In 1892, when authorities arrested Lizzie Borden for the brutal axe-murders of her father and stepmother, America, and specifically Massachusetts, stood at the forefront of the Women's Suffrage Movement. Several of the first conventions, halls, and clubs in support of the movement took place in Lizzie’s home state of Massachusetts. In this paper I will examine how the gender roles and socioeconomic factors of Victorian Massachusetts contributed to Lizzie Borden’s acquittal despite the abundance of circumstantial evidence. I will not argue for Lizzie’s innocence, as I believe she committed the crime, but instead I will present how the gender norms and socioeconomic factors of this era shaped perceptions of criminality and public opinion.

CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSAL

The Ghost in the Machine Learns to Speak for the Dead:

AI, Rhetorical Resurrection, the Injustice of Synthetic Voice

An edited Collection, edited by Shiva Hari Mainaly, PhD, University of Memphis

Abstracts due December 15, 2026

The Dead are Speaking. Who Gave Them Their Words?

The Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University is thrilled to host the 12th annual Post45 Graduate Symposium on March 4-6, 2027.

The Post45 Graduate Symposium seeks graduate-level works-in-progress related to post-1945 media, arts, literature, textual or visual objects, digital platforms, politics, and culture. We welcome submissions that expand our conception of objects and meaning-making post-1945 or place them in comparative, transnational, or hemispheric frames. We especially welcome contributions that foreground the importance of race, gender, class, and sexuality to post-45 studies. 

 Call for Proposals - Acting Out: Theatre Training Outside the Theatre Classroom 

Learning Stages is seeking contributions to a new anthology promoting the use of theatre training and educational strategies for application across post-secondary disciplines outside of the theatre classroom. 

Staging Myth: Performance, Adaptation, and Cultural Memory

Deadline for Abstract Submissions: 30th October 2026

“The true purpose of the theater is to create Myths, to express life in its immense, universal aspect.” (Artaud, 1958, p. 116)

The Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies is excited to share a call for submissions for the 6th volume of Roots & Resettlement, a mixed-media digital collection. For this volume, we invite creative submissions by Latine voices from across the world for a collection exploring migration, place, and belonging.

The Centre in English-Language Travel Literature – 20, 21 and 22 May 2027

MSH Clermont-Ferrand

The Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University is thrilled to host the 12th annual Post45 Graduate Symposium on March 4-6, 2027.

The Post45 Graduate Symposium seeks graduate-level works-in-progress related to post-1945 media, arts, literature, textual or visual objects, digital platforms, politics, and culture. We welcome submissions that expand our conception of objects and meaning-making post-1945 or place them in comparative, transnational, or hemispheric frames. We especially welcome contributions that foreground the importance of race, gender, class, and sexuality to post-45 studies.

Reminder: Teaching the Nineteenth Century in Today's University

NeMLA 2027 Annual Convention in Newport, RI, March 6-9, 2027

Abstracts due 9/30

In an environment of increasing digital distraction, courses exploring nineteenth-century literature and culture ask students to engage with some of literature’s lengthiest texts. How can we encourage meaningful engagement with nineteenth century “loose, baggy monsters” in today’s university? What resources can we call upon to better engage our students and support their learning in light of the rise of AI and the challenges of online distraction?

Concept note

Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research invites authors to submit papers for issue 1/2027. Research into any and all aspects of science fiction, fantasy, and other speculative genres is welcome from a range of disciplines.

Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research is a peer-reviewed academic journal published online twice a year. Fafnir is acompletely open-access, non-profit publication of the Finnish Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy Research (FINFAR). Fafnir publishes various texts ranging from peer-reviewed research articles to short overviews and book reviews in the field of science fiction and fantasy research.

Working Title of Collection: Mukhar: Reading Gender across Page, Screen, and Society

Editor: Dr. Vasundhara Laspal (Head, Department of English, Government Degree College, Shitlakhet, Almora, Uttarakhand)

Publisher: L Ordine Nuovo Publication (CRRPS), Madurai, Tamil Nadu · www.nuovopublication.com · www.crrps.in

CFP: Feminist Digital Archiving

April 23-24, 2027

William & Mary, Williamsburg VA

Please send a 300-400 word abstract and 200 word bio to emlosh@wm.edu by December 1, 2026

Amy Earhart has warned that feminist and anti-racist digital humanities projects are often vulnerable to neglect and obsolescence, compounding a persistent “lack of diversity in the digital canon.”  She also cited Matt Kirschenbaum’s dictum that “preservation is not a technical problem but a social problem.”

Call for Papers

Myth, Folklore, and Fairy Tales Area

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

48th Annual Conference, February 17-20, 2027

Marriott Albuquerque

Albuquerque, New Mexico

https://swpaca.org

Submissions open: September 1, 2026

Proposal submission deadline: October 31, 2026

Confirmed keynote speakers: Brendan McMahon (University of Michigan) and Franziska Schenk (artist and researcher, Birmingham City University)

What does it mean to teach a history that has been marginalised? 

Questions surrounding the teaching of marginalised, contested, and difficult histories have become increasingly important across educational systems, universities, museums and other sites of historical education internationally. Yet discussions of inclusive and diverse curricula can sometimes obscure a more fundamental question: how, and at what point, does a history become marginalised in the first place? 

When, in September 2026, a post declaring the actress Katrina Kaif "finished" following her return to public life after childbirth accumulated lakhs of views and comments, the disproportion between judgement and object became, itself, the more legible text. A comparable structure recurred that same year for the South Korean singer Jennie, whose performances at Mad Cool Festival and Lollapalooza Chicago drew, alongside widespread acclaim, a coordinated wave of "netizen" commentary deriding her "leaner frame" — two women, two national contexts, two entirely unrelated bodily "failures" (one insufficiently youthful, the other insufficiently substantial), and yet an identical infrastructure of mass, public, collectively affirmed judgement.

https://ims14.org/index.php

KÁROLI GÁSPÁR UNIVERSITY, BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

21–25 JUNE 2027

The International Milton Symposium is the world's leading forum for scholars working on John Milton and his world. The 14th Symposium will be held in the historic city of Budapest in 2027.

Papers are invited in all areas of Milton Studies, including but not limited to: politics, religion, textual studies, reception, translation, digital humanities, animal studies, and more.

Abstract deadline:15 NOVEMBER 2026

https://ims14.org/index.php

The rise of the superhero is one of the most significant cultural developments of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Since the debut of Superman in Action Comics #1 (April 18, 1938), superheroes have evolved from colorful comic-book figures into powerful global symbols that shape conversations about politics, morality, identity, technology, gender, race, mythology, trauma, and resistance. What began with the imaginative vision of Jerry Siegel (writer) and Joe Shuster (artist) has expanded into a worldwide phenomenon spanning comics, film, television, literature, gaming, digital media, and academic discourse.

Call for Papers

Poetry and Poetics (Critical)

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

48th Annual Conference, February 17-20, 2027

Marriott Albuquerque

Albuquerque, New Mexico

https://swpaca.org

Submissions open: September 1, 2026

Proposal submission deadline: October 31, 2026

The Gothic Servant

deadline for submissions: 

September 29, 2026

full name / name of organization: 

NeMLA

contact email: 

nilawren@utica.edu

This conference will take place in person at Salve Regina University in Newport, RI, March 6-9, 2027.

Call for Proposals

Audiovisual Creation in the Age of AI

Special Issue for 2027

Extended deadline: EchoForum 2026 Conference: Disability as Radical Interdisciplinary Practice26–27 November 2026

Organised by: Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu

Submission deadline: 10 October 2026

Working languages: English, French, Romanian

CONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:Petra Kuppers // University of MichiganJonathan Meth // Goldsmiths University of LondonMaria Bucur // Indiana University Bloomington

EchoForum: Conceptual Framework

The Journal for the New Narratives in the History of Philosophy (JNNHP) invites submissions for its special on Derrick Bell and the History of Africana Philosophy, to be published in Fall 2028. Derrick Bell, the founder of Critical Race Theory, produced one of the most innovative, insightful, and transformative ideas in the 20th century. His philosophical insights continue to challenge how western liberal nations contend with questions of civil rights, human rights, immigration, policing, and education.