Resistance and Refusals: Special issue of The Comparatist
Call for Papers: Special Issue, The Comparatist
Topic: Reistance and Refusals
General Editor: Zahi Zalloua (Whitman College)
|
a service provided by www.english.upenn.edu |
FAQ changelog |
Call for Papers: Special Issue, The Comparatist
Topic: Reistance and Refusals
General Editor: Zahi Zalloua (Whitman College)
It is with great pleasure that we announce the opening of applications for the 2026 Feminist Decolonial Politics Workshop.
The workshop will be held in a hybrid format, with both in-person and online participation options. We are especially excited to centre this year’s workshop on reading the work of Hortense Spillers, one of the most influential theorists of our time. Spillers is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor at Vanderbilt University, and her scholarship has been foundational to feminist, Black, and decolonial thought.
Participation in the workshop is by application only, and applicants must be accepted in order to attend.
This Collection invites original research that advances the field of gender economics from theoretical, empirical, or policy-oriented perspectives. We welcome contributions examining how public policies—such as taxation, welfare, investment, and public services—affect gender equality, as well as studies addressing inclusive economic growth, social equity, and sustainable development. Research on undervalued or unmeasured economic activities, including unpaid care and domestic work, is particularly encouraged. Papers exploring gender representation across industries, labour regulations, income distribution, and the gendered division of labour are also highly relevant.
The Institute for Research on Women (IRW) at Rutgers University is seeking guest editors for the Spring 2027 issue of its online journal, Rejoinder (https://irw.rutgers.edu/rejoinder). Rejoinder features work at the intersection of scholarship and activism that reflects feminist/queer and social justice perspectives and is currently published once a year. Guest editors will be responsible for the overall shape of the issue, and Rejoinder staff will advise on the process.
Trans Studies, a book series published by Bloomsbury Academic, is seeking proposals for books that provide leading-edge scholarship on transgender and nonbinary topics from any discipline in the humanities, social sciences, and biological sciences. Bloomsbury’s Gender & Sexuality Studies list pioneers the publishing of innovative scholarly research from the Global South, and from marginalized gender identities and sexualities across global and transnational contexts.
ELLAK 2026 International Conference
The End: Reclaiming the Beginning
Dates: December 17–19, 2026
Venue: Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea
Host: The English Language and Literature Association of Korea (ELLAK)
Keynote Speakers
Student Conference on fantasy in cooperation between the Book Lovers Among Students (BLASt) club and the DnD club (Collegium Draconum) of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań!
We invite submissions on themes of diversity, identity politics, race, gender, and queerness in fantasy. The choice of genre can include fantasy, interactive fantasy, DnD, adaptations, offshoots, and appropriations.
Reading Spells Conference will take place on January 24th 2026, online via MsTeams.
Call for Papers
Knowledge in the Age of AI: Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Learning, Writing, and Teaching
The English Graduate Organization at North Dakota State University (NDSU) invites proposals for the 2026 Red River Valley Graduate Student Conference, April 10-11, 2026, on the beautiful NDSU campus in Fargo, North Dakota.
The Comics Arts Conference is now accepting 100 to 200 word abstracts for papers, presentations, and panels taking a critical or historical perspective on comics (juxtaposed images in sequence) for a meeting of scholars and professionals at Comic-Con International, in San Diego, CA, July 23–26, 2026. We seek proposals from a broad range of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives and welcome the participation of academic and independent scholars. We also encourage the involvement of professionals from all areas of the comics industry, including creators, editors, publishers, retailers, distributors, and journalists. The CAC is presently scheduled to take place in person and does not accept virtual presentations. The CAC is designed to bring together
We are excited to share with you all on behalf of the Conference Planning Committee for the University of Connecticut First-Year Writing Program that we are holding our 21st Annual Conference on the Teaching of Writing on Thursday, April 23 and Friday, April 24, 2026, on our campus in Storrs, CT. Our theme for the upcoming conference is: “Wicked Reading for Wicked Problems." As those who have collaborated with us in the past, we are once again inviting you to help us explore ways of approaching these 'wicked problems', such as those that evade consensus, offer multiple solutions, or may even resist resolution at all.
“WE ARE THE ECOSEXUALS. The Earth is our lover.” — Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle, The Ecosex Manifesto
The Graduate Students of the Department of Comparative Thought and Literature at Johns Hopkins University are proud to announce our biennial conference, to be held on April 17–18, 2026. We are pleased to host keynote speaker Heather Davis (The New School).
4th International UTAD Theatre Research Conference
“Borders & Boundaries”
Hosted by:
Turkish Society for Theatre Research (UTAD), Marmara University, Department of English Language and Literature
Conference Dates: 10-12 September 2026
Venue: Marmara University, İstanbul, Türkiye
The Aquatic Presence-Absence in World Literatures
Critical Language and Literary Studies (CLLS) invites original, unpublished research articles for a themed issue to be published in Fall 2026. The theme is examining aquatic presences and absences in world literatures.
Thoreau Annual Gathering, July 8-12, 2026
Ralph Waldo Emerson Society
“Give Me Health and a Day”: Emerson and Health, Illness, and Unity
Call for Papers.
Theatre and Performance Notes and Counternotes seeks short articles or extended essays (1,500-3,000 words) on American (US) theatre at the United States semiquincentennial (250th anniversary). 2-3 sentence abstracts should be submitted by February 2, 2026 and essays/articles before April 6, 2026 to Harvey Young (issue editor) at cfadean[at]bu.edu.
Conference Call for Papers
“Navigating Global Governance in a Multipolar World”
(28-29 May 2026)
Cergy, France
The Faculty of the Anglo-American Legal Program at the Faculté de droit de l'Université CY Cergy Paris is proud to organize this conference in collaboration with the Laboratoire d'Études Juridiques et Politiques (LEJEP) and the newly formed Institute for Multipolar Governance.
Call for Papers
Ege University
20th Cultural Studies Symposium
“AI & Cultural Production”
6–8 May 2026 | Faculty of Letters, Izmir, Türkiye
Artificial Intelligence has distinctly shifted from being a technological tool to a shaping factor in present-day cultural practices. Ranging from AI-related literature, music, and visual arts to AI-enabled storytelling, translation, and co-creative practices, AI confronts traditional concepts of authorship, creativity, agency, and responsibility. Furthermore, AI raises critical moral and political considerations with respect to power, bias, labour, and representation.
Call for Conference papers and contributions
Failure & Resistance
16th International Illustration Research Symposium
November 13th-14th, Arts University Plymouth, United Kingdom
Submission deadline: February 28th 2026
Under certain circumstances failing, losing, forgetting, unmaking, undoing, unbecoming, not knowing may in fact offer more creative, more cooperative, more surprising ways of being in the world. (Jack Halberstam)
A Two-dayInternational Conference
Plates of Memory, Palates of Change: Memory, Identity, Community, and Millennial Transformations
28–29 March 2026
Call For Papers
Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios, 2023) represents a milestone in the evolution of narrative gaming. As both an heir to Dungeons & Dragons and a contemporary work of interactive storytelling, the game synthesizes centuries of myth, moral inquiry, and imaginative world-building into a playable form. This edited collection seeks essays that investigate how Baldur’s Gate 3 draws upon, reinterprets, and transforms literary and philosophical traditions—from the medieval and Renaissance periods through modern fantasy and posthuman theory—to create new modes of narrative, ethics, and embodiment.
European Journal of Theatre and Performance (EJTP)
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Mobilising Heritage: Dance, Theatre, and Performance in the Age of (In)Tangibility
Guest editors:
Timmy De Laet, Franz Anton Cramer, Vicky Kämpfe, and Dunja Njaradi
(proposal deadline: 25 January 2026)
Modernism Remodelled
A Transdisciplinary Conference
Conference Webpage: https://labrc.co.uk/2025/10/22/modernism-remodelled-2026/
Oxford University (and online)
February 28-March 1, 2026
Fees: £180 (in person)
£100 (Online)
Abstract Deadline: January 18, 2026
**Participants interested in attending the conference without presenting a paper are also welcome.
Call for Presentations
The purpose of this issue is to understand the experiences and practices of people living in different geographical contexts. If someone believes that Christianity caused conflict and wars throughout history, this issue suggests that understanding each other's experiences and practices can promote harmony, especially in Asian and Western contexts. The integration of diverse thoughts benefits the well-being of the world. This issue will not only provide a platform to engage with such religious harmony but also serve as a valuable resource for researchers in understanding different experiences and practices.
In 1974, Françoise d’Eaubonne coined the term ecofeminism in Le féminisme ou la mort, foregrounding the intertwined domination of women and nature and calling for the liberation of both from systems of exploitation. Since its emergence, ecofeminism has inspired scholars and activists across disciplines and global contexts.
'It is not down on any map; true places never are' - Herman Melville
American Literature Association
May 20-23, 2026
Palmer House, Chicago, IL
The Richard Wright Society announces two sessions on Wright to take place at the 37th Annual American Literature Association Conference.
Rethinking Richard Wright’s Depiction and Analysis of Gender and Sexuality
Family, Power, and the Politics of Capital: A Symbolic Reading of HBO’s Succession
Shohini Sen
Research scholar
NorthCap University
Dr. Chetna Karnani
Assistant Professor
The NorthCap University, Gurugram, India
Dr. Gouri Kapoor
Assistant Professor
The NorthCap University, Gurugram, India
Abstract :
Motherhood Unbound: Global Pathways of Motherhood Across Cultures and Disciplines
Conference dates: 13–15 February 2026| Venue: IIM Calcutta
Overview
DECISION, the IIM Calcutta-Springer journal, aims to facilitate scholarly inquiry into the contexts of our concepts. In collaboration with Fact or Value, DECISION aims to continue the conversation: investigating process(es) via which some ideas, perspectives and readings of the world have come to be recognized as universal and true; in other words, a fact. Fact or Value is a forum for lectures and discussions on philosophy, aesthetics and history.
Cornell EGSO Conference 2026: Effervescence
Deadline for Submissions: January 5th, 2026
Conference Date: March 20th, 2026
Call for Academic and Creative Proposals
“This impulse to violence had been in her for a long time, growing, feeding, until finally she had blown up in a thousand pieces... Yes, a one-way ticket, she thought. I've had one since the day I was born. The train was on the track.”
—Ann Petry, The Street
Howells Society CFPs for American Literature Association Conference 2026 (Chicago)
The W.D. Howells Society will host two panels at the American Literature Association’s 37th annual conference, which will meet at the Palmer House in Chicago, May 20-23, 2026 (Wednesday through Saturday of Memorial Day weekend).
PANEL 1: HOWELLS & MEDIA
Call for Papers for the International Conference on “Reading Disruptions, Mapping Alterities: of Australian Trans-Tendings, and India in an Age of Reimagined Plurilaterals” to be held on 03.02.26-04.02.26
“ One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.”
- J. Krishnamurti
“No computer has ever been designed that is ever aware of what it’s doing; but most of the time, we aren't either.” - Marvin Minsky
International Symposium: SDGs through Hindu Worldviews – Spiritual Care in a VUCA–BANI World
February 25–26, 2026 | IIT (BHU), Varanasi | Hybrid (Online + Offline)
The University of Iowa
Department of English
Graduate Student Conference 2026
Elaborating Labor
Conference date: Friday, April 10, 2026
Location: Richey Ballroom, Iowa Memorial Union, University of Iowa
Abstract due date: Saturday, January 31, 2026
Please email abstracts to c3conf@uiowa.edu
How do we mark transitions, generate transformational visions, and model alternate ways of being in a world imploding around us? How do we find joy while surrounded by brokenness? How do we heal when systems are structured against us? What rituals or practices can restore us, even speak to our souls? The next issue of Rejoinder explores the theme of ritual, healing, and world-making. Submissions (including essays, commentary, criticism, fiction, poetry, and artwork) should address this theme from feminist, queer, and social justice-inspired perspectives. We particularly welcome contributions at the intersection of scholarship and activism.
Final Call for Book Chapter Proposals/ Abstracts
Matrifocal Narratives in Indian Fiction
Co-Editors: Sushree Routray, Rashmi Gaur, and Rahul K. Gairola
Submission Deadline: December 31, 2025
We are seeking chapter proposals for The Routledge Companion to the Posthuman in Literature and Culture. This new interdisciplinary volume seeks to foreground the representation of the posthuman: as a figure that often appears within certain genres (eg New Weird Fiction, Solarpunk, Autofiction), as an image deployed by specific authors and filmmakers (eg Nnedi Okorafor, Kazuo Ishiguro, Alex Garland), as a discourse that supports the proliferation of “studies” within academia (eg Animal Studies, Surveillance Studies, Affect Studies), and as a growing presence in college classrooms around the world.
International Conference (Hybrid) on Impact of Globalization on Society, Culture and Literature, January 17-18, 2026, organized by IQAC, Onda Thana Mahavidyalaya, and Antarmukh: A Bengali Research Journal.
About the Conference
We are living in a rapidly changing world. For the last many decades, the contemporary world has been undergoing fundamental shifts and transformations in the social structures, systems, organisations, institutions, values, norms, and functions of a society. These social changes are often driven by technological breakthroughs, the penetration of social media, economic globalisation, ecological crises, war, disease, disorder, and so on, along with shifts in cultural and social paradigms.
Update: This year's keynote speaker is Camille Owens. Owens is assistant professor of English at McGill University. Her research focuses on the intersection of race, ableism, and childhood in the nineteenth-century United States. Her book, Like Children: Black Prodigy and the Measure of the Human in America (NYU Press, 2024), was 2025 Choice Outstanding Academic Title and received an honourable mention from the MLA in the William Sanders Scarborough Prize competition.
"There is not one but many silences, and they are an integral part of the strategies that underlie and permeate discourses." —Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality
Proposed Panel (in-person) at International Seminar on Cultures of Body, Bodies of Culture: Thinking Plurality Today, organised by the Department of English, University of North Bengal.
The inconclusive debates, the conflict of opinion, that this seminar aims to initiate and proliferate are about how body, culture, and plurality – three expansive and yet profound concepts – constellate, collapse and collide in varying registers that are both founded and unpredictable. The frames of our studies across disciplines are left in motion; the figures of understanding about how culture and the body and the bodies of culture in relation to plurality struggle to stay entrenched, occupy and distract us.
In a provocative article titled Digging Wells While Houses Burn (2006), David Gordon White argues that certain studies of religion actively stoke supremacist ideologies and politics. The only way to avoid this unsavoury collaboration is to rethink the way we do our work — the stories we choose to tell, and the methods we use to tell them. According to White, academics of religion who fail to engage with this responsibility are “digging wells while houses burn”, ignoring devastating realities that urgently demand their attention. In this context, we invite scholars of all religions, across all disciplines, to reflect on the relationship between their academic work, on the one hand, and violence and supremacy, on the other.
CCLA – Fantastical Constellation Working Group Call for Proposals
CCLA Annual Conference / Colloque annuel de l’ACLC
The Fantastical Constellation Working Group invites proposals for a panel or round table topic, “Entangled Futures: Interstitial Fantasies from the Periphery,” as part of the Canadian Comparative Literature Association Annual Conference, 8-10 June 2026, hosted by the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at McGill University in Montréal.
Special Issue for LIT / The Anger Issue: Women’s Writing and Anger in Ireland
Deadline for full essays: July 15, 2026
SILENCE &—
What is silence? Might it be a gaping void or a buzzy medium—the absence
Conference: Collective Memory in Contemporary Fiction Films
University of Ottawa, June 11-12, 2026
Abstract: Collective memory and remembrance occupy an important place in film: whether through various themes that explore individual and national histories of; through the act of spectating (the act of watching a film), where the audience contributes their interpretation of the film; or where the audience uses their own memories to make sense of the narrative.
CFP for chapter contributions to book edited by the “VR as Empathy Machine: Media, Migration and theHumanitarian Predicament” Research Group at Utrecht University
Book Title: Beyond the Empathy Machine: Critical Perspectives on Virtual Reality