2026 NeMLA Annual Convention

March 5-8, 2026

Wyndham Grand Hotel, Pittsburgh, PA

Call for Papers for in-person panel:

On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the formation of the United States of America, this panel seeks papers that examine US national identity as it is represented in textual form.  Specifically, we seek papers that analyze literary texts—novels, stories, poems, and plays—that speak to the characteristics of American identity and ultimately offer an answer to the question, “What does it mean to be ‘American’?”

The space in which conversations about American identity are taking place is highly contentions, as is evidenced by ongoing arguments about the meaning and significance of even long-established concepts like the “American Creed,” “American multiculturalism,” “American Exceptionalism,” and birthright citizenship (to name just a few).  This panel welcomes submissions that offer an argument about the meaning and significance of American texts from any period that offer insight into how we can understand national identity in the United States.

Approaches might include:

• Re-readings of “classic” texts as a way to understand the present-day United States
• Analyses of contemporary texts that are in conversation with current events
• Reinterpretations of texts based on shifting definitions of concepts like “self-reliance,” “individualism,” the “American Dream,” “equality,” and “liberty”
• Examinations of abolitionist texts juxtaposed with founding documents; or examinations of immigrant-American texts juxtaposed with immigration laws/policies

Abstracts:  Please submit abstracts by September 30, 2025 through the NeMLA portal: https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21916.  

Questions:  For questions, please contact the panel organizer Matthew Darling (darling005@gannon.edu).