We are looking for contributions to a working group at the 2027 MLA Annual Convention in Los Angeles. The panel will discuss the evolution of magical realism in the 21st century, formally, medially, and geographically. Besides the fundamental elements of magical realism scholarship covering literature and film in South-American and European contexts, the scope of the presentations will extend to geocultural locations such as Africa, the Middle East, East- and South-East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, and to theoretical approaches including literary trauma theory, postcolonial studies, ecocriticism, and virtual reality theory.

MLA 2027 Los Angeles

The last few years have seen growing interest in theorist Stuart Hall’s work and its relation to psychoanalysis. Jacqueline Rose devoted a lecture to the topic (later reprinted in The New York Review of Books as “The Analyst”). More attention has been given to what Hall had to say about psychoanalytic thought between the lines in his work, but also in more direct ways, such as in his 1987 paper “Psychoanalysis and Cultural Studies.” Further, psychosocial theorists like Stephen Frosh have commented on Rose’s reflections on Hall and offered their own takes on why thinking about Hall vis-à-vis psychoanalysis may be overdue and worthwhile.

Wilde West Coast

The Oscar Wilde Society invites abstracts for a special session at the 2027 MLA (Modern Language Association) Convention in Los Angeles, January 7–10 2027.

The song lyric occupies little space in academia, where it is less studied, less appreciated, and perceived as less-than other kinds of writing. Despite music’s ubiquitous cultural presence, the song lyric—as creative work—suffers from what renown songwriter Jimmy Webb calls a “status problem”: songwriters do not enjoy the same standing as writers of other kinds of traditionally studied literature. The most common way that song lyrics have earned scholarly attention is by conflating the form with the poem. Goldstein’s (1969) The Poetry of Rock is one of the first books to attend to lyrics as poetry.

International Conference on Ecocriticism and Environmental Studies10-11 October 2026 – London/Onlineorganised byLondon Centre for Interdisciplinary Research 

International Conference on Poetry Studies:“Poetry Between Creation and Interpretation”19-20 September 2026 – London / Onlineorganised by London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research

Fifth Annual Beverly Lyon Clark Children’s Literature Symposium

Trees: In Relation

Saturday, 11 April 2026 at Wheaton College (Norton, MA)

LORETO COLLEGE, KOLKATA
Call for Book Chapters

Theme: Marginalized Identities: Dimensions, Perspectives and Problems

The Research and Development Cell of Loreto College is pleased to announce a call for chapter contributions for an upcoming book publication. The theme of the proposed volume is:

‘Marginalized Identities: Dimensions, Perspectives and Problems’

This publication aims to present interdisciplinary insights into the lived realities, challenges, and representations of marginalized identities across various contexts.

Questions in Black sound and sonic geographies

American Association of Geography

Panel Presentation

What are the spatial contours of black sound? What are some iterations, notes, scripts, or possibilities within the emerging field of black sonic ecologies and black sonic geographies? How can one detect or follow a “black sense of place” (McKittrick 2011)? What is being listened to and what is being heard? What have you been taught or teaching yourself to hear? 

What do you consider noise? Who and what hears black sound as a nuisance? What does noise, nuisance generate? 

“We are here to begin to achieve the American Revolution.” 

– James Baldwin, Foley Square, 1963

Did Baldwin mean it? Do we, who take him down from the shelf, mean it? What would it mean to pick up the idea again, with or against Baldwin? Is it too late, for America, for revolution, for both? Or is the time now finally ripe? 

For the American Studies Association convention in Chicago in 2026, James Baldwin Review invites proposals for a roundtable that takes this starting point as an occasion to leap into the unknown.  

Please send abstracts of 250 words to jbr@wustl.edu by February 20, 2026. 

The Gaskell Journal invites applications for the position of co-Editor.

The Gaskell Journal is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal published annually, dedicated to disseminating the most authoritative, dynamic and agenda-setting research in Gaskell Studies. It is owned by the Gaskell Society and is distributed to its members, as well as being indexed in various academic databases (for more details, see The Gaskell Journal – The annual Journal of the Gaskell Society). In a typical issue, the journal publishes 3-4 original articles, 3-4 book reviews, and reports from the Society’s branches across the UK and the world.

Penn State’s Center for American Literary Studies presents

Heat and the Humanities: Reframing Human Relationships to Heat and Wildfire

Friday, February 27, 2026, Noon—1:00 p.m. EST via Zoom

 Register here

https://psu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tzjjrtt9RYWmESys5PkJaw

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email

Jason Lives – essays on the Friday the 13th franchise

In 1980, inspired by the success of John Carpenter’s Halloween two years prior, Sean S. Cunningham wanted to create a horror film that would serve as a ‘roller coaster ride’ – that film, Friday the 13th, would launch one of the key horror franchises of the 20th century, comprising twelve films, a TV series, a selection of books, games and merchandise, and the establishment of hockey mask-wearing killer Jason Voorhees as a cultural phenomenon.

Call for Articles: Cultural Materialism, Fascism and the Far Right 

A Special Issue of Key Words: A Journal of Cultural Materialism

Call for Papers: Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds

Special Issue: ‘Video Games & Horror’

Abstract deadline: 1 April 2026
Full article draft deadline: 28 July 2026

View the full call here>>

https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-gaming-virtual-worlds#call-for-papers

The Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds is excited to announce a call of content for an upcoming Special Issue focused on horror in video games. 

The USC Korean Studies Institute invites applications for its annual Pacific Graduate Conference for Korean Studies at USC (PaCKS). This conference aims to foster a multidisciplinary community of local and regional graduate students whose research projects significantly engage Korean society and culture across the periods. It offers a platform for emerging scholars to present their work-in-progress, receive feedback from faculty and peers, and participate in interdisciplinary discussions within a supportive environment.

Call for Papers

Journal of West Indian Literature Special Issue on Caribbean Health Humanities

 November 2027

Special issue editors: Jarrel De Matas and April Shemak

POSTHUMANISM AND CONTEMPORARY ARTISTIC PRACTICES 

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM 7-8 May 2026

Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre

Gedimino Ave. 42, 01110 Vilnius, Lithuania

Call for Papers: Elizabeth von Arnim and Pomerania EXTENDED DEADLINE

Institute of Literature and New Media at the University of Szczecin, Poland invites you to take part in the international academic conference on the 160th anniversary of the birth and 85th anniversary of the death of the author Elizabeth von Arnim and Pomerania

6-7 June 2026

Confirmed plenary speakers:
Dr Jennifer Shepherd, The Open University Belfast, Northern Ireland
prof. Noreen O’Connor, King’s College, Pennsylvania, USA

The next Conference on John Milton will be held at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT from 22–24 October 2026.

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers addressing any aspect of Milton's life or work, including papers that explore connections between Milton and other writers or artists of the time period (or beyond). Proposals for panels or sessions are also welcome.

Please send abstracts of 150–200 words along with a CV to jason_kerr@byu.edu by 31 January 2026. UPDATE: the submission deadline has been extended to 2 March 2026.

Call for Papers: Special Issue on Digital Marginalisation, AI Bias, and Cultural Representation in South Asia

UPDATE: DEADLINE EXTENDED UNTIL 07 February 2026

Our present conjuncture demands urgent engagement with the now of gender. Authoritarian resurgence, border militarization, algorithmic
governance, climate precarity, and uneven recoveries from overlapping pandemics shape how gender is lived, and resisted across diverse contexts: from settler colonial democracies to postcolonial nation-states and stateless territories. Anti-trans legislation, family policing, and reproductive surveillance intensify biopolitical control, while migration regimes, humanitarian aid economies, and asylum adjudication render certain genders and kinship forms precariously provisional.

“Global Early Modern Environmental Crises: Modes of Extraction, Settler Colonialism, and Empire” 

The Forum on Seventeenth-Century English Studies (LLC 17th-Century English) is putting together a guaranteed MLA panel for the 2027 Annual Convention in Los Angeles, CA, USA (7-10 January) on global early modern environmental crises with a focus on human interactions with the earth tied to imperial pursuits, settler colonialism, conflicts in worldviews, and methods of extraction. We hope to feature scholars with expertise in different linguistic traditions to foster cross-cultural discussions. 

Possible topics include but are not limited to: 

The intersection of Rhetoric and Communication continues to attract the interest of many scholars, particularly within the fields of the Humanities and Social Sciences. The scope of analysis is wide-ranging, encompassing literature and culture, language studies and advertising, communication studies and politics, among other domains.