7TH ANNUAL MODERN LITERATURES & LINGUISTICS INTERDISCIPLINARY GRADUATE CONFERENCE

“Beyond Fracture: Reimagining Futures through Divergence and Convergence”

Constructing New Paths Across Division, Resistance, and Solidarity

Florida State University, Tallahassee Campus

March 5-6, 2026

Submission Deadline: October 17, 2025

Submit Abstracts Here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd9Eg_pf3fbRWz-67bQY8DeLQ4tkIl-...

https://mllgraduatestudentconference.wordpress.com/ 

In a world marked by rupture, polarization, and resistance, Beyond Fracture invites us to explore how moments of
divergence—social, linguistic, aesthetic, political—can give rise not only to conflict but also to reinvention. At the same
time, it calls us to consider the forces of convergence that bind and reconfigure, often in surprising or uneasy ways.
Between fracture and fusion lies the space of possibility: for solidarity, for creativity, and for futures that move beyond
protest and toward transformation.

Rather than remain tethered to opposition alone, this theme urges us to look beyond the “anti-”: beyond anti-colonialism, anti-capitalism, anti-patriarchy, anti-heteronormativity, anti-ethnonationalism, anti-spiritualism—not to erase resistance, but to ask what comes after. How do we imagine post-revolutionary societies? What new epistemologies, forms, and
structures emerge when we embrace both divergence and convergence not as endpoints, but as generative processes?
LINC 2026 invites undergraduate and graduate students, artists, researchers, and educators to consider how the fractures and entanglements of our time open critical paths for reimagining identities, relationships, systems, and knowledge. The conference seeks contributions that interrogate division and dissent, while also embracing construction, coalition, and creativity across disciplines through collaborative panels that explore how our societies move beyond resistance to forge new paths.

We welcome individual presentations, performances, creative works, and collaborative interdisciplinary panels that
critically engage with the interplay of divergence and convergence as it relates to:
● Division and solidarity
● Resistance and reconstruction
● Marginality and coalition
● Epistemological rupture and renewal
● Identity, language, embodiment, and future-making

Suggested sub-themes:
● Literature and Narrative Futures
How contemporary and speculative fiction, poetry, or oral traditions fracture dominant narratives and imagine alternative worlds.
● Linguistic Crossroads
The evolution, divergence, and convergence of language in response to migration, political identity, resistance, and digital innovation. This includes explorations of language contact and change, sociolinguistics, language documentation and revitalization, dialectology, mixed and covert languages, as well as invented and constructed languages.
● Aesthetics of Emergence
From protest to visionary art—how visual culture, music, and performance forge new aesthetic and cultural paradigms.
● Post-Oppositional Knowledge
Decolonizing disciplines, rethinking research methodologies, and reshaping pedagogy to move beyond inherited structures.
● Technological and Ecological Entanglements
Digital and environmental systems as spaces of rupture, convergence, and potential—AI, climate justice, digital activism, and speculative ecologies.
● Embodied Convergences
Reconfiguring gender, sexuality, race, and the body in literature, media, performance, and everyday life.
● Coalitions and Conflicts
Intersections and divergences within communities, social movements, and transnational solidarity projects.
● Beyond Backlash
Navigating and responding to ideological resistance—while imagining inclusive, sustainable, and liberatory futures.

We also encourage submission that aligns with the following general themes: 

• Activism, Art, and Alternative Futures

• Archives of Resistance and Recovery 

• Bodies, Borders, and Belonging 

• Colonial Legacies and Postcolonial Reimaginings

• Convergence in Performance, Ritual, and Memory 

• Cultural Hybridity and Language in Transition 

• Decolonizing Knowledge and Pedagogy 

• Diaspora, Migration, and Mobility 

• Displacement, Disruption, and Healing 

• Environmental Imaginaries and Ecological Solidarities 

• Feminisms, Queer Theories, and Intersectional Practices 

• Fractured Narratives and Storytelling as Repair 

• Gendered Spaces and Interdisciplinary Solidarities 

• Indigenous Knowledge and Planetary Futures 

• Linguistic Fracture and Multilingual Expression 

• Memory, Trauma, and Cultural Reconstruction 

• Music, Sound, and Rhythms of Resistance 

• Negotiating Identity through Divergence 

• Reclaiming the Margins: Art, Voice, and Power 

• The Politics of Translation and Transcultural Dialogue

LINC 2026 continues to foster daring, interdisciplinary, and socially engaged graduate work. We especially encourage proposals that collaborate across fields including, but not limited to, Literature and Environmental Studies, Linguistics and Music, Religion and Politics, Neuroscience and Art, or Gender Studies and Philosophy. Submission Guidelines We invite proposals for the following formats: Individual Papers: 15-minute presentations followed by a Q&A session at the end. Please submit a 250-word abstract detailing your proposed paper. Panel Proposals: 45–60-minute sessions organized around the conference theme should include a 250-word abstract for the panel and 150-word abstracts for each presenter. Submit your abstract via the following link Abstract Submission by Friday October 17, 2025, at midnight. All proposals (preliminary, ongoing, and finished projects from scholars at any stages of their career) must include the presenter’s name, institutional affiliation, and contact information. Please indicate if you require any special equipment or accommodation for your presentation. 

Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate virtual presentations at this time, so participation is in person only.

Submit Abstracts Here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd9Eg_pf3fbRWz-67bQY8DeLQ4tkIl-...

For questions or additional information, please contact LINC’s organizing committee at mllgradconference@gmail.com.