This panel seeks works investigating the tug between progressive and conservative ideals and influences on the Gothic genre, especially as they are expressed through the ways Nature and the environment are used and described.

Tracing its roots to a long history of philosophical discourse, identity stands as one of the most intricate and ubiquitous concepts within the large debates of human and social sciences. It is taken for granted in everyday life and assumed to be an all-inclusive determinant of empirical and virtual entities; yet, obscure when it comes to marking out its essence as a referential determinant and delineating the shaping politics of its concretizations. The ambiguity and paradox of identity stem from the contradictory dimensions it encompasses, entailing at the same time a sense of similitude yet difference, uniqueness yet commonness, and independence yet reliance.

The Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) invites applications for its annual Spring Academy on American Culture, Economics, Geography, History, Literature, Politics, and Religion to be held from March 24-28, 2025.

The HCA Spring Academy provides 20 international Ph.D. students with the opportunity to present and thoroughly discuss their ongoing Ph.D. projects. The conference offers a forum for Ph.D. candidates in which they can present their research candidly and receive valuable feedback

Editors Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock and Lorna Piatti-Farnell solicit proposals for a collection of scholarly essays with the working title Everyone’s an Assassin: John Wick and the Aesthetics of Violence.

Proposals are welcome on all aspects of the John Wick films and paratexts, with particular emphasis on the aestheticization of violence and worldbuilding within the John Wick universe.

Inquiries and 300-word proposals with CVs may be directed by October 31st, 2024 to lorna.piatti-farnell@aut.ac.nz and Jeffrey.Weinstock@cmich.edu. 6000-word essays will then be due in late 2025.

Title: TBD, but potentials include:

• ‘Til All Are One: Gender, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity/Gender Expression (SOGIE) in Transformers

Editors (Collaborators): Elizabeth Sanders, Daniel M. Look

Description / Call for Papers:

We are soliciting chapters/articles for an edited academic book on topics relating to the Transformers franchise and gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression.Proposals from academics and independent scholars covering official continuity/properties, fanfiction, the fandom, and content creators will be considered. Proposals should be for new essays, not republications of previous works.

CALL FOR PAPERS Rethinking Fables in the Age of the Environmental Crisis May 22-24, 2025International conferenceUniversity of Kent, Canterbury, UK (and online)Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Vinciane Despret and Susan McHughOnce upon a time, not very long ago, many considered fables to be an anthropocentric mode of representing animals, to be avoided (Derrida 2002). It is then remarkable to see the flowering of scholarship on ‘fables’ in recent years.

Call for Paper for the Monsters, Monstrosities, & the Monstrous area of the PCA for the 2025 PCA Conference in New Orleans

Please join us in exploring the themes, influences, and impact of the monster as a cultural and historical touchstone. Across the globe and throughout the centuries, the label of monster has been invoked to separate the “natural” from the “unnatural” and the acceptable from the socially unacceptable. Whether referring to mythological creatures, the Victorian creations that have become standards through Universal film adaptations, or as a shorthand to denigrate othered peoples, the monster has no shortage of applications and, sometimes, reevaluations.

We are bringing out an edited collection of essays with the working title Time is Power: Temporality and Caste. Time is an ontological phenomenon organized around humans’ need for social interaction and collective life, often compelling individuals to be chrono-normative or abide by a rigid clock. Currently little scholarship exists which examines the power of time and temporal agency in an environment organized by systems of caste and other intersecting identities.

To mark the 2026 Semiquincentennial of the American Revolution, the journal Diplomatic History seeks article proposals that engage with historical aspects related to the international, transnational, transimperial, continental, or global dimensions of the American Revolution, including its origins or aftermath. The articles will be published in a special forum in 2026. 

Call for submissions in all areas of narrative theory and studies

Storyworlds is an interdisciplinary journal of narrative studies. We publish cutting-edge research on storytelling practices across times, cultures, and media. The journal foregrounds research questions that cut across established disciplines and seeks to promote the understanding of narrative and storytelling as worldmaking—and worldbreaking—practices. 

Our general issues support the publication of research in all areas relating to narrative studies, including, but not limited to:

Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies

Special Issue Call for Abstracts: “Collaborative Worldbuilding”

From campaigns against disenfranchisement to protests against sexual and gender-based violence, feminism has historically combined dissent—against exclusion, subordination, and prevailing power structures—with a focus on the imperative for social and political transformation. This issue of Rejoinder explores the history of feminist dissent and how it has shifted through the decades, both for activists and academics. In addition to a historical focus, we seek to address contemporary manifestations of dissent within feminism, exploring who successfully forges narratives that challenge feminism’s dominant iteration(s)—and what accounts for their success.

The 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association will be held virtually, May 29 - June 1, 2025.

Seminar Description:

“Alchemy: Exploring Metaphorical Transformations and Arts-Based Research”

A Transdisciplinary Conference

Date: November 9-10, 2024
Location: University of Oxford, UK
Online option available
Cost:        180 GBP
90 GBP (Online)
Abstract Deadline: Sep 30, 2024

Conference Webpage: https://labrc.co.uk/2024/04/21/alchemy/