The T. S. Eliot Studies Annual is the leading venue for the critical reassessment of Eliot’s life and work in light of the ongoing publication of his letters, critical volumes of his complete prose, the 2015 edition of his complete poems, and the forthcoming critical edition of his plays.

All critical approaches are welcome, as are essays pertaining to any aspect of Eliot’s work as a poet, critic, playwright, editor, foremost exemplar of modernism, or his influence on twentieth-century and contemporary literature and culture.

As historian Kim E. Nielson argues in A Disability History of the United States, the health of the body became metaphorically linked to the health of the nation in the early national period. The nationalist rhetoric of the healthy body politic led to the marginalization of individuals seen as occupying “deficient” or dependent bodies.  This panel seeks to explore this dynamic from the perspective of those excluded by this rhetoric. Papers focused on artists, writers, and other art producers who experienced disability during the era are welcome. How did these figures respond to the nationalist mythos, and how did they envision themselves with respect to the body politic?

Black Feminist Excesses

(MLA 2025 Proposed Working Group)

This working group aims to theorize excess, desire and unbridled being in Black feminist and womanist studies. How does Black feminism and womanism engage disparate, wayward, or fringe forms of identity, embodiment, materiality, affect and culture?  How can concepts like ‘indulgence’ or ‘aspiration’ be considered or troubled among current theoretical frameworks? What do you think is on the horizon for Black feminist and womanist thought in moving beyond the postfeminist moment?

City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, 5 December 2024

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, 6 December 2024

This international, interdisciplinary conference aims to uncover emergent frameworks and methods for the interpretation and analysis of literary, filmic, and cultural texts relating to the profound transformation of cities around the world across the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

The Global Novel Research Project’s final conference gathers scholars pursuing research on the contemporary novel from a global perspective, from any literary and linguistic tradition. The conference topic aligns with the project's objective. We are interested in a new, more integrated, and decentralized perspective in the study of the emergent genre of the global novel, defined as a narrative form that aspires to represent and think about the contemporary world from a global perspective. This new approach will help us better understand how the global novel contributes, discusses and builds global discourses through specific exploratory poetics. Simultaneously, it will help map the uneven circulation of these works within the literary space.

Rolling Call for Contributions

We have a rolling call for contributions and are happy to accept them at any time. However, if you would like your piece to be considered for publication in the next volume, please submit your piece for peer review by May 30, 2024.

Seeking papers that explore representations of Scotland in film and television, including literary adaptations, “tartan noir,” romance and fantasy. Please submit a 250-word abstract and 100-word bio.

Extended deadline for submissions: Monday, 25 March 2024

Original, unpublished research papers are invited for an edited volume titled Vulnerable Lives, Precarious Existence: Contemporary Narratives of Vulnerability from the Global South, scheduled to be published in 2024.

Shakespeare’s dramas in all their generic types—history, romance, comedy, and tragedy—show an interest in exploring what sustains sociopolitical orders, what damages them, and what the human consequences are when such damage occurs. A great deal may be revealed about the viability of a society if we attend to those who are cast as (or see themselves as) aliens, foreigners, or non-conformists with regard to that society’s ruling order, mores, laws, and other key aspects. Bearing in mind that characters who offer the greatest difficulty in terms of identity and relation may be the most valuable objects of study, we will consider a range of Shakespeare’s “outsiders” for the understanding they can provide.

Call for Papers

Special Issue for December 2024 (Issue 39)

“Theatre in Iranian Society”

Guest Editor: Fatima Parchekani, Kharazmi University

Deadline for article submission: 30 June 2024

Dates: August 6 & 7, 2024

Location: Chicago at DePaul University (Lincoln Park Campus)

Theme: Punk Aesthetics, Community, Culture, and Politics

Following the success of our first in-person conference in August 2023, we are excited to announce our second in-person conference sponsored by PSN Canada and PSN USA.

The Native American Literature Permanent Section of the Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA) seeks proposals for papers addressing the Midwest Modern Language Association conference theme of “Health in/of the Humanities,” with a focus on representations of health in Native American literature. Abstracts addressing any aspect of the conference theme in text(s) of Native American literature will be considered. In particular, papers may explore literary treatments of individual physical or mental health or of social, cultural, or environmental health. The MMLA Convention will be held in Chicago, November 14-16, 2024.

C.S. Lewis and Last Things:

How the Writer of Narnia Saw the End of Our Story

4th November 2024

At Union Theological College

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Co-Sponsored by 

The C.S. Lewis Institute Belfast 

& 

John Brown University

Rationale

In the preface to the second edition of Elsie Venner: A Romance of Destiny, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. refers to his work as a “medicated” novel. He also claims to have written his “medicated” work to provide a meditation on the doctrine of “original sin,” wondering whether the eponymous character is morally responsible for her amoral nature. With a background in the medical field, however, Holmes approaches the concept of morality and amorality from a purely physical point of view, forcing his readers to confront both the fact of the impressionable nature of the human body as well as the potential long-term effects on human psychology of disability induced by bodily trauma.