Concept Note

National Conference on Interstices, Relationality and Sense-making: Navigating Peace, Ethics and AI in the 21st Century

Organised by the Centre for Peace and Ethics in the Age of AI under the aegis of Swami Vivekananda University, Barrackpore, West Bengal, India. 

19th-20th January, 2026 (Hybrid Mode) 

“ One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.”

 -  J. Krishnamurti 

“No computer has ever been designed that is ever aware of what it’s doing; but most of the time, we aren't either.” - Marvin Minsky 

For Critical Insights volume under contract:

Madness in Literature

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: January 9, 2026

Please consider submitting an abstract for the edited collection, Reconfiguring Critical Thinking in Higher Education for the 21st Century (Springer, Education).

We welcome research on critical thinking in higher education in Southeast Asia. The first section of the collection endeavours to define critical thinking in the current climate. The essays of the second section share classroom activities and curriculum design that aim to teach critical thinking. And the final section considers how LLMs can both facilitate and inhibit the cultivation of critical thinking in student learners. 

We aim to have completed articles ready for submission by August, 2026. 

FOR LANCELOT ANDREWES

September 25th 2026 marks the 400th anniversary of Lancelot Andrewes’ death. It also marks the 100th anniversary of an essay by T. S. Eliot which appeared first in the TLS and was later collected into the volume named after it: For Lancelot Andrewes. This essay instigated modern critical interest in Andrewes’ intellectual and imaginative legacy, and is a significant event not just for sermon studies but for the conjunction of modernism and early modernism, and the influence of the renaissance period on the poets and thinkers of the twentieth century and beyond.

Queering food in the 21st Century

Proposed Panel at the International Seminar, "Cultures of Body, Bodies of Culture: Thinking Plurality Today" organised by the Department of English, University of North Bengal on 17th and 18th January, 2026 with opportunity for publication

Panel Theme and Rationale

This panel seeks to rethink the seminar’s guiding concerns—body, culture, and plurality—through the prism of urban studies, architectural philosophy, infrastructure theory, and contemporary cultural production. We invite proposals that examine how bodies (human, non-human, machinic, ecological) are shaped, transformed, and regulated by the architectural, infrastructural, and cultural dynamics of contemporary global cities.

Women and the Body: Interdisciplinary PerspectivesInterdisciplinary Studies on Philology – Volume (forthcoming)

The edited volume Women and the Body will appear as part of the peer-reviewed book series Interdisciplinary Studies on Philology, published by Maurer Press (Germany). The series explores cutting-edge research across literary studies, cultural studies, linguistics, philosophy, and related fields, with a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary and theoretically innovative approaches.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PHILOSOPHY “REWIRING ECOLOGIES: GROWTH, DEGROWTH, AND TECHNOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURES” Thirtieth Annual Meeting 21–23 May 2026 ONLINE ONLY

The IAEP Executive Committee is excited to announce our 2026 online annual meeting. To reduce the
environmental impact of our environmental philosophy, we hold conferences in-person/hybrid in
odd-numbered years, and fully remotely in even-numbered years.

Call for Papers for an Anthology

“The Colours of Pride: Queer Identities in Literature and Culture”

Submit to minimelow@gmail.com

Submissions close on 15 January 2026

Submit your paper to: minimelow@gmail.com  

Papers are invited for an anthology to be brought out by a reputed international publisher on the theme, “The Colours of Pride: Queer Identities in Literature and Culture.” 

Concept Note

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

Current Research in Speculative Fiction 2026

16th Annual Conference

Systems and Entanglement

July 16th-17th 2026

University of Liverpool and Online

Nobody lives everywhere; everybody lives somewhere. Nothing is connected to everything; everything is connected to something.

(Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene)

The peer-reviewed e-journal Otherness: Essays and Studies is now accepting submissions for its 2026 general issue.

Otherness: Essays and Studies publishes research articles from and across different scholarly disciplines that examine, in as many ways as possible, the concepts of otherness and alterity.  We particularly appreciate dynamic cross-disciplinary study.

“The beyond is not a new horizon, but a sense of the transition that takes place in the interstices” — Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (1994)

Special Call for Prearranged American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS) Panels at the Comparative Drama Conference (CDC), Madison, Wisconsin, July 9-11, 2026

Special extended deadline for these prearranged ATDS panels (only): January 10, 2026 

Communication in the age of digital spaces has transformed rapidly. The advent of social media platforms has led to a transition in the manner and extent of information circulation online, making communication a more collaborative and democratised form of participation. Participatory culture, as defined by Henry Jenkins, is a space that enables the audience to become active participants rather than passive consumers of the texts. The meaning of participation especially evolves with the exposure to social media platforms that allow individual members to find a space for their expression.

We are happy to announce that the Department of English Studies at the University of Zadar is organizing an international scientific conference titled Contemporary Horizons in English Studies (CHES). The conference theme, Contemporary Horizons in English Studies, casts a wide net, encompassing diverse areas and perspectives within the field. As we reflect on decades of growth in English studies and the 70-year history of our department, we also look toward the new horizons that continue to expand the boundaries of our discipline. Inspired by our department’s interdisciplinary spirit, the theme highlights a variety of research, teaching, and creative work taking place across English studies.

Call for Papers | Society of Early Americanists
American Literature Association | 37th Annual Conference | May 20–23, 2026 | Chicago, IL

Errand into the Wilderness at 70

Upon the 70th anniversary of his Errand into the Wilderness, this panel invites papers and presentations that offer critical examinations and new interpretations of work by the intellectual historian (and Chicago native) Perry Miller. Topics might include (but are not limited to):

Call for Papers | Society of Early Americanists
American Literature Association | 37th Annual Conference | May 20–23, 2026 | Chicago, IL

Placing Chicago in Early American Studies

Acknowledging our conference setting and anticipating the 2027 SEA Biennial, this panel invites papers and presentations that explore the literature, culture, and history of Chicago prior to its March 1837 incorporation. What is (or should be) Chicago’s place within the field of early American studies? Topics might include (but are not limited to):

The British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies (BACLS) is pleased to announce our first graduate conference, New Work in Contemporary Literary Studies, which will take place at the University of Leeds on May 20th 2026. This will be a hybrid conference.

Participants will be invited to contribute to a special issue of the soon-to-be relaunched journal Alluvium, to be published after the symposium. 

Concorde: Literary, Linguistic and Sustainability Studies Conference

Date: 22-23 April, 2026

Venue: Department of English, Netrokona University, Netrokona, Bangladesh

Keynote speakers:

Day-1: Professor Dr Shamsad Mortuza, Department of English, University of Dhaka

Day-2: Professor Dr Sabiha Huq, English Discipline, Khulna University

A Two-Day International Conference on

Beyond Binaries: Interrogating the Multiplicity of Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Society

21st and 22nd January, 2026

Organized by

Centre for Gender Studies

And

Department of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies

Swami Vivekananda University

Concept Note:

This interdisciplinary conference aims to bring together scholars, writers, filmmakers, and students to share the interest and passion for the fictional criminal genre through their participation in panels, roundtables, workshops, film screenings, and curated cultural events in historic Salem.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Society will host two panels at the 37th Annual American Literature Association Conference, May 20-23, 2026 in Chicago. We invite proposals for presentations on any aspect of Gilman’s life and work.

Possible topics include but are by no means limited to:

• Gilman and the Female Gothic

• Gilman and Xenofeminism

• Gilman and First Wave Feminism

• Gilman and Medicine / the Health Humanities

• Gilman and Utopianism

• Gilman and Evolutionary Science

• Gilman and Religion

• Gilman and Queer Culture