Abstracts are invited on, but not limited to, the following sub-themes:

• Digital Transformations in Literary Studies
• Artificial Intelligence and Literary Criticism
• Hybrid Genres, Graphic Narratives, and New Media
• Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature
• Trauma, Memory, and Narrative Representation
• Identity, Intersectionality, and Representation
• Postcolonialism, Neocolonialism, and Cultural Identity
• Tribal Literatures, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and Forest Ecologies
• Dalit Literatures and Narratives of Marginality
• Language, Multilingualism, and Cultural Diversity
• Translation, Transculturation, and Cross-Cultural Mediation

Call for papers – Series of Workshops on Sacred Writing Traditions

The HaZen (Handschriftenzentrum) project, based at the Institute for Jewish Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, would like to invite international researchers to three workshops in Berlin.

Drama and theatre have long served as dynamic mediums through which societies narrate their myths, record their histories, and preserve traditions. The interplay of myth, history, and tradition shapes the content and form of dramatic expression, influencing storytelling techniques, character archetypes, and performance styles across different cultures and time periods.

Plenary Lecture: Professor Daniel Cook (University of Dundee)

Artist’s Talk: Martin Rowson (in conversation with Brigitte Friant-Kessler)

Venue: St. Bride Library (London, U.K.)

Dates: 23–25 September 2026

Guest editor: Maxime Fecteau

Primordial and born of Chaos, Gaia wears many faces. In Hesiod’s Theogony she is a fertile, earth-bodied mother; she is also an insurgent force—ally to the Titans and to violent births. This constitutive ambivalence—nourishing ground and upheaval, regeneration and revolt—guides the 15th issue of MuseMedusa. We follow the figure to probe the regimes of time and action it exceeds, while noting how modern representational devices have narrowed its plurality of faces (Latour, 1991; 2015). In short, understanding Gaia today means holding Greek myth together with attention to planetary change.

Queen’s Graduate Conference in Literature

Call for Papers | Haunted Bodies

Date: May 22-24, 2026 Location: Queen’s University, Kingston and Online

Submissions due: January 12, 2026

The Asian Studies section is currently accepting paper and panel proposals for the 68th Annual Conference of the World Social Science Association. The conference will be held at the Clyde Hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from March 25th through 28th, 2026.

The Asian Studies section welcomes research on the historical, cultural, social, and political aspects of the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Pacific, and East Asia. Previous panels have explored Asian immigrant women’s participation management, governance in China, contemporary Japanese digital culture, and feminist readings of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. We encourage innovative and critical approaches that address contemporary and historical issues.

Special Issue Call for Papers

Special Issue: 'Moving Violations: Asian Crime Films'

Special Issue Editors: Victor Fan, Kristof Van den Troost, and Earl Jackson

Call for Papers

Midwest Winter Workshop 2026

Rhetoric Program

Indiana University Bloomington

Friday, February 6th – Saturday, February 7th, 2026

ALA 2026: Politics in American Fiction

ALA Annual Conference (May 20-23, Chicago, IL)

Graduate Students in English Interdisciplinary Conference 2026

Call for Papers on the Theme: “Transformation”

University of Arkansas at Fayetteville – March 14-15, 2026

The Graduate Students in English at University of Arkansas in Fayetteville invite proposals on the theme “Transformation,” a topic as broad as the literary and academic canons themselves. As we bear witness to changes in higher education landscapes across disciplines, we might consider how our own perceptions have evolved, what has been reliable in scholarship historically, and what needs to adapt.

The Medievalism in Popular Culture Area (including Early to Later Middle Ages, Robin Hood, Arthurian Legend, Chaucer, Norse, and other materials connected to medieval studies) accepts papers on all topics that explore either popular culture during the Middle Ages or transcribe some aspect of the Middle Ages into the popular culture of later periods. These representations can occur in any genre, including film, television, novels, graphic novels, gaming, advertising, art, etc. For this year’s conference, I would like to encourage submissions on some of the following topics:

Today, all countries that were colonized by France have gained their independence, yet discussions about its legacy continue. Many films, documentaries, literary works, speeches, and critical writings contribute to the ongoing conversation about liberty and justice in relation to independence. A 2024 documentary produced by Wandrille Lanos, titled Haïti, la rançon de l'indépendance, explores how liberty and justice were interpreted during Haiti’s struggle for independence. From September 22 to 26, 2025, during the United Nations General Debate at the 80th Session, the current president of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, argued that colonization should be recognized as one of the greatest crimes against humanity.

Today, Bollywood is not merely an industry of Indian films representing the national cinema but also a global cultural phenomenon. From the singsong dance sequences on YouTube to its widespread circulation on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and regional streaming platforms, Bollywood redefines South Asian identities and how they are consumed, contested, and celebrated globally. Moreover, the intertwining of questions on cultural appropriation, culturalized representation, caste, gender, and diasporic negotiations emerges with renewed urgency and visibility.

Epistemologies and Pathways to Truth

The University of Maryland’s Graduate English Organization (GEO) invites proposals relating to the theme of “Epistemologies and Pathways to Knowledge” for our 19th annual graduate student conference, to be held in person on Friday, March 27, 2026 at UMD, College Park. 

The “Collecting and Collectibles Area” of the Popular Culture Association invites papers on “Collecting in/as Crisis” for the 2026 National PCA/ACA Conference to be held in Atlanta, GA, USA on April 8-11, 2026. We would especially like to encourage submissions that contribute new directions and calls to the existing scholarship on “Collecting in/as Crisis” and particularly address how collections/collectibles and their institutions and practices involve or respond to natural, cultural, economic, environmental, health, epistemic crises, etc.  

Possible topics for presentations include but are not limited to:

·         Collecting as systemic violence

·         Collecting as cultural erasure

In 2025, with emerging AI, FaceTime, and robot companions, we acknowledge that the future has arrived and still remains to be explored. We invite scholars, artists, and critical theorists to contribute to our annual conference celebrating Afrofuturism and the work of Gregory J. Hampton. Hampton explored how Black writers engage with identity, power, and possibility. His work has significantly shaped modern views of Black speculative fiction, Afrofuturism, and African American literary studies. Hampton's critical analyses of authors like Octavia Butler and Samuel R.

https://ucgradconference20.wixsite.com/utopian-impulses We are excited to share the CfP for this year’s interdisciplinary graduate student conference at the University of Cincinnati titled Utopian Impulses in the 2020s! We're also pleased to announce that Dr. Angela Laflen will be this year's keynote speaker. See bio below:  "Dr. Angela Laflen is Associate Professor of English at California State University, Sacramento, and author of Critical Data Storytelling in the Composition Classroom (Utah State UP 2025).

“Curiosity & Care” - Stony Brook University English/WGSS CFP, New York Graduate Conference 

Stony Brook University’s English Graduate Department, in collaboration with the Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Department, invites abstracts and proposals from current graduate students and independent scholars for its annual spring conference on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, NY.

Concept Note:
Theories, or to be precise, Literary and Cultural theories are various (though at
times, overlapping) frameworks or tools used to interpret a given text.
Etymologically, the term, ‘theory’ comes from the Greek ‘Theoria’ which, broadly,
means contemplation and speculation. Every theory proposes its own interpretative
strategies and modes of extracting meaning, helping us to “discriminate between
experiences and evaluate them,” as Richards would have said. Given that meanings
of texts can hardly be considered final, theories shore up our analytical approaches
as well as selection or rejection of meanings.
Theories that have been native to literature, that is, the ones focusing on the

It’s in their Blood:

Television Series and the Representation of Violence in the 21st Century

International conference hosted by

Metropolitan University Prague and

ULICES – University of Lisbon Center for English Studies,

School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon.

6-7 March, 2026

Online

Call for Papers

The Society for the Study of American Literary Naturalism

American Literature Association 37th Annual Conference

May 20-23, 2026

Chicago, IL

The Frank Norris Society, The Jack London Society, the Stephen Crane Society, and the Theodore Dreiser Society have united for the American Literature Association into the Society for the Study of American Literary Naturalism.

The San Francisco State University CINE Colloquium is proud to announce the call for papers for Chronically Online, the 27th Annual Graduate Research Conference, hosted by the San Francisco State University CINE Colloquium. Submit your work and join us April 24th and 25th, 2026 in person and online for a multidisciplinary deep-dive into all things nerd. See below for conference description and instructions to submit proposals.

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2026 Texas Association for Asian American Diaspora Studies (TAAADS) Annual Symposium