The MLA Language Change Forum is seeking papers that analyze any aspect of discourse and/or language change related to the rise of populism from any field or methodological approach, whether in the U.S. context or beyond. Please submit a 300-word abstract for consideration. 

 Conference Title: Modern Languages Association Annual Conference

Conference Dates: January 9-12, 2025

Conference Location: New Orleans, LA

Contact Information: Laura Francis, Cornell U (lrf62@cornell.edu)

CFP: Plants Beyond Borders

 Although they are the most abundant life form on earth, plants have received scant attention from ecocritics until recently. As allies in the rethinking of human exceptionalism and the limits of human conceptions of nation, race, sexuality, disability, and invasion, plants challenge us to reimagine our philosophical and material relationship to the beings which enable each breath we take.  

Call for Papers for Journal of Chinese Cinemas Special Issue

Hidden Luminaries: Obscure Actresses and Women Filmmakers in Chinese Film History

Guest Editors: David John Boyd (University of Glasgow) and Jessica Siu-yin Yeung (Lingnan University)

Associate Editor: Yiman Wang (University of California, Santa Cruz)

This issue will contribute to the field of Chinese women’s cinema, with studies on individual actresses and women filmmakers who have either faded from cultural or institutional memory, or who are significant in their own region but are under-studied in Anglophone scholarship.

Modernist Chicago: Richard Wright and Beyond (Modernist Studies Association Conference, Nov 7-10)

Deadline for Submissions: 12 PM PST, Friday, March 29, 2024

In the spirit of MSA 2024’s location in Chicago, this panel—centered around but not limited to Richard Wright—seeks work that engages the city’s modernist scene, broadly construed, through WWII: in literature (for example, Lawd Today!, Wright’s posthumously published experimental novel about Chicago, tensions and pollinations between realist and modernist aesthetics), sociology (the Chicago School, including Robert Park), blues music, journal culture and other radical politics, etc.

Call for papers MLA 2025Special session"Women in the Early History of Comics (1800s-1950s)"

How did women artists or women's magazines contribute to the formation of the medium known today as "comics"? This includes cartoons, comics, and other graphic narratives before the emergence of underground feminist comix. Please send 250-word abstracts and bio to camilagutierrez@uc.cl

Deadline for submissions: Friday, 15 March 2024

Camila Gutiérrez, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (camilagutierrez@uc.cl )

We are excited to invite submissions for our upcoming panel on Professional Writing at the South Central Modern Language Association (SCMLA) conference. This panel seeks to explore the evolving landscape of professional writing, including but not limited to technical writing, business communication, digital rhetoric, and writing pedagogy. We welcome a broad range of submissions that address theoretical, practical, pedagogical, or technological aspects of professional writing.

True crime has always been popular, and with the growing accessibility of alternative forms of on-demand media, including streaming services and podcasts, the popularity of the genre has only grown, strengthened by its appeal to the armchair detective and often the invitation to participate in the solution of the crime itself. As Larke-Walsh (2023) observes, the viewer’s compulsion to close the case—or to contest it—testifies to the text’s ‘potential for positive social impact’.

Transformative Scenes: Metamorphosis and Popular Culture

The regular session on African American Literature invites proposals for the 2024 in-person conference of the South Central Modern Language Association, in New Orlean, LA, from Sep. 19-21 (https://www.southcentralmla.org/conference/).

We welcome proposals related to any period or aspect of African American literature.

For consideration, please send an abstract of no more than 300 words and a brief bio to mchooper@pvamu.edu by March 15, 2024.

University administrators often refer to contingent faculty in nameless, generic terms. This panel invites participants to share stories from contingency (including resourcefulness, creativity, and perseverance) to demonstrate the complexity of the people delivering university instruction.

Deadline for submissions: Friday, 8 March 2024

Clark Barwick, Indiana U, Bloomington (mbarwick@indiana.edu )

Visible to students but invisible to faculty/administration for governance, pay, and benefits, this panel seeks papers defining issues and/or strategies to increase adjunct visibility providing substantive, long-term, meaningful change.

Send 200-word abstracts to: samo@uwsuper.edu & Amee.Schmidt@iavalley.edu

Deadline for submissions: Tuesday, 5 March 2024

If you are working on the artistic representation of the socio-cultural and political legacy of land dispossession and invisibility within the theoretical framework of postcolonial studies, send a 250-word abstract to this panel. All kinds of activist artworks are welcome: films, motion pictures, docuseries, plastic, textile, performance, music, paintings, literature, etc. Papers can be in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Timeframe: 19th-21st century. Submit your abstract through the MLA CFP section at: https://mla.confex.com/mla/2025/webprogrampreliminary/Paper26535.html

Deadline for submissions: Friday, 15 March 2024

Transitions and Transformation in South Asian Folklore: Problems, Perspectives, and Prospects

Subsequent productions (of opera and musical theatre) can reveal and/or challenge the heart and soul of the original texts. This session invites 250-word abstracts regarding cautionary failures, inspiring successes, and intriguing mixtures.

Lyrica (Affiliated Organization of Modern Language Association),  Modern Language Association conventioni. January 9-12 in New Orleans.