Teaching Baldwin, Baldwin as Teacher

CFP for American Literature Association 2026 (Chicago) 

At a time when teaching is threatened and learning itself is perceived and portrayed by some as threatening, James Baldwin Review (JBR) seeks papers for companion panels on “Teaching Baldwin, Baldwin as Teacher.” In Baldwin’s terms, “to become educated (as all tyrants have always known) is to become inaccessibly independent, it is to acquire a dangerous way of assessing danger, and it is to hold in one’s hands a means of changing reality.” We are especially interested in papers from a range of international perspectives and from contexts within and outside academic institutions. Topics might include but are not limited to the following:

• Specific approaches to teaching Baldwin or particular Baldwin texts or genres• Baldwin in high school, undergraduate, graduate, or non-traditional classrooms• Teaching Baldwin’s understudied work and/or collaborations• Baldwin in interdisciplinary contexts• Baldwin’s own work as a teacher at colleges and universities in the US in the 70s and 80s• Baldwin’s less formal teaching as a mentor and as a prominent public figure and rights activist• “Good, Bad, & Ugly”—approaches, tips, and horror stories from teaching Baldwin• Baldwin’s sense of “education with a small e” (education one receives from life)and “Education with a large E” (education dictated by institutions)• Teaching Baldwin alongside other writers, artists, and activists• Lessons from Baldwin when teaching and learning in dangerous times

Please send submission to Justin Joyce (j.a.joyce@wustl.edu) and Prentiss Clark (Prentiss.Clark@usd.edu). Submissions received before December 1st, 2025 will receive fullest consideration. Accepted panelists will be invited to expand their essays for possible inclusion in a special issue of James Baldwin Review.