The 2025 ELLAK International Conference
“Rethinking English Studies in the Age of New Media”

Organized by The English Language and Literature Association of Korea (ELLAK)

Kyungpook National University, Daegu, South Korea

December 18-20, 2025

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Taek-Gwang Lee, Kyung Hee University, Korea

Ted Underwood, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA

Slavoj Žižek, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

In an era where artificial intelligence increasingly shapes our intellectual, social, and cultural landscapes, literary critics face the challenge of reconsidering the relationship between human and machine cognition, the meaning of being human, and the intersections between technology, art, and literature. If, as N. Katherine Hayles has observed, cognition extends beyond human consciousness, if all organisms “receive information from their environments, interpret that information, and respond with behaviours appropriate to their contexts,” this new understanding of intelligence challenges the traditional anthropocentric view of meaning-making. According to this view, computational systems, similar to biological organisms, generate, interpret, and disseminate meanings within their unique contextual parameters, and this perspective resonates deeply with literature’s role in imagining and engaging with alterity. Indeed, the literary field has long served as a space for exploring the implications of emerging technologies and envisioning adaptive responses to digital literature, interactive narratives, and computational poetics. English studies scholars actively examine AI’s impact on meaning-making and knowledge production. As technologies evolve, the field must also address pressing concerns about AI’s impact on learning processes and its potential to affect educational equity.

Hence, the English Language and Literature Association of Korea (ELLAK) invites scholars to explore the critical intersections at our international conference on Rethinking English Studies in the Age of New Media. The ELLAK conference takes place in Daegu, a city known for green technology and digital innovation. Hosted in this southern industrial hub, the conference aims to explore the convergence of traditional English studies with artificial intelligence, digital humanities, and emerging technologies. We seek to understand how these technological advances reshape our approaches to teaching and research while maintaining a critical awareness of both opportunities and challenges.

We welcome submission addressing, but not limited to:

-Future of literary adaptation in the age of New Media; 

- Posthumanism and other attempts to rethinking the human;

-Theoretical frameworks for understanding human-machine interaction in literary contexts;

-Digital humanities approaches to literary analysis;

-Digital storytelling and interactive narratives;

- Afrofuturism, Techno-Orientalism, Chicano futurism;

- Postcolonialism, feminism, and ecocriticism in the age of new media;

- Technology, art, nature, and humanity in classical and modern literature;

-AI applications in language teaching and learning;

-Pedagogical innovations incorporating new media technologies;

-Multi-media assisted translation studies, English education, and linguistic studies;

-Ethical considerations in AI-assisted literary and linguistic research;

-New Media, the history of the book, and archival studies;

-Queering New Media and digital humanities;

-Games and narrative, theory and practice;

-AI-powered translation, opportunities and challenges;

-Digital literacy and critical thinking in the age of generative AI.

Proposals should be submitted by April. 30, 2025, to 2025ellakconference@gmail.com

An individual paper proposal should include:

-Title of the paper;

-An abstract of the paper (150-200 words);

Following information of the speaker: full name, title, affiliation, email address, and brief bio (up to 150 words).

A session proposal should include:

-Title of the session;

-A brief description of the session (up to 150 words);

-Titles of the papers (3-4 papers per session);

-Abstracts of the papers (150-200 words each);

Following information on each participant (the organizer/moderator and the speakers): full name,

Title, affiliation, email address, and brief bio (up to 150 words).

(Before you submit a session proposal, please ensure that all participants have agreed to attend the conference in person.)