For a generation, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter franchise was emblematic of heroism, fighting against adversity, and inclusion of outsiders. This is why Rowling’s arguable alignment of herself, in 2020 and since, with transphobic and trans-exclusionary rhetoric felt like such a betrayal to many of her readers, prompting a revaluation of her work and what it means to them now. With the co-edited collection Potions, Powers, and Prejudice: Reassessing Harry Potter, we intend for contributors to explore the matter of what we collectively do with Harry Potter in the wake of its creator’s very public turn. Some readers have favored a careful delineation between author and work; others have regretfully concluded that no such delineation is possible.

Call for Papers: Studies in Hogg and his World 

Call for Expressions of Interest.

In July of 2026 Punch magazine will be 185 years old!

The Punch’s Pocket Book Archive team are editing a special commemorative issue of Victorian Periodicals Review to celebrate Punch, both the magazine and the evolution of a clear brand identity that witnessed many imitations and adaptations across the world.

We would like to invite expressions of interest from scholars who are working on Punch, developing and enriching the field, to consider topics such as: global imitators of the magazine; the merchandise; the almanacks; the pocket-books; the reprinted bound volumes and thematic collections; the online digital resources and more.

Call for Papers

The 32nd Annual Midwest Conference on Literature, Language and Media (MCLLM)

April 5th & 6th 2025

Theme: “Trouble” - Confronting Bigotry in Higher Education and Academic Scholarship

Every year, the Association holds it annual conference, usually a two-day affair, as well as a graduate student workshop, usually held on the day before the annual conference. The 2025 annual meeting will be held at Georgetown Law from June 17-18th. The theme of the conference, our call for papers, and submissions guidelines can be found below:

Speech Matters

To face climate change is, in part, to grapple with a narrowing range of possible futures. Thus, we find that reproduction itself is up for interrogation, reimagination, and revision. This panel explores precisely these shifts in thought by inviting papers that consider environmental crisis through the lens of sex and gender studies. As invoked by the panel’s title, the trope of Mother Nature exemplifies the powerful role that gender has historically played in environmental cultures. And although Mother Nature has undergone successive waves of critique, human norms of gender and sexuality continue to inflect ecological discourse.

The Victorians Institute Journal is still accepting submissions for Volume 52, which is expected to be published in 2025. We accept manuscripts between 7k-9k words on any aspect of Victorian and Edwardian literature, art, and culture.

For complete submission instructions and to upload your manuscript for consideration, please visit http://www.editorialmanager.com/vij and follow the steps given by the online system.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at victoriansinstitutejournal@gmail.com

Topic:Expressivity, Bodies and Language in the Twenty-First Century

Venue: University of Montpellier – Paul Valéry, France

Date: 20-21 November 2025

Conference organizers: Sandrine Sorlin (University of Montpellier – Paul-Valéry /IUF - EMMA) and Julie Neveux (Sorbonne University - CeLiSo)

China has long been exoticized and marginalized by the West, partly due to its unique culture and geographic distance. However, since the "Westernization Movement" in the 19th century, modernity of China has been influenced by the West in various ways, which has made profound changes and impacts Chinese people’s life and fostered rapid urbanization.

In the contemporary era, China’s progress in modernity and urbanization continues to reshape not only its economic landscape but also people’s living environments and cultural practices. These transformations have reflected the influence of Westernization and globalization, yet contributing to new tensions and paradoxes within Chinese society.

How old are you? How do you feel about getting older? And how will you still be able to carry out your responsibilities as you age? Most people had reservations asking these questions of anyone but their closest friends and family members until the recent Presidential election season in the United States threw them into sharp relief.

Vagantes 2025 Call for Papers 

The 24th Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies co-hosted by Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will take place at Duke University in Durham, NC from April 3-5, 2025. Vagantes is an interdisciplinary community of junior and early career scholars that offers an ideal opportunity for sharing new research from across the disciplines. Please submit abstracts of 300 words, a title, and a 1-page CV including your name and pronouns as a PDF to vagantesboard@gmail.com by December 9th, 2024.

Calling all artists, essayists, and creative writers!

The editorial board of Unearthed, the environmental art and literary journal published by SUNY College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry, is thrilled to announce that we're now accepting submissions.

We invite essayists, creative writers, poets, artists, photographers, and creatives of all kinds to submit to our upcoming issue, exploring the themes of Transition & Transformation. We're excited to publish your work!

Since ancient times, narratives about the end of the world have given voice to the anxieties and crises of the societies that have produced them. The forms of the apocalypse are thematically and diachronically broad and diverse (Pharr, Clark and Firestone 2016; De Cristofaro 2020). Already at the dawn of the nineteenth century, in her The Last Man (1826), Mary Shelley, the brilliant inventor of this genre, reflected on the condition of the single survivor of a lethal virus. While, for obvious chronological reasons, the anguish for a wasted environment is still absent in Shelley, many twentieth-century narratives reflect on the annihilating potential of humans’ actions on ecosystems.

The Oswald Review is an international, refereed journal of undergraduate criticism and research in the discipline of English. Published annually, The Oswald Review accepts submissions from undergraduates in this country and abroad (with a professor’s endorsement).