african-american

American Literature Association

May 20-23, 2026

Chicago, IL

Thoreau and Abolition

This roundtable seeks to explore Thoreau’s relation to the abolitionist movement, whether through his antislavery writings, his biography, or the legacies and afterlives of some of his more famous essays such as “Civil Disobedience.” We are interested in papers that explore any aspect of his political and/or abolitionist thought, his political-economic critiques, or the intertwinement of Thoreau’s ecological and antislavery thinking. We also welcome papers that consider how turning to Thoreau or the politics of nineteenth-century abolition in these terrible times provides us with political paths forward.

Paper proposals invited for papers of 15-20 minutes. Please note corrected deadline of Friday, December 19, 2025 for submission of abstracts.

African and Caribbean Theatre and Performance Working Group
IFTR 2026 World Congress 6-10 July 2026 
The University of Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia 

Working Group Theme: 

“What Theatre Does” – African and Caribbean Perspectives on Performance, History, and Identity

Plant Lives: Sacred Interdependencies in the Arts of the Americas

A planting event and conference hosted by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music

April 11, 2026

In 1831, the preacher Nat Turner testified that hieroglyphics had appeared to him on leaves and corn stalks in a field. These hieroglyphics, he said, relayed divine messages that inspired him to lead a rebellion of enslaved Virginians. The starting point for this one-day conference is the many capacities of plants to transmit divine insights across time. This event at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music will explore the ways in which plants perform, evoke, and embody sacred relations throughout the Americas.

ATHE 2026

“ACTIVATING IMAGINATION IN/AND COMMUNITY”
July 22–26, 2026  |  Baltimore, Maryland

This year’s conference theme, "Activating Imagination in/and Community," asks us to think deeply and courageously about the role of theatre and performance in shaping our shared presents and collective futures. It challenges us to contemplate not just what we do, but how and with whom we do it, while recognizing that, in the face of growing political repression and institutional instability, our collaborations—across disciplines, communities, and identities—are simultaneously more vulnerable and vital than ever.

The Journal of Research in Contemporary World Literature (indexed in Scopus) invites original, unpublished research articles for a special issue dedicated to Contemporary African and Arabic Literature. This issue seeks contributions that explore literary production, cross-cultural encounters, postcolonial and decolonial aesthetics, migration and diaspora, oral and performance traditions, and new media literatures within African and Arabic-speaking contexts. The journal is a peer-reviewed, open-access quarterly that publishes in English.

Themes and Topics

United Lutheran Seminary to Host “A Vision for Liberating Our Democracy” Conference, February 27–28, 2026

 Two-day gathering will explore the religious and racialized roots of American democracy and paths toward a more just future.

United Lutheran Seminary (ULS) will host A Vision for Liberating Our Democracy: Examining the Religious and Racialized Roots of American Democracy on February 27–28, 2026, at its Philadelphia campus. The interdisciplinary conference will bring together scholars, activists, educators, and faith leaders to examine how religion and race have shaped democratic life in the United States and to explore liberative visions for the future.

Literature of Color

Call for Papers I: The Haunting of the Past, Memory, and Archive

Society for the Study of Southern Literature Conference 2026

“Building Spaces of Freedom,” March 28th-31st at Fisk University, Nashville, TN

Panel: Building Emerging Spaces of Freedom

The Emerging Scholars Organization (ESO) invites papers that center emerging perspectives on SSSL’s conference theme, Building Spaces of Freedom. This panel foregrounds the ongoing labor of emerging scholars who navigate long histories of exclusion, gatekeeping, and uneven access while also reshaping southern studies through new interventions, methods, and archival practices.

The Society for the History of Women in the Americas (SHAW) welcomes proposals for its annual conference, hosted by the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France.

This year's conference invites papers on any topic relating to histories of women and gender non-conforming people in the Americas, but encourages proposals for papers, panels or roundtables that explore the subject of confinement.

2026 Herman C. Hudson Symposium on:

“(re)VISION: Through Fracture, Focus. Through Vision, Freedom.”

27-28 February 2026

Call for Papers

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: FRIDAY February 1, 2026

Dear Colleagues: 

CALL FOR PAPERS

Charles W. Chesnutt Association

American Literature Association
37th Annual ConferenceMay 20-23, 2026Palmer House
17 East Monroe Street
Chicago, IL  60603

The Charles W. Chesnutt Association welcomes abstracts of no more than 300 words for presentation at two sessions on the work of Chesnutt at the 2026 ALA conference in Chicago.

Subjects for submissions are open but may include one of the following:

Call for Special Issues: Christianity and Literature

As a peer-reviewed journal publishing since 1951, Christianity and Literature invites proposals for Special Issues exploring focused topics at the intersection of Christian faith and literary expression. We are interested in issues that address, but are not limited to, the following areas:

The Claude McKay Society (CMKS), now  an author member society in the American Literature Association (ALA), will convene one or two panels at the ALA conference at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, May 20-24, 2026. Harlem Renaissance author McKay is presently enjoying a healthy resurgence.