New Horizons in English Studies vol. 10/2025

LITERATURE, MEDIA AND CULTURE HERE AND NOW

New Horizons in English Studies (indexed in MLA International Bibliography and ERIH+) invites submissions to the 10/2025 issue, welcoming previously unpublished research papers and reviews in the broadly understood field of literary, media and cultural studies (L, M & C). The scope of subjects includes but is not limited to the following:

CFP: 

We are seeking participants for a roundtable for the American Literature Association’s 2025 Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, May 21-24, 2025. This roundtable aims to further our understanding of the Federal Writers’ Project’s (FWP) literary legacy. 

Hiding Behind Trees: Anthropomorphism in Children’s Literature and Culture

Guaranteed Session at MLA 2026 (Toronto, Jan. 8-11), sponsored by the Children's Literature Association

This panel seeks papers that consider the role of anthropomorphism in children’s literature and culture.

Humans have long believed we are distinct from other animals in our rationality, self-consciousness, and use of language. Why, then, do writers, artists, and even scientists so often use anthropomorphism to interpret the behaviors of animals, plants, and even nonliving things such as trains, teapots, and toys? What are the repercussions of this tendency to understand the world in terms of human social and cultural identities?

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is the most financially successful franchise in film history. Between 2008 and 2019 not only did it become a commercial behemoth, redefining the landscape of blockbuster cinema, but also a cultural phenomenon, delighting fans all around the globe. Yet post-Avengers: Endgame (2019) and the conclusion of “The Infinity Saga,” the MCU has struggled to maintain the same level of success and no longer resonates with audiences the way it once did. The MCU, and the wider superhero genre, has faced mounting criticism from fans, critics and even notable industry professionals on a wide range of issues.

This chapter will be part of an edited collection that aims at examining (the intersections between) the notions of monstrosity and evil in the literary and artistic depictions of non-human and hybrid (or post-human) intelligence in different cultural and historical contexts. It focuses on the representation of monsters and creatures that have cognitive abilities as well as on the demonizing and vilification of artificially or magically enhanced human intelligence. It also deals with the depiction of malignant non-human entities interfering with human thoughts and evil non-human cosmic intelligences interfering with human destinies.

Call for papers: “Failing Media”

Cinema and Media Studies Graduate Student Conference

University of Chicago, April 25–26, 2025

Keynote: Nicholas Baer (UC Berkeley)

2025 ICLA Congress-Seoul Call for Individual Proposals:

Dear Comparative Literature scholars/students,

Now the 2025 ICLA Congress (https://icla2025-seoul.kr/en) call for individual proposal submission is out.

For New Deadline and How to Submit Your Abstract, Click NOTICE 18:
https://icla2025-seoul.kr/en/notice/press-and-reviews/01JG9QCYG7XM2H36DE...

The English Editor of Modern Language Review (https://www.mhra.org.uk/series/MLR), the flagship journal of the Modern Humanities Research Association (https://www.mhra.org.uk), and one of the oldest in its field, invites original and compelling contributions from emerging and established scholars on any aspect or period of Anglophone literature. 

Contributions can take two forms:

Call for Papers, ALA 2025, Boston

The American Humor Studies Association (AHSA) plans to offer three panels.

One panel, “New Directions,” will provide an opportunity for innovative thinking on new and old topics.

This first panel will give priority to early career scholars—untenured faculty, newly-minted PhDs, and graduate students writing dissertations.

The second panel will be open-ended, but we will be especially interested in papers focusing on comic artifacts in digital formats, e. g. texts and images produced by generative AI, memes, viral videos, comment threads in social media platforms or websites.

Acta Ludologica (ISSN 2585-8599, e-ISSN 2585-9218) is a double-blind peer-reviewed scientific journal published twice a year in both online and print versions. It focuses on the comprehensive discourse of games and digital games, including theoretical and empirical studies, research results, and their implementation into practice, as well as professional publication reviews and scientific reviews of digital games.

Acta Ludologica is inviting manuscripts for Vol. 8, No. 1, scheduled to be published in June 2025. The deadline for submissions has been extended to January 31, 2025.

A forthcoming special issue of Survive and Thrive will feature stories written by survivors of perinatal loss, their loved ones, their healthcare providers and other support workers, and scholars from interdisciplinary fields.

We are currently seeking contributions from the humanities and social sciences for a scientific network that explores ephemerality in both its material forms and theoretical conceptualizations. This interdisciplinary network aims to bring into dialogue various questions about ephemerality, specifically examining how different fleeting forms of expression are implicated in the continual making and unmaking of proximities, both human and non-human, producing “a matter of temporary intensities and pacts amongst people” and other entities (Vélez-Serna, 14).

Boy Not There is a newly established fellowship, advocating for collaboration between scholars and lived-experience advocates regarding sexual violence against men and boys.

We aim to amplify voices that confront the challenges of male sexual violence, reckoning with social stigmas that often become barriers to disclosure. We work with survivors, researchers, educators and professional clinicians to create supportive frameworks for histories to be shared and eventually overcome.

Food and Foodways is an interdisciplinary journal, and we're expanding our coverage of book reviews in the months ahead. If you are interested in writing a review of an interdisciplinary food studies book published in recent years, we invite you to express interest by contacting our new collective of book review editors at FandFbookreviews@gmail.com

Please include the author and title of the book, its publisher and publication date, and your credentials for writing this review. Additionally, if you would like to suggest a book for consideration, we welcome your recommendations.