PLENARY SPEAKERS FOR THE VI International Conference on the American Literary and Cultural West: Local/Regional Perspectives and Global Imaginings

 

Dear all, 

We are here again with our four magnificent Plenary Speakers for the VI International Conference on the American Literary and Cultural West: Local/Regional Perspectives and Global Imaginings.

Our first plenary speaker is Prof. Kalenda Eaton:

Professor in The Clara Luper Department of African and African American Studies at the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Eaton is a distinguished humanities scholar whose research focuses on African American western regional studies; intersections of Black literary studies and cultural history; and women’s studies.

Our second plenary speaker is Prof. Anthony Macías:

Professor of Ethnic Studies and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of California, Riverside, Anthony Macías is an acclaimed scholar of Chicano/a studies, American popular culture, music, film, and ethnic studies. He is the author of Chicano-Chicana Americana (2023) and Mexican American Mojo (2008), with an extensive record of publications and international conference presentations.

Our third plenary speaker is Filmmaker Andrea Jaurrieta:

Andrea Jaurrieta is a film director, screenwriter and producer whose work explores identity, memory and gender. Her acclaimed second feature film, Nina (2024), is a postwestern that received the Silver Biznaga Special Critics’ Jury Prize at the Málaga Film Festival. Alongside her filmmaking career, Jaurrieta teaches film studies, acting and directing, and has delivered masterclasses at the ECAM (Paris), ESCAC (Barcelona) and the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM).

And our fourth plenary speaker is Prof. Stefano Rosso:

Stefano Rosso is Professor of American Literature at the University of Bergamo. He serves as co-editor of Ácoma, a journal of North American Studies, and co-directs the critical series

Americane (Ombre corte Publishing in Verona). His publications include several essays published in International and Italian journals, a monograph on American fiction of the Vietnam War (2003) and another on contemporary American Western fiction (2012). Additionally, he has edited ten volumes, three of which focus on the Western. 

Thanks again for keeping up with our blog, remember that you can follow us on our Instagram.

OPEN REGISTRATION PROCESS FOR VI REWEST CONFERENCE!!

 

Hello again friends,

The registration process for our VI International Conference on the American Literary and Cultural West: Local/Regional Perspectives and Global Imaginings is already open!

The registration form is open until September 15. Please complete the registration form at the following LINK. 

Please note that all presenters must complete the registration process and pay the fee to receive a certificate of participation. If you want to attend the conference you would need to complete the forms as well. 

The venue for the conference banquet is EL PORTALÓN. It will be on Wednesday 7, at 15:00/15:30. The menu can be made vegan upon request by marking it in the registration form. The price for the menu is 60€.

Over the coming weeks, we will share further information regarding the preliminary programme and other practical matters. We encourage you to follow this blog and our Instagram account, where we will regularly post news and conference updates.

Should you have any questions in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us at rewest2026@gmail.com.

Thank you very much for your interest in the Conference!

UPDATE!! REWEST CONFERENCE 2026 EXTRA INFORMATION

Dear friends, 

As promised in the Call for Papers announcement back in February, we are sharing this post to provide information about the travel and accommodation.

The Call for Papers is now closed, and we have received a total of 56 submissions from speakers for our VI International Conference on the American Literary and Cultural West. Thank you for your interest and participation!

Before we share the final programme we would like to provide a summary of the most important logistical information regarding the conference: how to get to the city and campus, accommodation recommendations, and some information about Vitoria-Gasteiz. You can click here download it.

Over the following weeks we will continue sharing updates here in our blog, including information about the registration, conference schedule, keynote speakers and more. 

Do not hesitate to contact us if you would like more information or if you have any questions or doubts. 

Remember that we have a new email address just for the conference: rewest2026@gmail.com

Looking forward to meeting you in October!

VI INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE AMERICAN LITERARY AND CULTURAL WEST: CFP HERE AND NOW!!

 

Dear Friends, believe it or not, four years have gone now and here we come back again. 

We are pleased to announce that time has come that we hold again our international conference on the American Literary and Cultural West. 

In REWEST Research Group we are confident that we will have our sixth edition next October 2026. 

And we'd better start getting it all ready. Here you have some information on what we are planning to do and how to get on board. Soon, you'll find more information right here, stuff on how to travel and stay, registration, program, keynote speakers... 

Now, we are sharing the call for papers and a summary of the most important and basic information: 

Title of the conference: VI INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE AMERICAN LITERARY AND CULTURAL WEST:  LOCAL/REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES AND GLOBAL IMAGININGS. 

Days: 5, 6 and 7 of October, 2026 

Place: Faculty of Arts, University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz

You will find more information on how to submit proposals in the call for papers. You can either read it here below or click on the link to download it: CFP.  

Do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you want to get more information or if you have doubts or comments. 

We have a new email address just for the conference: rewest2026@gmail.com. 

We would really enjoy having you here with us next October.

VI INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE AMERICAN LITERARY AND CULTURAL WEST Local/Regional Perspectives and Global Imaginings 

University of the Basque Country (EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain) 

5–7 October 2026 

The VI International Conference on the American Literary and Cultural West, organized by the research group REWEST (Research in Western American Literature), aims to provide an updated, wide-ranging, and interdisciplinary forum for the study of the literature, culture, and artistic representations of the American West. Building on the legacy of previous editions, this conference seeks to reassess the West as a dynamic, mobile, and continually reimagined cultural space shaped by both local and regional experiences and global narratives, circulations, and imaginaries. Traditionally understood through a set of powerful myths and visual iconographies, the American West has long functioned as a site of national identity formation. However, contemporary critical approaches increasingly emphasize the West as a transnational, heterogeneous, and contested space, marked by migration, displacement, environmental crisis, technological change, and cultural hybridity. This sixth edition of the conference foregrounds the productive tension between localized perspectives—rooted in specific geographies, communities, and histories—and global imaginings that circulate across borders, media, and genres. The conference invites scholars to explore how literary and artistic texts negotiate the relationship between myth and material reality, between place-based narratives and global cultural flows. Particular attention will be given to interdisciplinary approaches that examine how Western narratives interact with other cultural forms and media, including film and television, theatre, music, photography, fashion, sports, visual and digital arts, video games, comics and graphic novels, animation, translation, podcast and online cultures. Speakers are also encouraged to address the specific cultural transplants and approaches resulting from European perspectives towards the American West, its images and culture. By doing so, the conference seeks to map the evolving contours of local and regional imaginings of the West and the geographical and cultural locales they stem from. Possible topics include (but are not limited to): 

● Reconfigurations of Old West myths in the 21st century 

● The West as an exceptional region as opposed to the West as an inherent part of American Culture 

● Local, regional, and global constructions of the American West 

● Mobility, nomadism, and rootedness in the West 

● Urbanization, technology, and digital cultures of the West 

● Western identities and landscape; ecological and environmental approaches 

● The Western space and the American self 

● Indigenous, minority, and marginalized Western voices 

● Migration, diaspora, and crossing the border 

● Voices of protest and narratives of dissent in the American West 

● Gender, sexuality, and the reimagining of Western identities 

● Animals and non-human others in the West 

● Ageist approaches in the West 

● The West in popular culture and mass-media 

● Transnational and comparative Westerns 

● Speculative fiction, and the Weird West 

● Music, soundscapes, and Western imaginaries 

● Photography, visual culture, and the American West 

● Comics, graphic novels, and alternative Western forms 

● The West in the web 

Papers should be designed for a 20-minute presentation. 

Although English will be the official language of the conference, papers in Spanish or Basque will also be accepted. 

The conference will be held at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of the Basque Country (EHU), in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. 

Submission guidelines: 

Please submit an abstract of 300 words along with a brief CV by May 24, 2026. 

Proposals should be sent by email to: rewest2026@gmail.com 

Please include the following heading in the subject line of your email: REWEST2026

IV International Symposium Cultural Transfers of the American West

New academic activity in REWEST! This one coming soon, next October. The title for the occasion is the following: IV International Symposium Cultural Transfers of the American West. Monday (October 6th) and Tuesday (October 7th) we will gather in Vitoria-Gasteiz, at the Faculty of Art, to keep talking about the American West. Several papers will be delivered, including the exciting contribution of our plenary speakers: writer Ana Merino, good scholar and old friend David Fenimore, John D. Sanderson from the University of Alicante and two musicians from the very popular band in the 1990s Dinamita pa'los Pollos, Roberto Mata and Javier Zaitegui. You can find more information in the link below:

Click here for more information: program. 

Or copypaste the following: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AxilfczcMRrGxG8dGaKX7LYtLuuYpBIM/view?usp=sharing

Basque Images in American Literature: Lectures on the Centennial of Robert Laxalt's Birth

 

 We are happy to announce that REWEST has a new event coming forward. In a few weeks, we will gather some of the most renowned experts on Basque-American literature in order to celebrate the centennial of Robert Laxalt's birth. It will happen at the Faculty of Arts of the University of the Basque Country in Vitoria-Gasteiz, coming this next october. You will find all the information here. 

Please, check here the program, and if you have any question do not hesitate to get in touch with us. 

 

 

Click on the image to have a better look at the textual information.

You can also find the program in PDF format by clicking here: program. 

V INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE AMERICAN LITERARY WEST: (Un)Charted and Nomadic West(s)

 

Dear all, we are just a few days away from the opening and it was about time to publish the final program. It has been already circulating by email but we want you to have the opportunity to check it online as well. 

Find here the program in snapshots and a link to download it from our google drive. However, bear in mind that you will be provided with a printed version when registering at the conference. 

Looking forward to meeting you all here. 

Final program in pdf version: click here.