The College English Association’s 52st national conference, from April 8-10, 2021, will focus on the theme of justice, and will be held in Birmingham, Alabama, where the freedom ensured by civil rights has been contested by the government in both the past and present. Birmingham’s notoriety as a focal point of the Civil Rights Movement, including the Birmingham Campaign, the imprisonment of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the writing of his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is matched by the city’s renown for forging steel, founding Veteran’s Day, and hosting the USA’s second-oldest drag queen pageant. Whether it is past conflicts over racism or current struggles over race, the rights of women, or the LGBTQ community, Birmingham and Alabama are places where the right to justice for groups and individuals has been ignored, debated, defended, and championed.

CEA invites proposals from academics specializing in Medieval and Early Modern literature or cultural studies. We especially welcome presentations that focus on the important and timely theme of justice in texts, disciplines, people, culture, media, education, and pedagogy. But in addition to our conference theme, we accept proposals on other topics of interest.

Abstracts of 250-500 words should be submitted electronically by October 1, 2020 through our conference management database housed at the following web address: https://www.conftool.pro/cea2020.

Kindly address any questions to Prof. Lynne M. Simpson, Associate Director and Treasurer of CEA, at lsimpson@presby.edu.