0900-1000
Coffee and Registration

1000-1030
Introductory Remarks

1030-1200
SESSION 1: International Romance
Natalie Pendergast (University of Toronto, Canada): Expressions of Romance in Comics: Young Romance andOniisama e …
Eric Selinger (DePaul University. USA): Shame, Postmodernity and the Poetics of Popular Romance Fiction
Magali Bigey (Université de Franche Comte, France) : Romances: Novels Ceaselessly Evolving. What Mechanisms Are at Work?

1200-1400
Lunch (Provided)

Special Presentation
Allison Norrington (De Monfort University, UK): Romantic Comedy / Chick Lit as a Transmedia, Immersive and Participatory ‘Experience’ for Women

1400-1530
SESSION 2: Romancing History: Echoes of Times Past
Amy Burge (University of York, UK): “Weird and kinky and medieval”: The Idea of the ‘Medieval’ in Contemporary Popular Sheikh Romances
Piper Huguley-Riggins (Spelman College, USA): “Pride in the Ancestors”: Beverly Jenkins and the Historical Romance
Sandra Schwab (Johannes Gutenberg-University, Germany): There Be Dragons: Romance and the History of Stories

1530-1700
SESSION 3: Paratextual Identity and Reclamation of Ephemeral Texts
Faye O’Leary (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland): Nora and J.D.: Identity in Nora Roberts’ Romance Fiction
William Gleason (Princeton University, USA): Paratextually Yours: Story Papers, Seriality, and the Shape of Late-Nineteenth-Century American Romance Fiction
Cora Buhlert (Universität Vechta, Germany): Love for a Dime – A History and Taxonomy of the German “Liebesromanheft”

1700-1730
Coffee Break

1730-1830
KEYNOTE 1: Lynne Pearce (Lancaster University, UK): Romance and Repetition: Testing the Limits of the Love

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Friday 6th August

0900-1030
SESSION 4: The Language of Romance
Stephanie Moody (University of Michigan, USA): “Is that another crack about my weight?”: Using Discourse Analysis to Study Romantic Fictional Dialogue
Artemis Lamprinou (University of Surrey, UK): Translated Romances: The Effect of Cultural Textual Norms on the Communication of Emotions
Heike Klippel (Hochschule fuer Bildende Kuenste, Braunschweig, Germany): The Signs of Romance: Visualizing Love and Romance in German Soap Operas

1030-1100
Coffee Break

1100-1230
Session 5: Power, Gender, and the Female Gaze
Pradipta Mukherjee (University of Calcutta, India): Indian Popular Romance: Devdas in Bollywood and Reading Three Screen Adaptations
Sarah S. G. Frantz (Fayetteville State University, USA): Alpha Male: Power, Confession and Masculinity in Popular Romance Fiction
Pam Rosenthal (Independent Scholar, USA): The Queer Theory of Eve Sedgwick and Homoeroticism at the Edges of the Popular Romantic Imagination

1230-1330
Lunch (Provided)

1330-1430
KEYNOTE 2: Celestino Deleyto (University of Zaragoza, Spain): The Comic, the Serious and the Middle: Desire in Contemporary Film Romantic Comedy

1430-1600
SESSION 6: Film, Genre, History, and the Construction of Identity
Giselle Bastin (Flinders University, Australia): From A Royal Love Story to Whatever Love Means: The Charles and Diana Biopics as Soap Opera
Roger Nicholson (University of Auckland, New Zealand): Romancing the Past: Historical Fictions and the Fear of Nostalgia
Claudia Marquis (University of Auckland, New Zealand): Shakespeare and the Modern Romance of Adolescence: 10 Things I Hate About You

1600-1630
Coffee Break

1630-1830
SESSION 7: Life Stages in Romantic Comedies
Betty Kaklamanidou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece): “The Bells Are Ringing for Me and My Gal” or How the American Rom Com ‘Wedding Cycle’ Found its Way into Greek Cinema
Claire Jenkins (Warwick University, UK): Romance and the Single Parent in Contemporary Hollywood
Margaret Tally (State University of New York, USA): “It’s (Not That) Complicated”: Hollywood Construction of Middle-Age Romance in the Films of Nancy Myers

1900-2100
Conference Dinner

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Saturday 7th August

0900-1030
KEYNOTE 3: Pamela Regis (McDaniel College, USA): Criticizing Romance: The Last Quarter Century”
Respondent: An Goris, (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium).

1030-1100
Coffee Break

1100-1300
SESSION 8: Romance Forms: Perspectives on Sex and ‘New’ Romance
Ashley Greenwood (San Diego State University, USA): Violent Sex or Sexual Violence? The Gendered Language of Sex in Contemporary Romance Novels
Angela Toscano (University of Utah, USA): “When my lust hath dined”: Rape, Ravishment and Forced Seduction in Romance
Jin Feng (Grinnell College, USA): Who is the Ideal Hero? Consuming Web-based Time-Travel Romances

1300-1430
Lunch and Special Panel
Séverine Olivier and Agnes Caubet (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium) : Francophone Perspectives on Romantic Fiction: From Academic Field to Readers’ Experiences

1430-1600
SESSION 9: Sex and Gender in Vampire Romances
Jonathan Allan (University of Toronto, Canada): Theorising Virginity in the Romance
Chiho Nakagawa (Nara Women’s University, Japan): Finding True Love and Finding Her Sexuality in Vampire Romance Novels
Tom Ue (McGill University, Canada): Gender, Romance and Performance: Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga and the Female Knight Errant

16:30-17:30
Closing Roundtable