The Mind and the Machine: Mental Disability and Technology

George Washington University (GWU) English Graduate Student Association Symposium

Friday, 20 March, 2026

This virtual symposium invites papers that explore how mental disability and technology intersect in literature, film, and media.

By mental disability, we include conditions such as mental illness, neurodivergence, emotional distress, and psychological differences as represented across cultures.

By technology, we refer broadly to scientific, digital, or mechanical systems (such as medical instruments, typewriters, social media, surveillance systems, and artificial intelligence).

We invite submissions that consider questions: How do technologies shape the way we think about madness, desire, emotion, and care? How do literature and media represent the mind as a kind of machine, or the machine as human-like? How can disability studies, queer and feminist theory, or decolonial approaches help reimagine technologies and human psyche?

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

• Mental illness, neurodivergence, and machines in literature or film
• Assistive or accessible technologies in art and performance
• Algorithms, surveillance, and mental health classification
• Social media and self-representation
• Disability aesthetics: repetition, silence, free association, flashback as creative forms
• Environmental and technological effects on mental health
• AI companions, speculative fiction, and posthumanism
• Pedagogy, accessibility, and digital humanities
• Community-based or abolitionist models of technological care

Submission Details

Please submit 300–500 word abstracts for fifteen-minute presentations to be shared virtually. All submissions must include the title of the proposed paper and a short bio (100 words). Please submit these by email to gwegsa@gmail.com with the subject line “2026 EGSA Symposium Submission.”

Submission Deadline:

Sunday, November 30, 2025 

Inquiries:

Nayoung Bishoff: nayoung.seo@gwu.edu 

Shangke Zhao: shangke@gwu.edu