Organizers: Rhema Hokama (University of Washington) and Tom Clayton (Colgate University)

This is a call for submissions for a guaranteed session in English Literature sponsored by the Renaissance Society of America for the 2026 RSA conference in San Francisco (February 19–21, 2026).

Organizers: Rhema Hokama (University of Washington) and Mihoko Suzuki (University of Miami)

This is a call for submissions for a guaranteed session in English Literature sponsored by the Renaissance Society of America for the 2026 RSA conference in San Francisco (February 19–21, 2026).

In these turbulent times of global conflict and wars, and with the world witnessing human rights violations, scholars and individuals alike are grappling with the evolving definitions of fundamental issues such as human rights, international law, justice, and community peaceful coexistence. The crises challenge long-held assumptions on the so- called post-colonialist discourses, neocolonialism, systemic oppression, and cultural conflict, especially in transnational and diasporic encounters. Images of destruction and the continuous lurking waves of international sociopolitical plights inflicting the world raise urgent ethical questions that call upon the humanities to critically engage with these contemporary struggles of the human experience.

In 1892, the satirical magazine Moonshine published “The Commission on Ghosts,” a mock-article recounting the “first sitting” of the Society for General Psychology’s Royal Commission on spirits. Those present are “The Chairman, the Editor of Light, Mrs. Annie Besant, Miss Florence Marryat, Mr. W. Eglinton, Mr. Dawson Rogers, Mr. C. N. Williamson, and Mr. W. T. Stead” (315). Each member was a public supporter/purveyor of spiritualist belief at the fin de siècle.

Philip Roth Studies invites submissions for an upcoming Special Issue titled “Haunted Roth.”  A variety of “ghosts” influence and worry Roth and his narrators, manifesting as literary idols and antecedents, lost loved ones, and lingering memories, as well as larger specters of historical trauma and strife. Roth’s protagonists are haunted by emotional and psychological struggles, such as anxiety, fear, and guilt, and physiological illness and pain, and by the prospect of mortality–death itself being one of the central phantoms of Roth’s later works. In The Counterlife, Roth suggests that the idea of haunting is tied to imagination, creativity, and the very act of writing.

Poetry & Poetry Studies at MAPACA 2025

November 6-8, 2025

Philadelphia, PA

The Poetry and Poetry Studies area at the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association (MAPACA) seeks creative and critical proposals for this year’s annual conference.

Set writing goals & get feedback!
Applications due: May 25, 2025

NEW DIRECTIONS IN VICTORIAN STUDIES

Ah, May! When writing goals are full of promises to ourselves, and summer is full of time... MVSA Summer Seminars can help you reach that goal, with an end-of-summer draft deadline and feedback in a collaborative and congenial seminar group just as the next academic year is gearing up.