Current Research in Speculative Fiction 2026

16th Annual Conference

Systems and Entanglement

July 16th-17th 2026

University of Liverpool and Online

Nobody lives everywhere; everybody lives somewhere. Nothing is connected to everything; everything is connected to something.

(Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene)

The peer-reviewed e-journal Otherness: Essays and Studies is now accepting submissions for its 2026 general issue.

Otherness: Essays and Studies publishes research articles from and across different scholarly disciplines that examine, in as many ways as possible, the concepts of otherness and alterity.  We particularly appreciate dynamic cross-disciplinary study.

“The beyond is not a new horizon, but a sense of the transition that takes place in the interstices” — Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (1994)

Special Call for Prearranged American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS) Panels at the Comparative Drama Conference (CDC), Madison, Wisconsin, July 9-11, 2026

Special extended deadline for these prearranged ATDS panels (only): January 10, 2026 

Communication in the age of digital spaces has transformed rapidly. The advent of social media platforms has led to a transition in the manner and extent of information circulation online, making communication a more collaborative and democratised form of participation. Participatory culture, as defined by Henry Jenkins, is a space that enables the audience to become active participants rather than passive consumers of the texts. The meaning of participation especially evolves with the exposure to social media platforms that allow individual members to find a space for their expression.

We are happy to announce that the Department of English Studies at the University of Zadar is organizing an international scientific conference titled Contemporary Horizons in English Studies (CHES). The conference theme, Contemporary Horizons in English Studies, casts a wide net, encompassing diverse areas and perspectives within the field. As we reflect on decades of growth in English studies and the 70-year history of our department, we also look toward the new horizons that continue to expand the boundaries of our discipline. Inspired by our department’s interdisciplinary spirit, the theme highlights a variety of research, teaching, and creative work taking place across English studies.

Game Studies - PCA/ACA National Conference

Call For Papers

The Game Studies area of the National Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association Conference invites proposals for papers and panels on games and game studies for the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference to be held on April 8-11, 2026 in Atlanta, GA. The deadline for proposals is November 30th.

I. Topics of Interest

Concept Note:

Ecocriticism in German Narratives
Book Series: Interdisciplinary Studies on German Philology

About the Series

The book series Interdisciplinary Studies on German Philology (Istanbul University Press) explores intersections of German literature, culture, and society with broader interdisciplinary fields.

Utopia, Dystopia, and Heterotopia in Narratives
Third volume of the book series: Interdisciplinary Studies on Philology

About the Series

Interdisciplinary Studies on Philology brings together research that bridges literary studies with adjacent human and social sciences.

• Volume I: Mythological Motifs in Narratives (published)
• Volume II: Redefining Communication in Posthuman Age (published)
• Volume III: Utopia, Dystopia, and Heterotopia in Narratives (planned)

Aim and Scope

THE DEPARTMENTS OF 

COMMUNICATION STUDIES AND HISTORY

Mount Carmel College, Autonomous present 

DISCOURSES '26

on FOOD, HISTORY AND MIGRATION 

Date: 21st and 22nd of January, 2026

Venue: PJEC 1, Mount Carmel College, Autonomous, Bangalore, Karnataka, India 

Please note: Discourses '26 will be taking place at Mount Carmel College Autonomous, Bangalore, Karnataka, India. It is mandatory for all participants to conduct their presentations, offline, at the venue itself. Kindly ensure the same.

CONCEPT NOTE  

“Neurodivergent just means a brain that diverges.” – Kassiane Asasumasu, Radical Neurodivergence Speaking

The first year of Neurodivergent Studies at the PCA, in New Orleans in 2025, showed that there was marked interest in developing this field and expanding conversations. Neurodivergent Studies, a field that has long been relegated to more scientific study, is ready to move into different spaces as we start conversations about how neurodivergent approaches to popular culture, fandom, academia, and our own experiences can shape the way we approach the world.

Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal is devoting a special issue to Genevieve Taggard, her career and legacy. Given the interdisciplinary nature of Women’s Studies, and the breadth and depth of Taggard’s multi-faceted artistic, cultural, and political undertakings, proposals are sought for essays that demonstrate Taggard’s wide-ranging literary and political legacy and her significance to our present moment. 

Topics may include but are not limited to:

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO DEC 15TH!!

CRS Graduate Student Conference 2026

April 3rd - 4th, 2026

Sprockets/Selvage/Shores

Environmental Histories of New England, 1600-2025

Friday, September 18, 2026

Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA

Deadline extended to December 15!

University of Arizona Graduate Literature Conference: Imagining the End(s)

Conference Dates: March 6-8, 2026, Tucson, AZ, USA

“It is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism” (Mark Fisher)

“But the plot too has its own history” (Wynter 101)

What is it we have in mind when we imagine the end of the world or the end of capitalism? 

Is it the temporal–the closing, conclusion, finale, the end of capitalism’s historical epoch?

Global Indigeneities and Life Narratives: Special Issue of Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly—Deadline Extension

A Special Issue of Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly
 
Guest Editor: J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, 
Eric and Wendy Schmidt Professor of Indigenous Studies and Anthropology, Princeton University
 
Submit: 400-word abstracts to kauanui@princeton.edu by December 12, 2025

Crossings: A Journal of English Studies is an annual double-blind peer-reviewed journal of scholarly articles and book reviews. The articles involve, but are not limited to, issues related to language, literature, culture, and pedagogy. It is a discursive platform to critically examine human behavior and communication, and their larger role in society as well as in knowledge production.

CROSSINGS: A JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES (ISSN 2071-1107; E-ISSN 2958-3179) is inviting scholarly articles for its Volume 17 to be published in 2026. 

Submission Deadline: March 31, 2026

Proverbs and Popular Wisdom in Early Modern Literature and Culture

An International and Interdisciplinary Conference

1-3 July 2026

School of Arts and Humanities, University of Hull

Deadline 1/1/26 

Studies in American Humor, the journal of the American Humor Studies Association, invites submissions of scholarly papers for a special issue of the journal to appear in fall 2027, edited by Wesley Scott McMasters and Todd Nathan Thompson. The topic of this special issue is “Periodicals, Period: Humor and Nineteenth-Century American Newspapers and Magazines.” This special issue will be an extension of a well-received panel on this topic (co-sponsored by the American Humor Studies Association and the Research Society for American Periodicals) at the 2025 American Literature Association conference.

Call for Submissions!The Janovics Center Award for Outstanding Humanities Research in Transnational Film and Theatre Studies The Janovics Center for Screen and Performing Arts Studies and the Faculty of Theatre and Film at Babes-Bolyai University invite submissions for their annual award for outstanding humanities research in transnational film and theatre studies.The award will be offered to contributions in the fields of film or theatre studies. The award consists of an invitation to give a talk at the Center and an honorarium. What is awarded?The Janovics Center is committed to supporting highly original research in screen and performing arts studies.

The 2026 NEXUS Interdisciplinary Conference invites current graduate students to submit abstracts for this year's conference at The University of Tennessee - Knoxville on April 17-18, 2026.

We are inviting chapter abstracts for an edited volume (potentially with Routledge) on Coffee Cultures in South Asia. The proposed volume aims to understand the evolving and emerging coffee cultures from an interdisciplinary perspective. In the process, attempting to curate a scholarship that explores the historical, collective, spatial, cultural, temporal, and transnational aspects of coffee consumption and cultures in the region --- cultures that are being shaped and reshaped by discourses on and practices of new, emerging, and specialty coffee, artisanal brewing, ecological discontents, and digital practices and trends. Submission is through Google Form only

Jadavpur University

Department of English

Presents

QUEER

POLITICAL

ASSEMBLAGES 5.0

Theme:

Queer and the Cyborg in the Contemporary Understanding of Gender

Important dates:

Last Date of Abstract Submission: 1 February 2026

Confirmation of Selection: 15 February 2026