The Academic Association for Doctoral Students & Students of English (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń) is pleased to announce the call for papers for the 11th issue of Currents, on the themes of adaptation and innovation within Anglophone language, culture and literature.

‘Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative.’~ H.G. Wells Mind at the End of Its Tether

 The world around us is constantly changing, and we must respond to these changes, as they are often a direct result of our own actions. Phenomena such as climate change, geopolitical conflicts, rapid development of technology, and rise of pseudoscience have become indelible elements of daily life; consequently, it is essential that people adapt to new realities. Language, culture, literature, and the new media can reflect, or simply constitute a human response to changes. For instance, posthumanism stems from the need to depart from the 17th-century humanist model. According to Neill Badmington, posthumanism ‘considers the possibility that (…) advances in technology or discoveries about animals are leading to fundamental changes in the human species and its relationship with the world’ (The Encyclopaedia of Literary and Cultural Theory, 1212). Just as posthumanism developed as a response to a specific change, postcolonialism, modernism, and feminism, among others, have taken similar trajectories.

Through an interdisciplinary approach, we would like to encourage young researchers to share their thoughts, observations, and ideas that concern themes of adapting and innovating in response to global changes.

Suggested themes may include:

  • Environmental criticism – how climate change and its consequences are represented in media, language and culture;
• Power, control and rebellion – language, culture and media as both tools of oppression and means of opposing it;
• Pre-traumatic stress disorder;
• Posthumanism and transhumanism – how advancements in research and technology shape the perception of a human being;
• Modernism, postmodernism, post-postmodernisms;
• Postcolonialism and neocolonialism; decolonisation;
• Rebellion against societal, cultural, gender, and other norms;
• Transformation in vocabulary and terminology due to cultural changes (e.g. pejorative words and negative connotations)
• Censorship and so-called “political correctness” (responses to racism, ageism, ableism, gender discrimination).

Articles accompanied by abstracts of 200-300 words and a short biographical note about the author (50-100 words) or reviews should be submitted to currentsjournalumk@gmail.com by 15th of June 2025.

Suggested article length: 3,500—5,000 words.

Suggested review length: ca. 1500 words.

For more details, consult the website: https://currents.umk.pl/cfp11.html