twentieth century and beyond

Strangeness and Oddity:
Embracing the Extraordinary in Arts-Based Research

Conference Webpage: https://labrc.co.uk/2025/12/08/strangeness-and-oddity-2026/

A Transdisciplinary Conference
March 10-11, 2026
Online

Abstract Submission Deadline: February 17, 2026

War leaves lasting marks not only on people and communities, but also on the natural world that witnesses, and endures, its violence. Long after the fighting has stopped, landscapes shaped by destruction remain living archives, bearing the aftereffects of conflict: damaged forests, polluted rivers and seas, and disrupted ecosystems that continue to hold its traces. These ‘trauma ecologies’ pass on the legacy of war from one generation to the next, forming what we call ‘environmental postmemory.’

We invite papers on the literature of the Arctic. Especially welcome are proposals on texts and authors that connect the Arctic to contemporary issues of extractivism, securitization, and imperialism. Please send a 250-word abstract and short bio.

Call for Papers: Nature Remembers: War, Trauma, and Environmental Postmemory in Contemporary Anglophone Literature and Culture

War leaves lasting marks not only on people and communities, but also on the natural world that witnesses, and endures, its violence. Long after the fighting has stopped, landscapes shaped by destruction remain living archives, bearing the aftereffects of conflict: damaged forests, polluted rivers and seas, and disrupted ecosystems that continue to hold its traces. These "trauma ecologies" pass on the legacy of war from one generation to the next, forming what we call "environmental postmemory."

Current Keywords in Digital Literary Culture: “Slop” and “Nostalgia”

May 14th, 2026

Virtual Mini-Conference

https://dlcplus.org/ 

DLC+ is excited to announce the second installment of its Current Keywords in Digital Literary Culture series, mini-conferences devoted to studying the most pressing and emerging concepts actively shaping digital literary culture. 

Anuario de Letras Modernas

Convocatoria

Literaturas modernas y estudios literarios en el primer cuarto del siglo XXI

Editores invitados:

Mario Alfonso Álvarez Domínguez

Universidad de Lille – Universidad Paris Nanterre

Odette de Siena Cortés London

José Alfredo Valerio Luna

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Stories and histories of power, 24-25 Septembre 2026.

 Confirmed Keynote speaker : Peter Boxall

Based on the premise that any account is the result of a re-ordered selection in facts which is the mark of the power of the author and/or the institution or cultural group they stand for., this conference will examine factual and fictional narratives of power in the English-speaking world.

The International Vladimir Nabokov Society seeks paper proposals for presentations on the following themes for the Modern Language Association’s Annual Convention (January 7-10, 2027, Los Angeles):  

 Nabokov in the ‘70s / Nabokov’s Afterlife

The Margaret Atwood Society invites paper proposals for an online panel on testimony and resistance in Margaret Atwood’s work. In keeping with the MLA 2027 presidential theme, this panel welcomes papers that examine how Atwood’s narratives represent coercion and constraint while also tracing the risk and agency at stake in claiming liberatory space. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

• Testimony, witnessing, and the politics of voice

• Surveillance, secrecy, confession, and the archive

• Gendered power, reproductive politics, and bodily autonomy

• Critical reception and adaptation

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I am seeking short (3,500-word) chapters for The Works of Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, which will be an edited volume dedicated to Didion and Dunne’s lives in film.

The American couple were a prolific and popular screenwriting team despite being much better known for their respective novels, memoirs, and journalism. Accordingly, the volume will take into account both their produced and many unproduced screenplays—the latter of which are held in Didion and Dunne’s papers at the New York Public Library.

We invite papers on automobility and/or transportation infrastructure in any aspect of literary and cultural studies. We are particularly interested in exploring how representations of vehicles address questions of social and environmental justice.

This is a proposed special session for the 2027 MLA convention in Los Angeles, 7-10 January. We plan to hold the session in person.

Please email abstract (250 words) and author bio (100 words) by March 3 to both organizers:

Govind Narayan Ponnuchamy, Northwestern University (gnarayan@u.northwestern.edu )Ben Jamieson Stanley, University of Delaware (bstanley@udel.edu )

More Terrors than her Reason Could JustifyA 200th Anniversary Celebration of Ann Radcliffe’s Posthumous Publications

22nd/23rd August 2026 (Online)

Call for Expressions of Interest: Book Reviews Editor for The London Journal

The London Journal is seeking expressions of interest for the role of Joint Book Reviews Editor.

This role will cover the period from roughly 1800 to the present, joining Kirstin Barnard, who covers the medieval and early modern periods. The Book Reviews Editors are full members of the Editorial Board.

Papers on Joseph Conrad and reading, including close reading, book culture, intertextuality, Conrad’s own reading, Conrad’s global readers, and the challenges of reading Conrad in the age of artificial intelligence. This is one of several planned panels for the Joseph Conrad Society of America Allied Organization at the Modern Language Association Convention in January 2027. Email 300 word proposals and a 100-word biography to Jana Giles, giles@ulm.edu. Deadline: March 15, 2026.

For further information and to see the call posted on the MLA website, see: https://mla.confex.com/mla/2027/webprogrampreliminary/index.html.