The International Toy Research Association (ITRA) invites proposals for the 10th ITRA World Conference to be held in Augsburg Germany 5-7 August, 2026.  The overarching conference theme is The Zeitgeist in Toys & Games.

Proposal Submission Deadline:  31 December, 2025

Throughout recorded history, toys and games have shaped and reflected who we are. They inspire our play and fuel our development, both as individuals and members of society.   As both carriers and changemakers of culture, toys represent and influence the collective spirit of their times – the Zeitgeist. 

Call for papers: Women’s Studies: An Inter-disciplinary Journal (A&HCI)

Special Issue: Quilting and Women's Storytelling

Guest Editor: Hairong Chen

“What’s the name of the game?” ABBA, Northernness and Pop Culture

19-20th March 2026, Université de Lorraine, Nancy

This session seeks papers that examine points of contact between different languages in Layamon’s Brut and in other prose and verse Bruts.  Papers that focus on instances within the text where speakers of different languages interact are welcome, as are papers that take examine Layamon’s and other Brut authors’ methods of translating sections of source texts and/or incorporating other languages into their text.  The session hopes to advance critical understanding of relationships between language and cultural or ethnic identity, language as a source of power or prestige, and translation as a way of conveying history to different audiences.  What do perceptions of language tell us about the writers and readers of historical texts

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice 

27-28 November 2025

International Conference 

“coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkins…”: Eating Indoors and Outdoors in Children’s Literature

Keynote Speakers: Prof. Vanessa Joosen (University of Antwerp), Prof. Diane Purkiss (University of Oxford)

Call for Papers: Special Issue of Cross-Cultural Studies on Han Kang and the Cross-Cultural Imagination

• Deadline for abstract submissions: October 1, 2025
• Deadline for full manuscript submissions (upon acceptance of abstract): September, 2026
• Publication Date: December, 2026
• Languages accepted: English
• Full name / name of organization: The Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, Kyung Hee University, South Korea
• Guest Editor: Dr. Hyeryung Hwang, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
• Contact email: hhwang@cpp.edu

Overview

Guest Reviewers

New Writing: the International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creaive Writing (Taylor and Francis / Routledge) seeks guest reviewers with the requisite expertise for its registry of esteemed guest reviewers for works of creative writing, creative writing studies and/or literary studies.

New Writing is one of the world's leading journals in Creative Writing and Creative Writing Studies.. The Peer Review Board - appointed after extensive international review - deals with the range of submitted material (creative and critical). Occasional additional opinions are sought from guest reviewers with the requisite expertise. 

The Plantationocene: On Histories and Narratives of the Plantation

Special issue for Interdisciplinary Literary Studies

Editors:

Goutam Karmakar, University of Hyderabad, India

Somasree Sarkar, Ghoshpukur College, University of North Bengal, India

New Perspectives on Bob Dylan (NeMLA 2026)

Deadline for abstract submission: September 30 2025

WHAT IS RESEARCH?
University of Oregon Portland
April 23–25, 2026

whatis.uoregon.edu

PAMLA will meet during the fiftieth anniversary of Ursula Le Guin’s “The New Atlantis,” and of her rare achievement: winning the Hugo, Locus, and Nebula awards simultaneously, for The Dispossessed, which appeared the year before. It would seem an auspicious occasion to explore her retroactively provocative contributions to what has since come to be known as clifi, and her oeuvre more generally.

All disciplines and approaches welcome.

The conference is entirely in-person; no virtual participation is envisioned.

6th International e-Conference

on

Imagining Futures: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Humanity, Crisis, and Change

Date: 25th and 26th September, 2025(Thursday & Friday)

To be Organized by

New Literaria- An International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities

In collaboration with

School of Languages & Literature & Indian Knowledge System (IKS) Cell, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Jammu & Kashmir, India

&

Department of History, Humanities and Society, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy

4–6 September 2025 | University of Tokyo (Hongo Campus)

The University of Tokyo will be hosting an international conference, Providence, Propaganda, and Profit in the Early Modern English World, on 4–6 September 2025. Should you wish to present a paper of 20 minutes at the conference, please submit your proposal by 15 July 2025. Limited travel bursaries are available, particularly for postgraduate students and early career researchers.

【CALL FOR PAPERS】

The so-called “post-secular turn” in Victorian studies has helped produce a more accurate view of the Victorian period by acknowledging the religiosity of the time rather than privileging doubt and skepticism. However, so far the post-secular turn, understandably, has focused on religious movements and the role of the Bible in the literature of the time. This panel seeks to broaden that focus by examining ways in which a consideration of Victorian religiosity sheds new light on a range of scholarly debates – including but not limited to such topics as disability studies, eugenics, “scientific” racism, or animal rights, among many other possibilities. Interdisciplinary papers are welcome.