels of Wallace criticism and commentary.
Panels will be held at the University of Texas Glickman Conference Center and DoubleTree hotel on 15th Street. The Keynote address will be held at Jessen Auditorium in Homer Rainey Hall.
Papers commenting on any aspect of Wallace’s work, thought, influence, or context are invited. Potential topics include but are not limited to:
- Wallace and race
- Wallace and socioeconomic class
- Thinking globally about Wallace
- Wallace and climate change / the Anthropocene
- Wallace, gender, masculinity, misogyny, and sexualities
- Wallace as philosopher / religious writer / political writer
- Reconsiderations of established lines of thinking about Wallace (e.g., irony and sincerity, entertainment, addiction, etc.)
- Under-discussed short fiction and essays by Wallace
- Wallace, canonicity, critical establishments, and anthologies
- Teaching Wallace, especially in settings other than the undergraduate English major
Submission deadline: Jan 6th, 2020
Submit paper abstracts of 300 words and brief biographical info to [email protected]. We welcome submissions from currently unaffiliated scholars, contingent faculty, faculty in settings other than higher education, and graduate and undergraduate students. Full panel proposals are welcome also, though we encourage panels that span a variety of faculty ranks and institutions.
Undergraduate students at Texas institutions are invited to see the special CFP for the Charles B. Harris Award for Undergraduate Writing on Wallace. All undergraduate proposals from students at Texas institutions will be automatically entered for the Harris Award.
Include in your submission your name, affiliation (if any), mailing address, and email address. Please specify any special AV or scheduling needs when submitting your proposal.
Contact us @dfwsociety on Twitter or via email at [email protected]