NeMLA's 2021 convention is officially going virtual!

While we will miss seeing all of you in person next spring, we are excited to focus our energies into making the friendliest academic conference the best possible virtual conference. 

Many factors played into this decision, the most important of which is the health and safety of our members. Please know that: 

1. We have extended the deadline for abstract submissions to October 11, 2021.  
2. The registration fee will be lowered to reflect the new virtual format. 
3. We will be launching our new Digital Event Platform as soon as the sessions are finalized. We think you will enjoy its virtual networking and community building opportunities. 
4. Please note that we will be encouraging members to pre-record their presentations in preparation for the live Q&A that will take place at the conference. 

We look forward to gathering for a convention that embraces what is most human about the humanities, and that is shaped by the generosity and gratitude of sincere, meaningful exchange. We welcome abstracts that highlight your passions, curiosities, pet projects, as well as your scholarly, social, and political commitments. 

We are delighted to host, for our Thursday opening address, Professor Jed Esty, author of Unseasonable Youth: Modernism, Colonialism, and the Fiction of Development and Vartan Gregorian Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. Our Friday keynote event will be given by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan, whose novel Manhattan Beach will be the focus of "NeMLA Reads Together." Special thanks to the generous support of the University of Pennsylvania, our local host institution, and the University at Buffalo, our administrative home. 

We send heartfelt wishes for your health, safety, and peace, and invite you to consider this call for abstracts as an outlet for the new contexts of your work. Please share our Call for Papers (with an extended deadline of October 11) with your colleagues and friends: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/CFP.