MGSA 2009, the twenty-first biennial international symposium of the Modern Greek Studies Association, will take place October 15-17, 2009 in Vancouver, Canada, and will be coordinated by the Hellenic Studies Program at Simon Fraser University (http://www.sfu.ca/hellenic-studies/).

Abstracts for individual papers and proposals for entire panels are invited on any aspect of contemporary Greek culture, literature, language, history, society, politics, economics, and the arts. Comparative and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of Greece and research on transnational Greek worlds are especially encouraged.

Possible Topics for MGSA 2009 include:

Interdisciplinary approaches to environmental issues; popular culture and media; cultural change; spaces of cross-cultural and intellectual fertilization between the Hellenic world and the rest of the world; the emergence of new urban and suburban environments; Greek literature in national and post-national contexts; new economies of labor; poverty, economic marginalization, and class relations; Greece and geopolitics in the wider region; Cyprus and interregional relationships; diaspora and transnational Greek worlds; and Modern Greek Studies as a field.

General Guidelines for Submission:

All submissions will be judged by blind review on the basis of their individual merit, even when part of a submitted panel. Abstracts of 300-400 words should be submitted electronically to the MGSA Executive Director.

Abstracts will be evaluated 1) in relation to the innovativeness of the approaches they employ, 2) in terms of their active engagement with the existing literature, and 3) the narrative coherence of their aims and objectives.

Abstracts should reflect original work that has not been previously presented or announced in other venues. Previously presented or announced work compromises the blind review process and risks rejection for procedural reasons.

Each abstract should explain briefly the scope and focus of the proposed topic, its broader significance for its discipline and the field of Modern Greek Studies, and the methodology employed. Although the decisions of the committee are final, short commentaries on the rationale for rejected abstracts can be provided upon request.

Jointly authored abstracts and papers are welcome.

Each abstract should be accompanied by a separate page that contains the name(s) of the author(s), affiliation(s), postal and email addresses, and telephone numbers. All papers will have a 20-minute time limit, which will be strictly enforced. Papers of absent authors will not be read at the Symposium under any circumstances. The Program Committee will assign Chairs to all panels. No one may present more than one paper, or act as presenter and commentator on the same panel. Audio-visual requirements should be indicated at the time of submission.

Proposals for entire panels of no more than 4 participants may be submitted by the panel organizer in the same manner as individual abstracts and should include a) abstracts and contact information for each of the presenters and b) a panel abstract of 300-400 words by the panel's organizer providing an abstract describing the panel and explaining the connections among the individual papers.

In cases where a panel is rejected but an individual paper merits inclusion, this paper will be accepted as an individual entry in the Symposium.

Symposium participants are expected to cover their own expenses. There is a small fund available to defray accommodation costs only (not travel) for participating graduate students.

Abstracts or inquiries may be submitted via email to Prof. Victor Papacosma, MGSA Executive Director: mgsa@kent.edu

Deadlines:

The deadline for submissions of abstracts for individual papers is

15 January 2009. Deadline for abstracts of organized panels is

25 January 2009. There will be no extensions of the deadlines. Final decisions will be announced by early March 2009.

Registration and Fees:

A pre-registration fee of US$70.00 for accepted abstracts will be required. All participants must be current members of the MGSA. Specific information about methods of payment for pre-registration fees and MGSA membership will be announced in due course.

Program Committee members:

Yiorgos Anagnostou, Chair (The Ohio State University), Ioannis Evrigenis (Tufts University/Princeton University), Frank Hess (Indiana University), Gregory Jusdanis (The Ohio State University), Athena Kartalou (Aristotle University), Martha Klironomos (San Francisco State University), Artemis Leontis (University of Michigan), Chrisy Moutsatsos (Iowa State University), Christine Philliou (Columbia University), Marina Terkourafi (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

The Modern Greek Studies Association, founded in 1968, is a US-based, non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of modern Greek studies in the United States and Canada. It publishes the Journal of Modern

Greek Studies (The Johns Hopkins University Press) and the MGSA Bulletin. Its publications also include the Census of Modern Greek Literature, 1824-1987 (Dia M.L. Philippides, editor) and Greece in Modern Times: An Annotated Bibliography of Works Published in English in Twenty-Two Academic Disciplines during the Twentieth Century (Stratos E. Constantinidis, editor).

Information regarding the Association, including membership, may be obtained from the MGSA Executive Director or from the MGSA website at http://www.mgsa.org