48th Annual Comparative Drama Conference 

Conference Dates: July 9-11, 2026

Location: Madison, Wisconsin (hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Deadline for Abstract Submission: December 10, 2025

Disability Studies, Dramatic Texts, and Performance 

Call for Papers: Resistance from Within: Art as Covert Defiance | March 27, 2026

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Diana Martinez, Assistant Professor of Architecture, UC Berkeley

Graduate Student Symposium

Department of the History of Art and Architecture, Tufts University, Medford, MA

The Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Tufts University invites graduate students to submit paper proposals for the 2026 Graduate Symposium titled Resistance from Within: Art as Covert Defiance, which will be held on March 27, 2026, in Medford, MA. 

Call for Papers: Theory and Criticism Focus Group- ATHE 2026Communities of Imagination and Theoretical FuturesBaltimore, Maryland- July 22-26, 2026 Call for Complete Session Proposals and Roundtable SubmissionsSponsored by the Theory and Criticism Focus GroupComplete Session ProposalsThe Theory and Criticism focus group seeks proposals for the general conference that include a variety of approaches and inquiries into the theme “Communities of Imagination and Theoretical Futures.” We encourage multidisciplinary submissions from across the various subfields of theatre and performance studies and seek participants from a range of focus groups.Our focus group welcomes and embraces a multitude of approaches and definitions of theory, criticism

Please see this Call for Proposals for an upcoming special issue of Feral Feminisms: 

 https://feralfeminisms.com/cfps/ 

This special issue, “Scrapwork: Foraging Feminist Fragments” will be guest edited by Dr. Amber Moore (University of British Columbia) and Dr. Kaye Hare (University Canada West). 

Call for book chapters: Reading as Habitation. In Memoriam Ana-Karina Schneider

After an enriching interdisciplinary conference in 2025, Heavy Childhoods 2026 will run under the title “Curating Future Nostalgia in Heavy Times”

Irish-American(s and) Periodicals

Kirsten McLeod and Tim Lanzendörfer

Sponsored by the Research Society for American Periodicals

Volume 2, Issue 1 (Open Issue, January 2026) Call for Papers

Extended Manuscript Submission Deadline: 30.11.2025

CFP Link: https://www.entanglements.in/call-for-papers-docs/CFP_Entanglements%202.1_Jan%202026.pdf

(Note: Kindly ignore the old deadline in the link. Follow the revised extended deadline.)

Oceanic Fictions in Indian Languages and Beyond

The Dickens Project is excited to announce a new week-long Victorianist Writing Retreat, held at UC Santa Cruz as part of our annual summer Dickens Universe conference. This retreat offers scholars who are not affiliated with Dickens Project consortium institutions the opportunity to attend the Universe, as well as to dedicate time during the week to writing in community.

In 2026, the Dickens Universe, including the Victorianist Writing Retreat, will take place from July 26-August 1. While the 2026 Universe will be focused on Bleak House, participants in the retreat need not be writing on Bleak House or on Dickens. Scholars working in any area of global British nineteenth-century studies are free to apply.

The ground falling from beneath your feet, the cliff’s edge barely holding you aloft, the free fall in open air. Cinematic representations of falling and nearly plummeting from great heights have long been around as an arbiter of suspense and a literal visualization of the classic “cliffhanger,” with origins to such a visual tracing back to the silent film era and actor Harold Lloyd dangling from the hands of a clock in Safety Last! (1923) Falling and dizzying heights have been featured over the years in a variety of forms and often successfully serve as a device to drive the plot forward or signify its climax. We see examples of villains and heroes alike battling on skyscrapers in DC and Marvel universe adaptations.

Call for Papers for a special issue of the Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry on “Concrete and Visual Poetries in Britain, Ireland, and Beyond”, edited by Colin Herd and Greg Thomas.

Send 250-300 word abstracts for 5,000-7,000-word articles to ConcreteAndVisualPoetries@gmail.com by 10 January 2026.

Call for Papers

Food and Culture

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

47th Annual Conference, February 25-28, 2026

Marriott Albuquerque

Albuquerque, New Mexico

http://www.southwestpca.org

Proposal submission deadline: October 31, 2025

The College of Arts and Humanities at Bethune-Cookman University welcomes proposals for the annual Zora Neale Hurston Conference, which will be held virtually on February 12-13, 2026. “Their Eyes were Watching Words: Publishing, Editing, and Censorship” is a tribute to Hurston’s skilled navigation of the complex world of publishing and censorship. Our invited speakers this year are Roxane Gay and Dana Williams.

You are invited to submit scholarly, pedagogical, or creative proposals exploring any of the following:

Call for Abstracts
Tracks and Practices: Rethinking Artist Residencies
Symposium, part of OULU 2026 – European Capital of Culture
21–22 August 2026 | Oulu & Varjakka, Finland

As part of the project Tiny Spaces – Deep Connections, we invite proposals for participation in the upcoming symposium Tracks and Practices: Rethinking Artist Residencies, taking place between Oulu and Varjakka on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd August 2026.

Announcing

The 2026 First Book Institute

May 31-June 6, 2026

Hosted by the Center for American Literary Studies (CALS) at Pennsylvania State University

Co-Directors

Priscilla Wald, R. Florence Brinkley Distinguished Professor of English, Duke University, and Co-Editor of American Literature

Sean X. Goudie, Director of the Center for American Literary Studies and Past Winner of the MLA Prize for a First Book

Panel Title:
Transnational Black Childhood and Practices of Maronnage

Conference:
Rutgers University-Camden, Childhood Studies Department
“The Transnational Child Strikes Back: Transnational Desires and Childhoods of Empire ”
June 11-13th, 2026
Camden NJ

Organiser Contact Info:
Samira Abdur-Rahman, The College of New Jersey, abdurras@tcnj.edu

Panel Description:

This special panel to be held in the Area for Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association seeks 15-20 minute conference presentations from all disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives examining any and all aspects of the emerging trend of “reality shifting” in relation to popular culture, particularly that of Generation Z.

The Generational Studies area of the Popular Culture Association welcomes proposals for papers on any and every topic related to America’s generations including: Baby Boomers, Generation Jones, Generation X, Xennials, Millennials (Gen Y), and iGen (Gen Z). If your paper is accepted, you will be presenting at the 2026 Popular Culture Association national conference, held at the Marriott Marquis in Atlanta, April 8-1.

We invite submissions from individuals and organized panels (3 or 4 persons), focusing on topics related to:

Feeling haunted by that unfinished conference proposal? We've got just the Halloween treat for you: a two-week extension -- now accepted through November 14!

Mathematics and engineering are often confined to academic settings, yet they form the foundation of life and popular culture alike. When we examine engineering marvels in movies, books, and other media, we uncover rich symbolism and deeper meanings that reveal how these disciplines shape our understanding of the world.

Panels are now forming on topics related to all aspects of mathematics and engineering and their intersection with popular culture. Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):

Mystery / Detective Fiction Area

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

47th Annual Conference, February 25-28, 2026

Marriott Albuquerque

Albuquerque, New Mexico

https://www.swpaca.org

EXTENDED proposal submission deadline: November 14, 2025

Memory, Myth, and Meaning: Cather in Dialogue with America 250

Willa Cather Spring Conference | Thursday, June 4 - Saturday, June 6, 2026 

This year marks the centennial of My Mortal Enemy, one of Cather’s least affirmative works and one not produced in the Cather Scholarly Edition (translation: much important work remains to be done!)  We invite papers on new approaches to My Mortal Enemy, including but not limited to the following considerations of style, form, provenance, and themes:

This edited volume extends the project initiated by the Korean Studies 2025 special section “Feminist Korean Studies,” which deployed feminist critique across digital media, popular culture, legal discourse, public health, neoliberalism, and postcoloniality. Building on that foundation, the volume invites interdisciplinary, interregional, and bilingual feminist scholarship to address pressing global and regional developments: the rise of right-wing authoritarianism, intensified anti-feminist backlash in South Korea, and the persistent marginalization of feminist discourse in Anglophone Korean Studies. 

In 2025, broad legislative and cultural backlash is focused on eliminating even the idea of trans people from public space. When public space is inaccessible, online communities have, for more than the past twenty years, been a place where trans people can still find one another, self-represent, and build their own publics. Now the walled world of the app economy, organized personal attacks, discriminatory social media algorithms, ID verification laws, and government intervention are changing the internet too. At such a moment, understanding the ways that trans people navigate their digital worlds is more important than ever.