35TH ANNUAL BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AND POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES CONFERENCE
FEBRUARY 20-21, 2026
DESOTO SAVANNAH, SAVANNAH GA

The BCPS Conference, inaugurated in 1992, is the oldest and longest-running annual meeting of its kind in the U.S. We call for presentations situated in colonial and postcolonial histories, literatures, creative and performing arts, politics, economics, and all other aspects of the countries formerly colonized by Britain and other European powers. Please join us at the DeSoto Hotel in the beautiful Historic District this coming February for the critical engagement, friendly community, and vibrant network that has been a hallmark of the BCPS Conference for over three decades. 

We recognize that global events of the past few years are ripe for consideration concerning the imposition of power, neocolonialism, justice, injustice, and the mechanisms of control. Particularly appropriate thematic issues include:

• Imposing Power and Exploiting Its Differences
• Governance and the Postcolonial
• The Role of Postcolonial Studies in Addressing Systemic Injustice
• Historical Structures and the Postcolonial
• Recovering from Colonization, Reforming Power Structures
• Postcolonial Intersectionality and Identity
• The Postcolonial in the Post-Pandemic
• The Demonizing of CRT and “Anti-Wokeness”
• Diversity Training and Other “divisive, anti-American propaganda”  

We also invite proposals situated in more traditional areas, both thematic (migration, diaspora studies, etc.) and geographic (The Global South, South Asia, etc.), such as:

• Postcolonial Studies: Where Were We? Where Are We? Where To Now?
• Perspectives and Current Practices in Postcolonial Pedagogy
• Bioethics, Ecology, Ecocriticism, Health and Wellness
• Migration, Diaspora, Hybridity, and Borders
• Region, Religion, Politics, and Culture
• History and Historiography
• War and Terrorism
• Race, Racism, Class, Gender, Sexuality, and Ethnicity
• Ethics, Economics, and Globalization
• Pedagogy and the Disciplines
• Intersections of Francophone and Anglophone Literatures
• Postcolonial, Liberation, and Transnational Literatures, Arts, and Media
• Or any other aspect of the British Commonwealth, or of countries formerly colonized by other European powers. 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Esra Mirze Santesso
Professor, Department of English
University of Georgia
With a focus on the connections between gender, religion, and culture, Esra Santesso's career has always been one step ahead of the curve. Her work focuses on Muslim identity, diasporic and immigrant experiences, and human rights narratives. Her first book, Disorientation: Muslim Identity in Contemporary Anglophone Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), interrogates the complexities of displacement and the value of traditional postcolonial theorizing when considering Muslim subjects in the West. Her most recent book, Muslim Comics and Warscape Witnessing (Ohio State UP, 2023), is the first monograph to investigate Muslim portrayals in comics and received an honorable mention for the 2024 MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Middle Eastern Studies. She is the co-editor of Islam and Postcolonial Literature (Routledge, 2017) and Muslim Women’s Popular Fiction (Manchester UP, forthcoming). Her work has also appeared in The Journal of Religion and Literature, Postcolonial Text, Postcolonial Intervention, and PMLA. 

SUBMISSIONS
Proposals for individual papers or full panels are accepted at our site: https://bcpsconference.org/submissions.html

DEADLINE
Deadline for proposal submissions: December 5, 2025.
Notification of acceptance: completed by December 15, 2025. 

REGISTRATION
includes access to all sessions, the keynote address, one lunch, and two receptions
Regular Registration: $250.00
Graduate Student / Retiree Registration: $200.00 

ACCOMMODATIONS
Once again, the DeSoto has come through for us, with a great room rate. You can reserve a room in the conference block at a rate of $199 per night. This rate is available for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. 

FOR POTENTIAL PRESENTERS

• Presentations must be delivered on-site.
• Proposals should include: 
•      >   An abstract of 300 words maximum. 
•      >   A biographical statement, including the presenter's academic affiliation.        
• Proposals for panels should include an abstract for each paper and a biographical statement for each presenter.
• Panels should be designed for 75 minutes; individual papers for 15-minute delivery, maximum. 

CONTACT / QUESTIONS
Send email to bcps2026@bcpsconference.org

FOR MORE INFORMATION
See our site at https://bcpsconference.org