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.

English

The University of Florida, the University of North Florida, the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and the Transborder Digital Humanities Center and Consortium (TBDH) at the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA) will host the fourth annual Latin American & Caribbean Digital Humanities Symposium from September 8-10, 2026, in person at the UT San Antonio-Downtown campus. The symposium will also offer virtual sessions the week of September 21, 2026. 

The theme of Mind and Body resonates with recent publications in Old Norse scholarship, such as Saga Emotions (2025) and The Norse Sorceress: Mind and Materiality in the Viking World (2023), considering how the mental and physical is understood and represented in the Old Norse world. This conference aims to tackle questions of how the mind and body are represented and understood in Old Norse-Icelandic language and literature, Icelandic and Scandinavian history and culture, and more. Potential topics may include (but not limited to):

• Emotions

• Dreams, Visions, and Magic

• Gender (non-)conformity

Journal of Travel Literature Studies (JTLS) (ISSN: 3106-6674，EISSN：3106-6682) is a rigorously peer-reviewed international academic journal, formally published by Hong Kong HIEP Press.. The journal is edited by Professor Tian Junwu of Beihang University. The journal welcomes submissions in both Chinese and English. It is dedicated to advancing foundational theoretical and methodological research in the field of travel literature. Unconstrained by temporal or geographical boundaries, JTLS seeks to showcase the diverse textual paradigms and narrative characteristics of travel literature, while encouraging interdisciplinary perspectives and pluralistic critical approaches.

School of Humanities and Performing Arts

Department of English and Cultural Studies

Central Campus

CHRIST (Deemed to be University) Bangalore

Organizes

Mélange

An MA in English with Communication Studies Initiative

&

A Student Led - Postgraduate International Conference on

I seek submissions for a Critical Insights anthology, under contract with Salem Press. The volume will explore quite possibly the greatest female American novelist of the mid-twentieth century, Shirley Jackson. Known and renown for her gothic horrors and suspenseful mysteries, Jackson (1916-1965) may be best remembered for her shorter works such as “The Lottery,” “The Summer People,” and We Have Always Lived in the Castle as well as her landmark and frequently adapted novel The Haunting of Hill House.

The Ralph Waldo Emerson Society invites proposals for one panel at the American Literature Association 37th Annual Conference, May 20-23, 2026, in Chicago. Any topic related to Ralph Waldo Emerson, transcendentalism, or related figures is welcome. Please send 300-word abstracts by email to Bill Scalia (bscalia@alumni.lsu.edu) and John Min (john.min@csn.edu). The deadline for proposals is Wednesday, 15 January 2026.

Florida Atlantic University’s English Graduate Student Society (EGSS) is pleased to announce the return of our annual academic conference, to be held in person on FAU’s Boca Raton campus on Saturday, April 4, 2026. 

This conference is completely free for presenters and attendees. We invite undergraduate and graduate students from all institutions, as well as independent scholars, educators, and creatives, to explore the theme of “(Re)memory” through both academic and creative work.

The Immersive Experience Alliance (IXA), in partnership with Agog, is proud to announce the launch of the Immersive Impact Review, a new open-access publication dedicated to advancing knowledge at the intersection of immersive technologies and social good. We invite submissions for our inaugural issue exploring the theme of “Value(s) in Practice.”

Digital Subjectivities

Digital technologies have become integral to our everyday lives – from work, play, and relationships to political engagement and scholarship – shaping our subjective experiences and the ways we relate to others and ourselves. Their proliferation not only offers new tools for communication and knowledge production but also fundamentally reconfigures how the self is conceptualised and lived. This conference will explore the impact of digital technologies on subjective experience, knowledge production within and beyond academia, culture and politics, and questions of individual and collective agency.

“Curiosity & Care” - Stony Brook University English/WGSS CFP, New York Graduate Conference 

Stony Brook University’s English Graduate Department, in collaboration with the Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Department, invites abstracts and proposals from current graduate students and independent scholars for its annual spring conference on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, NY.

The Shirley Jackson Society invites scholars at all stages of their careers to submit to our panels for the American Literature Association’s 37th Annual Conference in Chicago, May 20-23, 2026.

For “Shirley Jackson in an Age of Anxiety,” we invite papers that explore how Jackson’s texts speak to, reflect, or anticipate our current age of political instability, social fragmentation, economic uncertainty, and concerted attacks on human rights. Topics of interest include cultural and historical trauma, social conformity and marginalization, surveillance and paranoia, the uncanny in everyday life, prejudice, mob mentality, the dismantling of the American Dream, and mental illness as a cultural phenomenon.

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

Media in Full Bloom

A Central Valley Interdisciplinary Conference for Graduate and Undergraduate Students on Film, Television, and Media Studies

Sponsored by the Warrior Bookworms & Wordsmiths, the English Club at Stan State

Contact Email: Warriorwordsmiths@gmail.com

Conference Date: March 13th, 2026

Location: Stanislaus State University, Turlock, CA

Deadline for Submissions: January 19th, 2026

The 17th Annual Research, Art, Writing Conference
February 21st, 2026, Saturday, University of Texas at DallasCall For Papers: RAW 2026

THE THIRD ANNUAL WOMEN, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY STUDIES GRADUATE SYMPOSIUM

A Century of Black History Commemorations

“The Impact and Meaning of Black History and Life Commemorations in Transforming the Status of

Black Peoples in the Modern World”

Morgan State University, April 2, 2026

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.

Mysteries and Mayhem is our fourth conference theme. Why do we continue to crave mystery stories?  What do they tell us about our need for suspense and our desire to solve riddles,  including the most famous of all:Whodunnit?  What do these stories of murder and mayhem teach us about the nature of evil, ideas of sin, and the essence of a villain? What do we hope to see in the survivors of these threats?  –And what do we expect from the detectives and heroes who reveal the truth in these stories? We seek papers and creative projects that explore these and related questions. 

YSLS (Young Scholars Literary Sympsium) welcomes your undergraduate,  graduate,  educator,  and independent scholar proposals! 

… Ond þis geþeaht ic sylle eallum wyrhtum, þæt anra gehwylc cræft his geornlice begange, forþam se þe cræft his forlæt, he byþ forlæten fram þam cræfte. Swa hwæðer þu sy, swa mæsseprest, swa munuc, swa ceorl, swa kempa, bega oþþe behwyrf þe sylfne on þisum, ond beo þæt þu eart; forþam micel hynð ond sceamu hyt is menn nellan wesan þæt þæt he ys ond þæt he wesan sceal. 

DATE: Feb. 25-27

Humanities Education and Research Association

Theme: “The Essential Humanities in Practice and Perseverance” (Virtual Conference)

In keeping with HERA’s mission to promote the study of the humanities across a wide range of disciplines and interdisciplinary studies, we invite proposals for the 2026 conference. Submissions are encouraged from educators at all levels (including undergraduate and graduate students) and from anyone with an interest in the arts and humanities. Proposals for papers, panels, or workshops must be submitted through the conference web portals.

Sacred Arts 2026:
Exploring the Spiritual Dimensions of Artistic Expression and Ritual
Conference webpage: https://labrc.co.uk/2025/12/11/sacred-arts-2026/

University of Oxford
and online

May 16-17, 2026

Registration fees (for both attendees and presenters):

Call for Abstracts for Special Issue of Rhetoric Society Quarterly Maternal Rhetorics: Deconstructing Expectations of Mother/Woman/ParenthoodCo-editors: Anna D'Orazio (University of Cincinnati), Wendy Sharer (East Carolina University), and Jurrita Williams (University of Alabama) In a 2021 interview with Tucker Carlson, then-Senate candidate and now-Vice President JD Vance criticized the Democratic Party “for becoming anti-family and anti-child.” He stated, “It's just a basic fact—you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]—the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children….How does it make sense that we’ve

The Romantic Literature Student Society of the Jagiellonian University under the patronage of the Enlightenment and Romantic Literature Department of JU is pleased to extend the invitation to take part in the Romantics in Relation to Science and Technology Undergraduate and Graduate Student Conference. The conference will take place in Krakow on the 26th and 27th of March, 2026 (foreign speakers will have the opportunity to present online).

Narrating Conflict:

Ethics, Identity, and the Stories We Tell

4/2026

Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Philologia

philologia.studia@ubbcluj.ro

Guest editors

Amelia Precup (Babeș-Bolyai University) amelia.precup@ubbcluj.ro