“Basically Quite Weird”: The Queer Medievalist Virtual Romance of Alexis Hall’s Looking for Group

Kristin Noone (Irvine Valley College) Session 12.4: Love in Other Worlds Abstract: In a recent blog post, award-winning romance author Alexis Hall comments that “something we’re grappling with as twenty-first century people is the way our assumptions about relationships are changing and that’s something I tried to explore in the new book, both explicitly and […]

“Outlander’s Tactile Caress: a Multisensory Romance”

Athena Bellas (University of Melbourne) Session 12.3: Love in Other Worlds Abstract: Much of the existing literature on television series Outlander (STARZ 2014– ) emphasises its prioritisation of a female gaze at the scene of erotic pleasure. This is important to a discussion of shifting representations of gender and sex on the contemporary screen. However, […]

Representations of Otherness in Paranormal Romance: Nalini Singh and J.R. Ward

María T. Ramos-García (South Dakota State University) Session 12.2: Love in Other Worlds Abstract: There is currently a very heated debate in progress regarding diversity in the romance novel in the USA, both in terms of the characters represented and the authors published and promoted. In this context, the paranormal subgenre is an especially rich […]

Love in Outer Space: Science fiction romance — the ideal place to explore gender and love

Donna Hanson, University of Canberra Session 12.1: Love in Other Worlds Abstract: Science fiction romance disregards localities in time and space and extends ‘romancelandia’ beyond present human frontiers and cultural norms. Heroines can be spaceship captains, scientists, and explorers and more than a man’s equal. They can have relationships with fellow officers, space barbarians, aliens […]

Love is (Color) Blind: Race, Belonging, and Nation in 21st Century Historical Romance Fiction

Mallory Jagodzinski (Indiana University South Bend) Session 11.2: Subversions of Race, Culture and History Abstract: This paper incorporates the space and place theme of IASPR 2018 by examining how three American authors — Theresa Romain, Meredith Duran, and Courtney Milan — utilize the British/Indian colonial relationship in their historically set romances (Secrets of a Scandalous […]

‘You stayed’: Love, law and the reservation in Jenna Kernan’s Apache Protectors series

Johanna Hoorenman (Utrecht University) Session 11.3: Subversions of Race, Culture and History Abstract: Native American themed romance has long been one of the most popular subgenres of popular romance. For a number of years, the Romantic Times had specific Reviewer’s Choice Awards for “Best Indian Romance,” “Best Historical Indian Romance,” and “Best Indian Romance by […]

The Wild Heart of the Continent: Love and Place in Sherry Thomas’s Silk Road Romance Novels

Eric Murphy Selinger (DePaul University) Session 11.1: Subversions of Race, Culture and History Abstract: Chinese-American novelist Sherry Thomas sets two acclaimed books in the Silk Road regions of Central Asia: Not Quite a Husband (2009; RITA 2010), set in the Swat Valley during the 1897 Pathan Revolt; and My Beautiful Enemy, set partly in Chinese […]

In conversation with Mina V. Esguerra – #romanceclass

Kat Mayo (Bookthingo) and Mina V. Esguerra (#romanceclass) Session 10.2: South / South-East Asian Romance Communities Abstract: Author Mina V. Esguerra has single-handedly defined the English-language romance genre in the Philippines through the #romanceclass initiative, which has helped over 100 Filipino authors publish over 200 new titles. This interview will explore the evolution of #romanceclass […]

Negotiating romantic love in India: Family, Public Space and Popular Cinema

Meghna Bohidar (University of Delhi) Session 10.1: South / South-East Asian Romance Communities This paper highlights some particularities of the romance culture produced in India by popular Hindi cinema from the 1990s to the contemporary. The 1990s saw distinctive shift from previous eras of cinema by focusing on escapist, family-oriented romance, aided by the rise […]

Romance in Chinatown: The Love Stories of Edith Maude Eaton (1865-1914)

Dr Erin S.Young (SUNY Empire State College) Session 9.4: Romancing Chinese Worlds Abstract: This project will explore romantic relationships in the short fiction of Edith Maude Eaton (Sui Sin Far), with a particular focus on her 1912 collection of stories, Mrs. Spring Fragrance. Since the critical rediscovery of Eaton’s writings in the 1970s, her work […]