“Curiosity & Care” - Stony Brook University English/WGSS CFP, New York Graduate Conference 

Stony Brook University’s English Graduate Department, in collaboration with the Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Department, invites abstracts and proposals from current graduate students and independent scholars for its annual spring conference on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, NY.

This year’s conference theme is “Curiosity & Care.” We invite proposals that engage directly with this theme, broaden our definitions of it, or depart from our typical understandings of it. We seek paper proposals from any current graduate students and independent scholars across different disciplines and theoretical backgrounds. 

Proposals may be conducted in traditional or unconventional formats and may include, but are not limited to, any of the following topics: 

Knowledge

Wonder 

Emotions

Affect 

Creativity

Pedagogy 

Archives

Ethics 

Mutual aid 

Coalitions

Storytelling

Art and visual culture

Feminization of care [work]

Comfort and harm

Care and neoliberalism

Privacy/ “Private”

Theory vs Praxis

Methodologies (writing process)

Intersectionality

Disability studies

Trans studies

Submission Info:

Please submit all abstracts and proposals to this google form by JANUARY 1, 2025. Detailed instructions for submission can be found through the above link. Further questions can be directed to stonybrookenglishgradcon@gmail.com.

We will review submissions on a rolling basis and notify all applicants by January 15, 2025, at the latest. 

Your submission will please include:

A short bio of 100 words or fewer.

The title of your paper, panel proposal, roundtable, or special event, and the genre (literary criticism, theory, creative work, or pedagogical).

Paper proposals should be 250 words or fewer.

Panel proposals (3 papers maximum) should be 750 words or fewer and include brief abstracts for all featured papers and brief bios of all presenters. 

Roundtable discussions should be 350 words or fewer.

If you would like to propose a special event, please limit your description of that event to 1,000 words or fewer. 

You may submit more than one proposal. However, your submissions must be in different categories. For example, you may submit a creative work and a paper abstract, but not two paper proposals.

We look forward to reading your proposals, and we thank you for considering our conference!