Everywhere Below Canada: The Black South Outside the South

SSSL-Affiliated Session

MLA 2026, Toronto, Canada

January 8-11

If, as Marcus Anthony Hunter and Zandria Robinson note in Chocolate Cities: The Black Map of American Life (2018), everywhere below Canada is the South according to Malcolm X’s decree in 1964, what might it mean to consider the Black South in Toronto? What might be the Black South “family resemblances” found outside the confines of state borders in the southeast, but within the context of other geographies of Black life in the United States? How can the intersecting methodologies of Black and Southern Studies help us understand the routes and roots of migration passing through Atlanta, Birmingham, Memphis to Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, and beyond? How do the art forms of the Black South appear where you may least expect them?

This Society of Southern Literature affiliated session invites proposals for presentations that consider the Black South outside the South, in whatever ways that might be understood. We especially welcome proposals from emerging, junior, and independent scholars and scholars from underrepresented groups.

Please email an abstract of no more than 500 words, including title, and a short bio to Allison Harris (UNCW) at harrisaln@uncw.edu. Proposals will be considered if received before March 21, 2025.