CFP: SUSTAINING CANADA: Past, Present and Future Environments, BACS 37th Annual Conference, 2-4 April 2012

SUSTAINING CANADA: Past, Present and Future Environments


BACS 37th Annual Conference


Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, 2-4 April 2012

The British Association for Canadian Studies encourage contributions on any facet of the topic of Sustaining Canada within and beyond the field of Canadian Studies. Proposals for 20-minute papers, to be presented in either English or French, are invited from any single disciplinary or multidisciplinary perspective. Multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and comparative panel proposals, including those from postgraduate students, are welcome.


The following aspects are indicative and not comprehensive:

• The origins and growth of environmentalism in Canada
• Inter-Provincial contrasts? The impact of NAFTA? The sub-prime recession?
• The environment of Canada and resource extraction 
• Long-term sustainability issues for energy and other sectors on a global level
• Actions to sustain the environment of Canada
• Local activism, municipal, provincial, federal dimensions
• The environment of Canada and the human scale
• Actions towards conservation: recycling, non-motorised transport
• The environment of Canada: depicted, remembered, imagined
• Idealised and devoid of human input? Or incomprehensible without it?
• The environment of Canada and policy-making
• A concern only in the good times or an enduring preoccupation?
• The environment of Canada and the Law
• Enforcement, conflict, Indigenous peoples’ land rights etc
• The environment of Canada and ecological fragility#
• Threatened environments: when, where, how?
• The environment of Canada and the Business sector
• Implications for corporate social responsibility: business costs, business practices

The British Association for Canadian Studies' Literature Group is pleased to issue the following Call for Papers for the 2012 BACS conference. We encourage contributions on any facet of the topic of Sustaining Canada in relation to Canadian literary and cultural study. Proposals for 20-minute papers, to be presented in either English or French, would be particularly welcome in the following areas:

• Ecocriticism in a Canadian context
• Narratives and/or poetics of environmentalism and activism
• Indigenous literature and culture
• Regional literature and culture
• Border studies
• Urban studies
• Landscape
• Representations of animals in Canadian culture
• Settler-invader narratives
• Travel literature
• The impact of literature and culture upon the environment
• Canadian culture in relation to different kinds of 'environment', e.g. domestic environment, national/international environment, linguistic environments, publishing or production contexts, etc.
• Sustaining Canadian culture, materially and/or ideologically
• Sustaining the culture of specific communities in Canada

Enquiries and proposals to:

Jodie Robson, BACS Administrator bacs@canadian-studies.org

Conference website https://sites.google.com/a/canadian-studies.org/bacs2012/

Proposals (panel and individual) and deadline:

Email abstract(s) of 200-300 words and brief CV (please do not exceed one page) which must include your title, institutional affiliation, email and mailing address by 20 November 2011.

Submissions will be acknowledged by email. Postgraduate students are especially welcome to submit a proposal and there will be a concessionary conference fee for students. BACS regrets that it is unable to assist participants with travel and accommodation costs.