This panel lingers on the often passed over period following Bob Dylan’s accidental rustication in 1966—when he “racked himself up in a motorcycle accident, went into hiding, and inspired a legend,” as Robert Christgau wrote in 1968—a period during which what had seemed Dylan’s unstoppable forward momentum had locked up and been thrown into reverse. Thereafter, it could be said, Dylan remained out of alignment with ongoing musical and social and political developments. Writing about the still-bootlegged though widely disseminated and nearly complete Basement Tapes in 1997, Greil Marcus reports that a “skeptic” referred to the music that was then emerging as “deserter’s songs,” suggesting that Dylan’s absence from public engagement in the period between John Wesley Harding and New Morning deprived the waning years of the sixties of a rallying voice. Dylan himself has written of the time as one of withdrawal and disavowal. Looking back after more than a half century (with the last 30 plus years of nonstop touring and other forms of not infrequently redoubtable artistic endeavor, as well as extensively expanded access to the music Dylan was making in the period through the volumes of the Bootleg Series), what can we hear and what stories can we tell about what was and what might have been, where we’d arrived and where we were going, from where we are now? How can we think about the relationship between private retreat and public engagement in Dylan’s writing and performing in the last years of the sixties?

Please send a 300-350 word abstract to Garin Cycholl at gcycholl@iun.edu.

Special Session: Early American Literature and 'Crisis in the Humanities' seeks proposals for papers on the topic of the ‘crisis in the humanities.’ Papers may explore the relationship(s) between early American literature and diversity, democracy, history, politics, education, social justice, etc. Questions papers might answer include: What light does early American literature shed on our current political realities? How can inquiring into our literary past foretell the future of our democracy? What is the influence of early American literature on modern society? How might teaching early American literature allow to us to recognize and stress the values of equity and diversity? Please send an abstract of 200-300 words by May 31, 2023 to Shawna Rushford-Spence at srushford-spence@lourdes.edu.

This Special Topics Session invites papers on how Black Films in prior decades and in the present moment of history have addressed Social Justice issues and equality.  Presentations can explore one or more chosen films from a variety of perspectives on history, cultural and race theories (including Critical Race Theory) to show how some films helped enlighten and further (or not) racial equality, democracy, and an appreciation and understanding of the Black experience in America and/or around the globe. Please send a 300-to-350-word abstract to Khani Begum (khani@bgsu.edu) with a 5-line bio and your contact information by May 20th.

This panel lingers on the often passed over period following Bob Dylan’s accidental rustication in 1966—when he “racked himself up in a motorcycle accident, went into hiding, and inspired a legend,” as Robert Christgau wrote in 1968—a period during which what had seemed Dylan’s unstoppable forward momentum had locked up and been thrown into reverse. Thereafter, it could be said, Dylan remained out of alignment with ongoing musical and social and political developments. Writing about the still-bootlegged though widely disseminated and nearly complete Basement Tapes in 1997, Greil Marcus reports that a “skeptic” referred to the music that was then emerging as “deserter’s songs,” suggesting that Dylan’s absence from public engagement in the period between John Wesley Harding and New Morning deprived the waning years of the sixties of a rallying voice. Dylan himself has written of the time as one of withdrawal and disavowal. Looking back after more than a half century (with the last 30 plus years of nonstop touring and other forms of not infrequently redoubtable artistic endeavor, as well as extensively expanded access to the music Dylan was making in the period through the volumes of the Bootleg Series), what can we hear and what stories can we tell about what was and what might have been, where we’d arrived and where we were going, from where we are now? How can we think about the relationship between private retreat and public engagement in Dylan’s writing and performing in the last years of the sixties?

Please send a 300-350 word abstract to Garin Cycholl at gcycholl@iun.edu.

Special Session: Early American Literature and 'Crisis in the Humanities' seeks proposals for papers on the topic of the ‘crisis in the humanities.’ Papers may explore the relationship(s) between early American literature and diversity, democracy, history, politics, education, social justice, etc. Questions papers might answer include: What light does early American literature shed on our current political realities? How can inquiring into our literary past foretell the future of our democracy? What is the influence of early American literature on modern society? How might teaching early American literature allow to us to recognize and stress the values of equity and diversity? Please send an abstract of 200-300 words by May 31, 2023 to Shawna Rushford-Spence at srushford-spence@lourdes.edu.

This Special Topics Session invites papers on how Black Films in prior decades and in the present moment of history have addressed Social Justice issues and equality.  Presentations can explore one or more chosen films from a variety of perspectives on history, cultural and race theories (including Critical Race Theory) to show how some films helped enlighten and further (or not) racial equality, democracy, and an appreciation and understanding of the Black experience in America and/or around the globe. Please send a 300-to-350-word abstract to Khani Begum (khani@bgsu.edu) with a 5-line bio and your contact information by May 20th.