New Worlds
The International Association of Byron Societies
47th Annual Conference
August 7th - 11th 2023
University of San Francisco, California
Call for Papers
In the early 1820s, after having joined the Carbonari movement to aid Italian national freedom, Lord Byron contemplated moving to South America to help the revolutionary campaigns against Spain’s imperialist forces. Byron even named his yacht the Bolívar after the famous Venezuelan liberator himself, outraging the Austrian governors who were tightening their grip on occupied Italy. When the Carbonari movement collapsed in Italy, he shifted his attention towards Greece, ultimately traveling there in 1823 to support the revolution against the Ottoman Turks. As the Austrian outrage at the Bolívar shows, the South American, Italian, and Greek revolutions were all part of a global cause of liberal resistance. In both his poetry and his life, Byron championed counter-colonial resistance movements from within and without Europe, while his legacy helped to shape emergent nations and the culture of Romantic-era authors and writings around the globe.
In bicentenary tribute, the IABS 2023 conference will gather work on Byron and Romantic-era resistance while seeking to honor the global diversity of the Romantic age. Our gathering’s theme is “New Worlds,” and we invite papers both on and beyond Byron and his circle. We welcome scholars to contribute papers and convene panels and roundtables related, but not necessarily limited, to the following subjects:
New Worlds for Byron and Romantic Studies
Byron and #Bigger6 Possibilities
Byron and the Americas
Reworlding: Utopian and Dystopian Horizons
New Worlds of Science in the Romantic Age
Revolution and Resistance
Migration, Diaspora, Exile, Ex-Patriotism
Black Studies, Race, and Byron
Indigeneity and Settler Colonialism
The Black Atlantic, Slavery, and the Slave Trade
Romantic Land- and Bodyscaping
Cosmopolitanism and New Worlds
Queer, Genderqueer, and Trans Romanticisms
Byron, Disability, and Identity
Worlds of Materiality in Visual Culture
The Poetics and Politics of Space and Climate Change
“A grey wall, a green ruin, rusty pike,
Make my soul pass the equinoctial line
Between the present and past worlds, and hover
Upon their airy confine, half-seas-over.”
— Don Juan, Canto X, 61
The University of San Francisco
The International Communities will head to the Pacific Coast this year! Join us and explore the beautiful city, university, and histories of San Francisco.
Co-Sponsored with the Keats-Shelley Association of America
No better partner to collaborate with in the spirit of Romantic Futures than the K-SAA.
Contact
Feel free to contact us with any questions.
Kaila Rose will act as the main contact person, as the Official Conference Organizer. If you have questions for specific parties involved, she can pass them along.
Email
k.rose@iabsconference2023.org