Bulgaria-based (or Bulgarian-abroad) scholars of literature, reading and/or writing in English, are invited to a one-day conference in Blagoevgrad on October 10th 2026, to present projects-in-progress to an audience of interested peers from around the country. 

Hosted at the American University in Bulgaria, by the Department of Literature, Theatre, and Film, the conference will provide a hub for colleagues from across the nation to gather together, showcase and discuss each other’s work in progress, and chart the future of English-language literary study in Bulgaria. Papers will be combined into themed panels, with plenty of time in each panel dedicated for questions, discussion, and feedback.

Our conference theme—“Philology to Theory and Everything In Between”—reflects Bulgaria’s history of significant contributions to literary studies further West, from its tradition of philological scholarship on English and German writings, to its outsized late-twentieth-century interventions in French literary theory. Our conference aims to bring scholars on literature in English together to hone Bulgaria’s next generation of contributions to the field. 

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If you’re interested in presenting, please send a 200-word abstract for a 15-20-minute paper presentation (emphasising the paper’s novel contribution to its research field) to AubgLitConf@gmail.com before the proposal deadline of August 31st with “Paper Proposal: (your name)” in the email header.

 In addition, please attach a short academic biography (this can mention current position, previous publications, current projects, etc: max 100 words). 

Proposals are welcome from faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars.

We aim to assemble panels and send acceptances by September 10th.  

The event will also be open to attendance from non-presenting scholars and students in the relevant fields. If you’re only interested in attending without presenting, but still want to be kept up to date about planning, please send an email to the conference account at AubgLitConf@gmail.com, with “email info list request (your name)” in the email header.

There will be no fee for presenting at or attending this conference.-

We hope that this might become an annual event: please join us at AUBG on October 10th for this first iteration. We look forward to receiving your proposals.