MLA Special Session Proposals Accepted for the Annual Meeting

1996    Albee and Adoption, session leader Marianne Novy, Univ. of Pittsburgh

  1. “The Bumble of Joy: The Adoptee as Fantasy Space in the Drama of Edward Albee,” Gary Leonard, Univ. of Toronto, Scarborough
  2. ”Cultural Narcissism: The Adoption Triad in Plays by Albee and Thatcher,”
    S. Michael Bowen, Whitworth Coll.
  3. “Performativity and Adoption: Citational Practices in the Plays of Edward Albee,” Jill Roberts, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst

2001  Adoption, Nation, and Race: Family as Contact Zone, session leader Marianne Novy

  1. “Renaming the Body, Rewriting Race: Adoption in Anglo-Indian Novels,” Nancy Louise Paxton, Northern Arizona Univ.
  2. “Ramona’s Uneasy Adopted Mexicanness,” Robert McKee Irwin, Tulane Univ.
  3. “Adoption as Foreign Policy in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I and Pearl Buck’s Welcome House,” Danielle Glassmeyer, Loyola Univ., Chicago

2003    Adopting Identities: Race, Nationality, and the Transethnic Adoption Narrative, session leader Emily Ann Hipchen, Univ. of Wisconsin, Whitewater

  1. “The Implications of Interracial Kin Adoptions for Black Identity Formation,” Darcy P. Y Ballantyne, York Univ., Strong Coll.
  2. “Adopted Children, Adopted Countries?” Ruth Phyllis Haber, Worcester State Coll.
  3. “Adoption and Adaptation: Namibia’s German Democratic Republic Kids,” Jason Paul Owens, South Dakota State Univ.

2006    “Saved? Religion in Literary Representations of Adoption. Presiding: Emily Hipchen, Univ. of West Georgia

  1. “Words Made Flesh: Silas Marner and Pigs in Heaven,” Margaret Homans, Yale Univ.
  2. “Calculating Differences: Adoption and Individuation in William Faulkner’s Light in August,” Mark Jerng, Univ. of California, Davis
  3. “Conservative and Liberal Religion in Contemporary Adoption Fiction,” Marianne Novy

Respondent: Carol J. Singley, Rutgers Univ., Camden

2007    Writing Transnational Adoption across Asia and America. Presiding: Mark Jerng; Marianne Novy

  1. “Ghostly Selves in Korean Adoption Narratives: H. K. Fenkl, D. B. Liem, and J. J. Trenka,” Patricia P. Chu, George Washington Univ.
  2. “Representing Transnational Chinese Adoption in a Hemispheric Context,” Claudia Sadowski-Smith, Arizona State Univ,
  3. “Racial Identity and the Making of ‘Adoption Nation,’” Vincent J. Cheng, Univ. of Utah

2008    Strained Relations: (Narrative) Conflict in the Literature of Adoption. Presiding: Marianne Novy

  1. “The Happy-Ending Myth: Juno and the Idealization of Adoption,” Janet Mason Ellerby, Univ. of North Carolina, Wilmington
  2. “Reading for Adoption in Disability Life Writing: Adam Dorris and The Broken Cord,” Emily Hipchen,  [canceled because of illness]
  3. “Searching for Koreatown: Afro-Asian Adoption in A Gesture Life and Country of Origin,” Jenny Wills, Wilfrid Laurier Univ.

2009    Birth Mothers: Reclaiming Missing Voices in the Literature of Adoption. Presiding: Emily Hipchen

  1. “The Too-Embodied Voice: Reading Trauma in Surrendered Child: A Birthmother’s Journey.” Emily Hipchen
  2. “Mothers Global and Local: Representations of Birth Parents in Transnational Adoption Narratives and the Politics of Social Exclusion,” Marina Fedosik, John Jay Coll. Of Criminal Justice, City Univ. of New York
  3. “When Birth Mothers and Adoptees Speak Together,” Margaret Homans

Respondent: Marianne  Novy