Humanists love to hate the state, perhaps now more than ever. Negativity toward the state is de rigueur in the humanities and Trump's version of the white supremacist fascist state in many ways manifests critical theory’s darkest visions. But as democratic institutions in the US and around the world come under increasing attack, as civil servants are fired and authoritarianism rises, it is time to take stock of the limits of state negativity. How can we imagine and theorize the state outside the dark horizon that looms ever more heavily upon us?

Symposium Date: September 25, 2025

Symposium Location: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario

Deadline for Abstracts: August 1, 2025

Notification of Decisions by: August 15, 2025

We seek panelists for Northeast MLA 2026, "Respuestas ciudadanas a las crisis en la España del siglo XXI" 

Conference Details

57th NeMLA Annual Convention, March 5 - 8, 2026, Pittsburgh, PA. Visit https://www.nemla.org/convention/future.html for more details. 

Modality 

In Person Only: The session will be held fully in person at the hotel. No remote presentations will be included.

Submissions and Deadline

Zines and STS: The Remix

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Globally, we are experiencing a moment of heightened anxiety surrounding work and discussions about sex, eroticism, bodies/pleasures, identity, and desire, among many other topics. Indeed, scholars and researchers focused on the erotic often grapple with the label and association of “dirty work,” described as “occupational tasks and jobs that were ‘physically, socially or morally’ tainted” (224). Coined by Everette Hughes (1962), this term has been applied to research on sex and sexuality, as well as other subjects that may provoke controversy. Louisa Allen (2019) utilized the term “dirty work” to address the frustrations involved in publishing images of penises in scholarship related to sex education.

Call for Papers

Twenty-fourth Claflin University Conference on English and Language Arts Pedagogy in Secondary and Postsecondary Institutions (In-person on the campus of Claflin University) *

October 29-30, 2025

THEME: CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Wednesday, October 29, 2025, 9:15 AM—6:15 PM Concurrent sessions

4 PM EST Plenary Session 1: “Culturally responsive teaching in higher education and secondary schools”

Plí invites submissions for its 37th volume:Gender, Sexuality, Feminisms and Women’s Studies in the History of Philosophy

Pli: The Warwick Journal of Philosophy invites submissions for its thirty-eighth issue, which will explore how questions of gender and sexuality (and, more broadly, Women’s Studies and Feminisms) intersect with the History of Philosophy. We welcome original research articles that engage with any philosophical and literary period or tradition, as long as they advance our understanding of the historical entanglements between intellectual thought and lived, gendered experience.

                                                                         Photography / Intensity / Measure
                                                                                 Call for Book Chapters

South Atlantic Modern Language Association conference, November 6 - 8, 2025, Atlanta, GA.

Witch Studies and Translation Studies are both relatively young fields within the western academic canon. Practical and theoretical connections exist between them: for example, the ritualization of praxis, the cultural embeddedness of (re)generative act, and the tensions present within the sequence of intention, act, and consequence. The modern witch may mark time with celebrations within the Wheel of the Year, protect her home and her body with amulets and incantations, or treat her loved ones with herbal remedies. This roundtable conceptualizes witchcraft as a set of personal practices and acts, separate from organized deity worship, structured coven associations, and other markers of formal practice.

ICMS 2026, Session 7569

While the pop culture landscape of books and films often borrow from and are inspired by "the medieval period"–as well as frequently disseminated, propagated, and influenced by neo-medievalist works such as those by Martin, Jordan, Sanderson, and Hobb–relatively little discourse focuses on how other types of contemporary works pull from the same and/or similar influences. With the increasing popularity of medievalism in games, music, etc., this paper panel seeks to prompt, deepen, and explore the study and discussion of the less commonly talked about–yet no less consumed–works and how they look to and use popular mis/understandings of the medieval.

Northeast Modern Language Association 57th Annual Convention 2026

March 5-8, 2026 Pittsburgh, PA

"Voices in Constraint, Languages in Confinement"

This panel explores how language restrictions operate across spatial, social, and systemic boundaries, and defines who can speak, what can be spoken, and where. It invites abstracts that examine the forms and consequences of such restrictions. Submissions may address suppressed or minoritized languages, restricted expressions, and the reception of silenced voices in public and private life.

This session is sponsored by the Mark Twain Circle of America.

American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1935-1910) achieved lasting fame as Mark Twain, an identity that served as both his pen name and the persona he cultivated for the public. Twain’s writings and his distinctive character have dispersed across time and space, and the resulting Twainian tradition incorporates these elements in many ways.

Digital Projections and Screened Identities in US American Culture Virtual Conference | September 4–5, 2025 

***Submission deadline extended to July 25, 2025***

GLOTECH 2025 International Conference: Global Perspectives on Technology-Enhanced Language Learning and Translation

• Date: 25th and 26th September 2025

• Venue: University of Alicante City Centre Venue

• Paper submission deadline: 25th July 2025

• Further info:https://web.ua.es/es/dl2/glotech-2025/

Dear colleagues,

Call for Chapters: Critical Sociocultural Examinations of Gender Discrimination and Persecution

The history of gender discrimination and persecution is as ancient as human civilization itself, rooted in societal structures, cultural norms, and institutional practices that have perpetuated inequality. This critical examination seeks to uncover the deeply entrenched dynamics of gender-based oppression, its evolution across epochs, and the persistent struggle for equality.

See for details and submission https://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/9088

Call for Papers [extended deadline: July 31, 2025]

2025 Multi-ConTEXT International Graduate Conference:

“Comparison and Convergence in English Studies”

Psychoanalysis in Transition: New Queer Approaches in 21st-Century France2026 NeMLA ConventionMarch 5-8, 2026, Pittsburgh, PA Since the 1970s, LGBTQ+ Francophone authors and scholars have produced an expansive critique of psychoanalytic practices and thought. Despite their differing views, Guy Hocquenghem, Michel Foucault, Monique Wittig, Didier Eribon, Sam Bourcier, and Paul B.

In light of this year’s conference theme of regeneration—with its emphasis on engagement, collaboration, and the creation of powerful new entities—this roundtable explores how the humanities might regenerate through human–AI collaboration. As generative AI becomes increasingly integrated into writing studies and classroom practices, human–AI teaming models (Gupta & Shivers-McNair; McKee & Porter; Knowles & Pedersen; Beddington et al.) have shown potential for positive outcomes in writing pedagogy. At the same time, they raise critical questions about voice (Tan et al.; Grey), the complexity of teacher labor (Ghafouri et al.), and agency issue (Yang), prompting us to reflect on what it truly means to co-generate/create with a machine.

In recent years, publishers and children’s book professionals have registered a new enthusiasm for comic and graphic narrative forms. Graphic narratives as children’s literature offer an exciting new type of text for children and youth, providing important insights into the interests and capabilities of these youngsters as readers and as potential agents of change. Curiously, children’s literature criticism has tended to ignore or, at best, marginalize comics and graphic narratives for young people. This “blind spot” in children’s literature and comics criticism, as Charles Hatfield has called it on a number of occasions, is now being addressed.

A few days before the Independence Day of India in 2023, the Special Police Unit for North-Eastern Region (SPUNER) under the Delhi police circulated a Google form to collect information on “North-Eastern People, Ladakhis & Gorkhas of Darjeeling residing in Delhi” for “better policing Safety & Security.” This incident raises serious concerns due to its discriminatory nature against these marginalized communities and poses security risks involved with the storage and ethical use of such data. This aspect of collecting information becomes even more pertinent during critical moments such as elections or the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan in Kashmir.

Kate Chopin in the Classroom

The editors of this essay collection invite 250-word proposals for essays of 5,000 to 7,000 words that address an aspect of or strategy for teaching the fiction, poetry, nonfiction or life of nineteenth-century American author Kate Chopin in the contemporary classroom. What are effective strategies for high school and/or college-level students? How have you incorporated technology into your teaching of Chopin? What changes have you seen in the reception of your students over the years? For example, do they praise or condemn Edna Pontellier? What might this say about students today?

Proposals should include a title, your name and affiliation, and should be no longer than 250 words.

57th Northeast Modern Language Association Convention 2026

Conference Date: March 5-8, 2026

Abstract Submission Deadline: September 30, 2025

All presentations will be delivered via Zoom regardless of whether the presenters are in person. We will use Whova (our conference app) and Zoom to integrate remote sessions into the conference.

Session Title: World Literature and Cultural Globalization (Roundtable/Virtual).

“The era of world literature is at hand, and everyone must contribute to accelerating it,” Goethe said to Eckermann on the afternoon of 1827, and the idea of world literature (Weltliteratur) was born.

Imaginations of the Womb – Uterine Imaginaries

Graduate Student Workshop

 Princeton University, November 20–21, 2025

Organized by Marie-Louise James and Erica Passoni (German Department)