interdisciplinary

Autism did not exist at the beginning of the world. Who we would now recognize as autistic people existed, yes. But autism itself is undoubtedly new, born in the 20th century clinic and doggedly taken up in popular discourse ever since. Autism did not exist at the beginning of the world, but now, it's hard to imagine a world without it. Despite, or perhaps because of this, autistic characters frequently feature in speculative and post-apocalyptic media—stories which take place at the end of the world but are often based on or extend from of our own reality.

To be held at the Leeds International Medieval Congress 2027 (5-8th July):

About the Conference
In light of our deeply polarized times, the American Academy of Religion, Western Region (AAR/WR) invites scholars, practitioners, educators, and community leaders to submit proposals for its Annual Conference. This year's theme is Moving Beyond Boundaries and Silos Toward Interconnection. It reflects AAR/WR's foundational commitment to inter-religious, inter-disciplinary, and inter-generational dialogue.
 

Panel: Technoscience in Literature and Culture (special session)

(SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED TO SAT, JULY 25, 2026)

Despite the international prominence of Stanisław Lem and, more recently, Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher, Polish science fiction and speculative literature remain strikingly underrepresented in English-language scholarship. Existing criticism tends to orbit a small number of canonical figures and a handful of frequently revisited texts, leaving a rich, historically complex tradition, spanning censorship-era political allegory, post-1989 transformation, contemporary literary crossover, and a distinct national cinema largely unexamined outside of Polish-language scholarship.

The College Language Association Journal invites submissions for a special issue inspired by Adam J. Banks’s 2016 CLA Journal essay, “Dominant Genre Emeritus: Why It Is Time to Retire the Academic Essay.” In that essay, Banks challenges writing teachers to reconsider the privileged position of the academic essay and to imagine alternative forms of composing, meaning-making, and knowledge production.

The International Journal of Young Adult Literature is accepting proposals for a guest-edited special section for our 2027 issue (Volume 8). We particularly encourage researchers working beyond Anglo-American young adult literature and/or working outside of the UK and US to submit proposals.

Proposals should be sent to ijyal@roehampton.ac.uk by 31 July 2026. 

7th International Conference (Online Mode)

on

Sustainability in Practice: Re-(Thinking) Literature, Society, and Culture

Date: 15th and 16th October, 2026 (Thursday & Friday)

To be Organized by

New Literaria- An International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities

In Collaboration with

Department of History, Humanities and Society, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy

In her foundational text Immigrant Acts, cultural theorist Lisa Lowe argues that the Asian immigrant exists as a “perpetual foreigner within the body politic,” a figure through whom the nation-state defines its own boundaries and citizenship. For Lowe, Asian American cultural production emerges precisely from this “distance from the national culture,” serving as a site that critiques the state’s false promises of universal inclusion.

The Odyssey by Homer is one of the foundational texts of Western culture and has, since antiquity, served as a narrative and symbolic model of the human journey. Odysseus’ long nostos—his return to Ithaca after the Trojan War—is not merely a sequence of mythical adventures but rather a complex process of knowledge, transformation, and the recovery of identity. Already in the ancient world, the poem was interpreted on multiple levels—epic, ethical, and symbolic—and this layering of meanings has contributed to its extraordinary reception in the modern era.

This session extends scholarly conversations on how violence operates in the corpus of poetic and prose Brut texts. We welcome papers exploring violence as a mechanism for securing and projecting political power, as both a destructive force and a tool for empowerment. We also welcome investigations of poetic and rhetorical violence—including on how the translation and redaction of historical texts function as symbolic conquests—and intersections of violence and gender. Suggested topics include: the aesthetics and rhetoric of warfare, conquest, and displacement; gendered dynamics of violence, captivity, and resistance; and the role of environmental devastation (fire, plague) in historiography.

Skenè Research Centre
Interdisciplinary Theatre and Drama Studies
Università di Verona

as part of the agreement with

Dipartimento di Filologia, Letteratura e Linguistica
Università di Pisa

Theatre and Anthropology

Theoretical Approaches to Text, Performance,

and Theatrical Practices

Verona (IT), November 19-20, 2026

Conference venue  
Dipartimento di Lingue e letterature straniere,
Polo Zanotto, Aula Co-Working
via S. Francesco 22,
Verona, Italy

Haunted Thresholds:

The Southern Gothic in Comparative Perspective 

South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) 2026
Conference Dates: November 5–7, 2026
Location: Wyndham Atlanta Buckhead Hotel and Conference Center, Atlanta, Georgia

Contact: stacy.stingle@gmail.com

Haunted Thresholds: The Southern Gothic in Comparative Perspective

2026 Imagining Creative Worlds Online Symposium, 11–12 November 2026

We invite proposals for 2026 Imagining Creative Worlds, an annual online symposium in the Common Ground Imagining Futures Series, taking place 11–12 November 2026.

The symposium brings together scholars, researchers, artists, designers, educators, publishers, museum professionals, media makers, and cultural practitioners working across creative fields and practices. We welcome proposals that explore how creative worlds are made, shared, interpreted, circulated, and transformed.

For 2026, The Arts in Society Research Network serves as the host Network, helping shape the symposium’s emphasis within the wider theme of Imagining Creative Worlds.