The historical relationship between Muslims and Christians dates back to the seventh century C.E., when Islam began to spread throughout the Middle East, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent; by the early eighth century, parts of Europe were under Muslim control. Consequently, this Special Issue seeks to understand Christian–Muslim interactions over the centuries. Recent studies of Syriac texts reveal early interactions between Christians and Muslims, the beginning of centuries of Christian–Muslim dialogues, debates, and perspectives that continue into the present day.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The First Transdisciplinary Forum on Art, Culture, History, and Theory

May 2026, Online 

The Global Forum on Art, Culture, History, and Theory (ACHT) hosted by Kaarnamaa Institute of Art and Visual Culture invites submissions.  

Call for Proposals for Vol. 4, Issue 1–Jackson & Animality [deadline extended: Feb. 1, 2026]

The Washington Irving Society (washingtonirvingsociety.org) invites papers discussing innovative ways to teach and/or research Washington Irving and his texts, for the American Literature Association Conference in Chicago, May 20-23, 2026. We welcome papers offering new insight into “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and also encourage insightful studies into other Irving texts. Please send an abstract of approximately 250 words plus a brief bio to Dr.

INTERNATIONAL PSYCHOHISTORICAL ASSOCIATION’S 49th ANNUAL CONFERENCE

 MAY 29-31, 2026, VIRTUALLY ON ZOOM

THEME: Breaking Cycles of Violence: Psychohistorical Perspectives on Individual and Collective Healing

What Is This Conference About?

How do we break the cycles of violence — within ourselves, our families, and our societies — that perpetuate suffering across generations? What can psychohistory contribute to understanding and transforming these deep patterns? The 2026 IPhA Annual Conference invites scholars, clinicians, educators, and activists to explore these vital questions from both individual and collective perspectives.

American Literature Association

May 20-23, 2026

Chicago, IL

Thoreau, Place, and Travel

In his delineation of the moral commitment of thinkers, Edward Said notes that “the proliferation of intellectuals has expanded into the very large number of fields in which intellectuals have become the object of study.” This self-reflexivity drives Said and other prominent scholars to grapple with the ever-changing global dynamics. The public role of the intellectual is therefore to critically engage in political life, rejecting moral detachment as ethical bankruptcy, emphasizing the responsibility of the intelligentsia, and cultivating anti-parochial modes of thought. They stand as a counterforce to the global corporate economic and political agendas that marginalize the human being and attempts to overwhelm human agency.

Journal of Travel Literature Studies (JTLS) (ISSN: 3106-6674，EISSN：3106-6682) is a rigorously peer-reviewed international academic journal, formally published by Hong Kong HIEP Press.. The journal is edited by Professor Tian Junwu of Beihang University. The journal welcomes submissions in both Chinese and English. It is dedicated to advancing foundational theoretical and methodological research in the field of travel literature. Unconstrained by temporal or geographical boundaries, JTLS seeks to showcase the diverse textual paradigms and narrative characteristics of travel literature, while encouraging interdisciplinary perspectives and pluralistic critical approaches.

NEKST 2026

13th International Conference of NextGen Korean Studies Scholars

May 8–9, 2026 | Ann Arbor, MI

Call for Papers

We invite graduate students in Korean Studies across all disciplines to participate in the 13th International Conference of NextGen Korean Studies Scholars (NEKST) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The NEKST conference provides an opportunity for graduate students to share their research, receive feedback from faculty members and other graduate students, and participate in an interdisciplinary community of future and present scholars in Korean Studies.

2026 Ralph Waldo Emerson Society Graduate Student Works in Progress Online Symposium / Friday, April 3rd, 2026,10:00-12:00pmCST

“Reconciliation in Action”

The Immersive Experience Alliance (IXA), in partnership with Agog, is proud to announce the launch of the Immersive Impact Review, a new open-access publication dedicated to advancing knowledge at the intersection of immersive technologies and social good. We invite submissions for our inaugural issue exploring the theme of “Value(s) in Practice.”

The Shirley Jackson Society invites scholars at all stages of their careers to submit to our panels for the American Literature Association’s 37th Annual Conference in Chicago, May 20-23, 2026.

For “Shirley Jackson in an Age of Anxiety,” we invite papers that explore how Jackson’s texts speak to, reflect, or anticipate our current age of political instability, social fragmentation, economic uncertainty, and concerted attacks on human rights. Topics of interest include cultural and historical trauma, social conformity and marginalization, surveillance and paranoia, the uncanny in everyday life, prejudice, mob mentality, the dismantling of the American Dream, and mental illness as a cultural phenomenon.

Proposed Panel at the International Seminar, "Cultures of Body, Bodies of Culture: Thinking Plurality Today" organised by the Department of English, University of North Bengal on 17th and 18th January, 2026 with opportunity for publication

(in-person panel; online presenters too may send proposals which, if selected, will be accommodated in one of the hybrid/online panels)

Panel Theme and Rationale

Mysteries and Mayhem is our fourth conference theme. Why do we continue to crave mystery stories?  What do they tell us about our need for suspense and our desire to solve riddles,  including the most famous of all:Whodunnit?  What do these stories of murder and mayhem teach us about the nature of evil, ideas of sin, and the essence of a villain? What do we hope to see in the survivors of these threats?  –And what do we expect from the detectives and heroes who reveal the truth in these stories? We seek papers and creative projects that explore these and related questions. 

YSLS (Young Scholars Literary Sympsium) welcomes your undergraduate,  graduate,  educator,  and independent scholar proposals! 

… Ond þis geþeaht ic sylle eallum wyrhtum, þæt anra gehwylc cræft his geornlice begange, forþam se þe cræft his forlæt, he byþ forlæten fram þam cræfte. Swa hwæðer þu sy, swa mæsseprest, swa munuc, swa ceorl, swa kempa, bega oþþe behwyrf þe sylfne on þisum, ond beo þæt þu eart; forþam micel hynð ond sceamu hyt is menn nellan wesan þæt þæt he ys ond þæt he wesan sceal. 

DATE: Feb. 25-27

Humanities Education and Research Association

Theme: “The Essential Humanities in Practice and Perseverance” (Virtual Conference)

In keeping with HERA’s mission to promote the study of the humanities across a wide range of disciplines and interdisciplinary studies, we invite proposals for the 2026 conference. Submissions are encouraged from educators at all levels (including undergraduate and graduate students) and from anyone with an interest in the arts and humanities. Proposals for papers, panels, or workshops must be submitted through the conference web portals.

 *Imaginations - Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies (open access and peer-reviewed)*

 <https://imaginationsjournal.ca/index.php/imaginations>

The London Journal Early Career Publishing Workshop

The London Journal is committed to supporting early career scholars develop work into a publishable journal article. To this end, we are hosting a free workshop to provide practical advice and support on developing research (which might include thesis chapters or conference papers) into publishable, full-length journal articles.

Fabulating history in contemporary bio/fiction

1 /2027

Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai. Philologia

philologia.studia@ubbcluj.ro

Guest editors

Ágnes Zsófia Kovács, University of Szeged, Hungary

agnes.zsofia.kovacs@gmail.com

Anna Kérchy, University of Szeged, Hungary 

Lolly Willowes at 100: Sylvia Townsend Warner, Religion, and the Supernatural

IAS Common Ground, University College London, 29-30 May 2026

Call for Nominations:

2026 Award for Best Scholarly Monograph on the American Gothic

The Society for the Study of the American Gothic (SSAG) invites nominations for its biennial Award for Best Scholarly Monograph. This award is open to all scholarly monographs published in the past two years that focus on some aspect of the American Gothic. The winner of the award will be announced at the Society for the Study of the American Gothic business meeting, at the American Literature Association conference in May 2026 (exact date TBA).

Eligibility

This panel explores the intersections of literature, sociability, and the history of emotions in the Hispanic world during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Following Raymond Williams’s notion of “structures of feeling” and Barbara Rosenwein’s concept of “emotional communities,” as well as more recent work in affect theory (Ahmed 2004), we consider emotions not as private, psychological states but as cultural and social practices. Recent scholarship has also stressed the dual nature of emotion concepts—oscillating between natural and normative kinds (Scarantino 2025)—and their role in shaping both political discourses and collective identities.

 “I, I wear a plastic suit / Plastic is my food / Perhaps, I’m plastic too,” sang the iconic Yugoslav New Wave band Idoli in their 1981 song “Plastika” (“Plastics”). These lyrics captured a 1980s moment in which Yugoslav production, import, and consumption of plastics reached their peak. Yet the groundwork for it had been laid in the preceding decades, since plastics production had begun shortly after the Second World War and rapidly permeated all aspects of everyday life (see Filipović 2023). Importantly, Yugoslavia’s trajectory differed from that of the Eastern Bloc.