ecocriticism and environmental studies

Rising water levels in oceans and rivers, streams with high flood waves, and torrential rains that turn puddles into lakes: houses that are currently exposed to such increasingly regular water events are becoming a problematic, if not catastrophic, environment. The protective function that the house is supposed to have according to its original idea and design is being compromised. While roofs and walls are supposed to keep out wind and water—and the traditional European gabled roof is primarily designed to divert water from above—in these extreme weather scenarios, basements are flooded, roofs are torn off, entire houses stand like islands in the water or are even swept away.

Special Session Proposal for the 2027 MLA Convention (Los Angeles, 7–10 January 2027).

This MLA 2027 special session, “Unfinished Histories: Literary and Cultural Acts of Hope,” explores radical hope as an emancipatory and dynamic framework for examining how literature, film, and art cultivate creative and relational modes of remembrance. Rather than approaching the past solely through paradigms of loss, grievance, or melancholia, the panel asks how cultural narratives open generative spaces for imagining unfinished futures.

“The poetry of witness reclaims the social from the political and in so doing defends the individual against illegitimate forms of coercion.”- Carolyn Forché

“But is it enough that a poem “remembers” when we are now entrenched in an era of total recall?”– Cathy Park Hong, “Against Witness“

Unearthed invites submissions for an upcoming issue devoted to witnessing in a time of social and ecological rupture. We welcome work that refuses to look away from injustice and chronicles radical resilience.

Speaking of the agency of nature is now common practice. The biosphere is recognised as being life sustaining and its vitality essential to human existence. Following thinkers such as Felix Guattari, nature has also been recognised has having subjective qualities, inseparable from the meaning and values humans attribute to life and the visions we conjure of what constitutes a just and habitable future. The philosophical legacy of Immanuel Kant looms large over this aesthetic terrain, notably his work on the beautiful and the sublime, which still compels us to consider the complex relationship between humans and life-world systems.  

The Science and Literature Forum is seeking abstracts for a panel at MLA 2027, “Food, Science, and Literature”:

California alone grows half of the fruits and vegetables in the US. This panel brings together scholars examining literature of food, food science, food justice, and agriculture in California and beyond.

Please submit a 250-word abstract and bio to jmize@saic.edu by Friday, March 20th.

Non-guaranteed panel at MLA 2027 co-sponsored by the Children’s Literature Association and the MLA forum on Science and Literature. This panel seeks papers on how children’s and young adult literature has engaged the natural sciences across historical and contemporary contexts, including plants, animals, evolution, and the scientific study of the natural world. We invite papers exploring the diverse ways literature for children and young adults mediates knowledge of the natural world, sometimes to instruct, sometimes to inspire wonder, sometimes to question the very authority of empirical observation. How does a text balance the excitement of botanical, zoological, or ecological discovery with the weight of explanation?

Why is close reading a particularly valuable learning strategy/professional practice at the current moment? This MLA seminar (a guaranteed session) seeks participants interested in thinking and talking through aspects of close reading with an eye towards producing pieces of public writing (e.g. an OpEd, think piece, lyric essay, call to action, etc. published in a newspaper, magazine, or periodical, in print or online). Topics for exploration may include, but are not limited to:

The Function of Beauty: A Transdisciplinary Conferenc

“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.”
— Khalil Gibran

Conference Dates: Thursday April 22-23, 2026
Location: Online
Abstract Submission Deadline: March 22, 2026
Fee: £100
Conference Webpage: https://labrc.co.uk/2026/01/26/function-of-beauty/

Chapters for The Handbook of Ecofeminism
deadline for submissions: March 7, 2026
full name / name of organization: Nicole C. Dittmer, PhD
contact email: ncdittmer@gmail.com

In 1974, Françoise d’Eaubonne coined the term ecofeminism in Le féminisme ou la mort, foregrounding the intertwined domination of women and nature and calling for the liberation of both from systems of exploitation. Since its emergence, ecofeminism has inspired scholars and activists across disciplines and global contexts.

We're excited to announce that the DIY Methods Conference is back for another year! Pitches are due by April 20th, 2026. Please don't hesitate to email us (annepasek@trentu.ca and trentwintermeier@utexas.edu) if you have any questions.

Call for Contributions

Comics and (Eco)Social Justice - Graphic Narratives for Transformation

VII Jornadas ALCES XXI. Valencia. July 14-17, 2026

Comics and (Eco)Social Justice - Graphic Narratives for Transformation is a research seminar within the ALCES XXI Conference (Valencia, July 14–17, 2026) dedicated to exploring Spanish graphic narratives as a space for critical intervention and reflection on ecological and social justice. The seminar will be conducted in Spanish.

Seeking submissions exploring the formal contours of ecopoetics across time, cultural traditions, and media environments.

250-word abstract, brief bio and CV by March 20, 2026. 

Nikki Skillman, Indiana University-Bloomington

nskillma@iu.edu

"— and then she makes out with her dog! That's the essay." Speaking of Haraway's Companion Species Manifesto, to which I'm the modest witness, Eileen Myles is too a dog person while the Internet is rather more abuzz with considerations for the feline question... Mammalian largeness is a 'do' to be vegan yet rodents and fish deserve inclusion here. 

Send 200-300 word abstracts speculating on how interspecies intimacy (Giddens 1992) may, could, or should evolve zoos out-of-business with reckonings for affect studies as we deconstruct the 'fandom' paradigm together. 

This panel explores capitalism's role in accelerating human extinction. How do late-stage economic systems shape ecological collapse, biopolitical abandonment, and end-times subjectivity? We welcome interdisciplinary work confronting survival, disposability, and the limits of the human. If accepted, this Special Session panel will convene during the 2027 Modern Language Association Conference in Los Angeles, January 7-10, 2027. Please send an abstract of 200-400 words to Dr. Amit Ray at axrgsl@erit.edu no later than March 21, 2026.