Call for Papers

Special Issue on: Eco-Narratives and Climate Fiction

New Literaria: An International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Humanities

“Not to be made happy is to refuse the promise of this conversion. Not to cheer is to withdraw from the situation. Not being in the mood for happiness becomes a political action. And you know what: I am not in the mood.” – Sara Ahmed, “Too Much and Not in the Mood” 

“I laughed a little. I didn’t mean to, but unsure of what kind of face I should be making, I started laughing, in an odd way that betrayed the fact that I was used to living my life in a daze, without giving anything much thought.” Meiko Kawakami All the Lovers in the Night

Lost Girls & New Women: Woolf, Conrad, & the Regendering of Empire

 Comparative panel considering Conrad’s and Woolf’s female characters as challenging imperial gender norms.  Papers might range from Conrad’s often biracial colonial feminine roles to Woolf on threatening sexualities or “New Women.”  Short bio, 300wd proposals.

 Deadline for submissions: Saturday, 15 March 2025

Ben Leubner, Montana State University < leubnerb@montana.edu >

Mark Deggan, Simon Fraser University < mark_deggan@sfu.ca >

Joseph Conrad: False Truth & the Absurd

 Panel on Conrad’s critique of false or misleading “truths” in a world without set meanings.  Papers considered on national/imperial truisms, or the “absurd” as a mode of actuality or critique.  Short bio, 250wd proposals.

 Deadline for submissions: Sunday, 16 March 2025

Mark Deggan, Simon Fraser University < mark_deggan@sfu.ca >

“Margaret Fuller and 19C American Women Writers Observing Nature, Engaging Science”

Margaret Fuller’s “Entertainments of the Past Winter,” published in the July 1842 issue of the Dial, relays, “Wherever we went, there was Lyell’s Geology on the table, and many of the suggestions made by these lectures lingered in conversation throughout the winter.” She is referencing Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology, which made the then relatively new concept of deep time palatable to a wide audience. Lyell aided Fuller’s understanding of how past and present are connected, and helped her to see the long and ongoing processes of nature. 

This is a special panel proposed for MLA Conference 2026 in Toronto, Canada (Scheduled from January 8 – 11). This panel focuses on the entangled legacies of colonialism, environmental degradation, and forced migration in contemporary literature and cinema. It interrogates how literary texts reimagine the relationship between ecological crises and human displacement, foregrounding the uneven impacts of climate change, resource extraction, and border regimes on postcolonial subjects.

Abstract should focus on the following areas (not limited to):

Postcolonial ecologies

Postcolonial disasters and indigenous knowledge

Postcolonial borders and geopolitics

Decolonialization and resistance

In 1892, the satirical magazine Moonshine published “The Commission on Ghosts,” a mock-article recounting the “first sitting” of the Society for General Psychology’s Royal Commission on spirits. Those present are “The Chairman, the Editor of Light, Mrs. Annie Besant, Miss Florence Marryat, Mr. W. Eglinton, Mr. Dawson Rogers, Mr. C. N. Williamson, and Mr. W. T. Stead” (315). Each member was a public supporter/purveyor of spiritualist belief at the fin de siècle.

In-yer-Ear: Performing in the Headphone era

Open CFP:  Contemporary Theatre Review Upcoming Special Issue 
https://www.contemporarytheatrereview.org/upcoming-special-issues/

Guest Editors:
Maria Ristani (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Sotirios Bampatzimopoulos (Ankara University)

In our daily lives, we frequently encounter terms like "culture," "cultured," "high-cultured," "low-cultured," and "uncultured." We often hastily label individuals based on their appearance or social status; for instance, a shabbily dressed person or a homeless individual might be instantly deemed "uncultured." Certain activities, such as traditional children's games like using a gulti (slingshot) to collect mangoes, playing hopscotch, or spinning tops, are sometimes dismissively categorized as pastimes of the chotolok or lower classes.

“The desire for transcendence is the longing for something that breaks this cycle of means and ends and enables us to escape the everydayness of the everyday.”

— John Lachs, “Transcendence in Philosophy and in Everyday Life” (1997) 

Please note: This is a proposed, not a guaranteed, session, co-sponsored by the forum on Comics & Graphic Narratives and Adaptation Studies for MLA 2026 in Toronto (Jan. 8-11). It is contingent on approval by the MLA Program Committee. All prospective presenters must be current MLA members by April 1, 2025.

We invite contributions to an edited volume that delves into the complex and often nuanced villains of the Spider-Man universe. From the iconic Green Goblin to the morally ambiguous Venom, these characters have captivated audiences for decades, reflecting societal fears, psychological complexities, and the struggles between good and evil.

The general call for this year, inviting “papers that explore the value of the Humanities in relation to a more hopeful future” in areas including but not limited to “languages, literature, pedagogy, writing studies, linguistics, folklore, film studies, the digital humanities, and library studies”, has broad possibilities within the languages, literatures, histories, and cultures related to Old and Middle English.

Special issue of The Canadian Journal of Communication

Edited by Kisha McPherson, Natalie Coulter, and Marion Tempest Grant