In 2025-2026, Current Keywords in Digital Literary Culture will host two virtual mini-conferences consisting of four thematically-linked keywords actively shaping digital literary culture in the very online, very present moment. We are working at the bleeding edge of culture, and these mini-conferences are designed to be intimate, safe, and collaborative spaces to think with others about what we see emerging, as it is emerging.

The conference will be held on a single day, with a morning panel on one keyword and afternoon panel on another. For each keyword, we are soliciting submissions for four 10-minute papers that will be pre-circulated in order to facilitate timely conversations about the pressing issues in digital literary culture today. Our aim is to invite conversation across the papers and across the keywords through a day spent reading and thinking together. 

For our inaugural Keywords Sessions, our selections ask potential participants to touch on these dynamics via the following keywords shaping digital literary culture today.

Our first mini-conference will be held November 20, 2025, focusing on the keywords smut and lore. 

Smut

The keyword smut, historically referring to obscene or explicit language,holds a complex and often contradictory place of erotic and sexually explicit writing in digital literary culture. While “smut” has long carried dismissive or disparaging overtones—implying its low cultural and literary value—it has also been reclaimed by online communities of readers and writers as a badge of creativity, an exploration of women’s pleasure, and a resistance to respectability politics and heteronormative literary standards. Far from a niche literary corner, “smut” now intersects with questions of online identity, algorithmic discovery, content moderation, fan-driven creativity, and the blurring boundaries between amateur and professional publishing. In the first of our mini-series, we seek to bring together scholars, writers, and digital practitioners from all career levels and time zones to explore the keyword’s shifting meanings and contested legitimacy, tracing how debates over “smut” illuminate broader cultural struggles over literary and cultural production online. 

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

• the history or aesthetics of smut

• feminist, queer, and/or anti-colonial or decolonial reclamations of ‘smut’ 

• the intersection of smut, social media, and digital or new modes of publishing

• smut’s relationship to shame and desire

• fanfiction, fan content, fan communities and smut

• the politics of authorship and marginalized writers

• issues of shadowbanning, censorship, limited posts, etc. 

• the politics of smut vs. pornography vs. erotica

Lore

The keyword lore has become a central term in contemporary digital pop culture and a common word found in our online vocabulary. The term highlights the folkloristic and sociopoetic aspects of digital pop culture. It can refer to a past, but also a body of knowledge about something, or as a reference to the common knowledge defining a digitally mediated community, like subcommunities of TikTok including “BookTok.” If you know the lore, you are part of the in-group. Lore can therefore also refer to the hidden, what exists beneath the surface, or the result of the work of the many in doing analytical deep dives into cultural texts. Lore also refers to the way knowledge about fictional works is talked about, sometimes combined or used interchangeably with the term “canon.” In this form, lore is therefore also networked, the result of a multitude of co-creating voices. In its digital constitution, lore refers to the intertextuality of networked culture, bringing forth the sociopoetic aspects of meaning-making. Last, it can also contribute to the civic imagination. We are interested in papers from scholars and writers who are interested in exploring lore’s role in digital spaces. 

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

• the organization, distribution, development, and maintenance of lore

• the function of lore in communities

• lore and the civic imagination

• lore and sociopoetic meaning-making

• the specific lore of different communities/sides/fandoms

• digital folklore

• (lost) internet lore

• the intersection of folklore and popular culture online

 Timeline:

• October 8: Abstracts due
• October 20: Notification of successful submissions
• November 14: Final papers due
• November 20: Mini-conference (virtual)

If we receive more abstract submissions than the mini-conference format has room for, the following criteria will apply:

• Explicit thematic relevance
• Proposals that centre intersectional and/or interdisciplinary methods or research
• Overall strength of submission

We anticipate being able to accommodate up to 15 attendees, including presenters, if your paper is not selected but you would still like to attend.

Please submit to the conference with a short bio and abstract using the following link: https://forms.gle/Ccuaav7rGmMsAzsi8. 

 If you have any questions about the CFP or conference, please reach out to Kiera Obbard and Camilla Holm Soelseth at contact@dlcplus.org. Learn more about DLC+ at dlcplus.org.