In conjunction with the M.L.A., the American Name Society (ANS) is pleased to announce its second call for critical papers on WOMEN, NAMING, AND ACADEMIA. Despite the many new challenges which face young scholars today, one has remained largely unchanged: making a substantive contribution to one’s chosen field through a long and distinguished record of innovative teaching, researching, and publishing. In short, making a name for one’s self. But what happens when that name changes through any one of life’s many surprises (e.g. marriage, divorce, re-marriage, widowhood)?

For many women in academia, the prospect of altering one’s name is not only personally, but also professionally daunting. Does she keep her original name? Abbreviate the first but double or hyphenate the last? Should the name she uses at work be the same as the one she uses at home? What legal options does she have? Such questions are far from trivial. As research has already demonstrated, the name a woman uses today can influence her career tomorrow.

The present call for papers welcomes proposals which examine women, naming, and academia from one of two perspectives: 1.) the ways in which women in academia name themselves ; or 2.) the ways in which women in academia are named by others. Proposals may offer either a synchronic or diachronic examination of qualitative and/or quantitative data. Possible topics for submission include the following:
• literary pseudonyms of an individual female author or group of women writers
• the present and/or past naming strategies employed by women in academia to reveal or conceal their gender, sexuality, and/or marital status
• the impact of a writer’s perceived gender upon readers’ assessments
• stylistic conventions for naming female scholars in academic writing
• the social, psychological, and/or political importance of names for women in academia

Interested authors are requested to submit their 250 word abstract and completed information sheet by February 15, 2012 to Dr. I. M. Laversuch at mavi.yaz@web.de. For more details, please visit the ANS website: http://www.wtsn.binghamton.edu/ans/ All submissions must be in English and conform to MLA stylistic regulations. Please note that you do not need to be a member of the ANS to submit an abstract. However, if your paper is accepted, you must join the Society to present in our panel.