Thursday, August 13: 8:30-5:00 pm
Wordsworth Room, S Block
Queensland University of Technology (PDF Map)

8:30-9:00 am
Conference Welcome and Keynote Address
Sarah S. G. Frantz, President, International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR), Fayetteville State University, USA

9:15-10:45 am
SESSION 1: Local Traditions, Transnational Encounters

• Toni Johnson-Woods, University of Queensland, Australia: “Emma Darcy in Manga: a Curious Publishing Phenomenon”
• Ida Rochani Adi, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia: “Indonesian Women’s Response to Popular Romance”
• Federica Balducci, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand: “When Chick-Lit Meets Romanzo Rosa: Intertextual and Transnational Narratives in Italian Romance Fiction”
• Devaleena Das, University of Calcutta, and Pushkar Raj, Independent Scholar, India: “The Undefined Love: Bengali Women from Page to Stage to Webpage”

11:00 am-12:30 pm
SESSION 2: Is There a Genre in this Text? Romance Across Media and Literary Genre

• Giselle Bastin, Flinders University, Australia: “‘There were three of us in this biography, so it was a bit crowded’: The Biographer as Royal Suitor in Andrew Morton’s Diana: Her True Story.”
• Im Chung-in, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea: “Rewritten Romances and Lost Voices: Recent TV Adaptations of Popular Girls’ Comics and Woman-Authored Romances in South Korea”
• Margot McGovern, Flinders University, Australia: “And so the Lion Fell in Love with the Lamb: Acts of Inversion in the Young Adult Vampire Romance”
• Enid Wilson, Romance Author, Australia: “Is Modern Fan Fiction Killing Classical Romances?”

12:30-1:45 pm
CATERED LUNCH

1:45-3:15 pm
SESSION 3: The He and the She of It: Gender, Sexuality, Love

• Kim Wilkins, University of Queensland, Australia: “’Deliciously contrary’: Reimagining Medieval Women’s Agency in Australian Popular Romance”
• Sarah Ailwood, University of Canberra, Australia: “The Hero in the Napoleonic Wartime Romance”
• Anthea Taylor, University of Queensland, Australia: “Romance, Masochistic Desire and Vampiric Subject-Formation in the Twilight Novels”
• Bronwyn Clarke, University of New England, Australia, and Romance Author: “The Heart of the Matter: Representations of Love in Romantic Fiction”

3:30-5:00 pm
SESSION 4: Aphrodite’s Architects: Constructing the Book, the Author, the Reader

• Therese Dryden, Romance Author, Australia: “Exploration of the ‘Barrier’ Element in Six Harlequin / M&B Sweet Novels from November 2008”
• Sandra Barletta, Independent Scholar, Australia: “A First Kiss is Still A First Kiss: Ageism, Romance Heroines, and the Mid-Life Romance Reader”
• Glen Thomas, Queensland University of Technology, Australia “From Reader to Writer”

Friday, 9:30 am – 4:30pm
Conference Room 1, Social Science & Humanities Library, Duhig Building
University of Queensland

9:20 am – 9:30 am
Mark Cryle, Fryer Librarian: Welcome

9:30-10:30 am
SESSION 5: Romancing History / Historicizing Romance

• Hsu-Ming Teo, Macquarie University, Australia: “Historicizing The Sheik: Comparisons of the British novel and the American Film”
• Jennifer Kloester, Biographer, Australia: “Georgette Heyer and the Evolution of Historical Romance”
• Lisa Fletcher, University of Tasmania, Australia: “Between Women: Heterosexual Historical Romance and the Cultural Work of Genre”

10:30-11:00 am
Morning Tea

11:00 am-12:30 pm
SESSION 6: In Respect of Romance, and of Romance Readers

• Juliet Flesch, University of Melbourne, Australia: “Attitudes of Victorian Public Librarians towards Romance Readers”
• Jin Feng, Grinnell College, USA: “Web-based Chinese Matriarchal Popular Romances”
• Stephanie Moody, University of Michigan, USA: “Extracurricular Literacies: Pedagogy and Popular Romance”
• Eric Murphy Selinger, DePaul University, USA: “How to Teach a Romance Novel (And Learn from One, Too)”

12:30-2:00 pm
LUNCH (uncatered)

2:00-3:00 pm
SPECIAL SESSION: THE FLESCH COLLECTION OF AUSTRALIAN ROMANCE FICTION IN FRYER LIBRARY

• Juliet Flesch, University of Melbourne
• Toni Johnson-Woods, AustLit Popular Fictions Project

3:00-3:30 pm
Afternoon Tea

3:30-4:30 pm
CLOSING ROUNDTABLE: “POPULAR ROMANCE STUDIES: Past, Present, Future”

• Sarah S. G. Frantz, Fayetteville State University / President, IASPR
• Kelley Hunter, President, Romance Writers of Australia
• Alison Ahearn, Romance Author, Romance Writers of Australia
• Toni Johnson-Woods, University of Queensland, Australia
• Juliet Flesch, University of Melbourne, Australia
• Laurie Kahn, Documentary Filmmaker, Brandeis University, USA

7:00 Friday evening
The Sebel and Citigate King George Square Hotel
corner Ann and Roma Streets
Romance Writers of Australia Annual Conference Cocktail Party
AU$40 Registration Fee
Please register at the RWA page
(PDF link to print out and mail in form)