The University of Iowa

Department of English

Graduate Student Conference 2026

Elaborating Labor 

Conference date: Friday, April 10, 2026 

Location: Richey Ballroom, Iowa Memorial Union, University of Iowa 

Abstract due date: Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Please email abstracts to c3conf@uiowa.edu 

The University of Iowa’s Department of English is hosting its 25th interdisciplinary graduate student conference on Friday, April 10, 2026, in the IMU’s Richey Ballroom. Our theme this year is Elaborating Labor.

Labor is inevitable and inescapable. “As individuals express themselves, so they are,” wrote Marx and Engels. “What they are, therefore, coincides with their production” (1845). However, the concept of labor pre-dates Marx and Engles’ treatise, and subsequent interrogations of the subject evolve beyond this definition. For example, domestic labor, childbirth, and caregiving are essential to a functioning and flourishing society, yet the visibility of these forms of labor are often marginalized if not completely unacknowledged in discussions of labor theory and economics. Contemporary scholarship continues to pursue questions of labor in all its meanings, yet there is still much to be examined. Thus, our conference theorizes labor as a multivalent word that not one single definition or perspective can encompass.  

Situating this analysis of labor within the intellectual communities at the University of Iowa, we invite students from all departments to present their scholarly research at our graduate conference, Elaborating Labor. We seek submissions that ask incisive questions about labor in all its forms. 

• How will new definitions of labor bring the labor of caregivers and childbirth to the forefront?  
• How will labor adapt to a twenty-first century society dependent on digital infrastructures for communication and at the brink of an epoch potentially defined by artificial intelligence?  
• How does labor in all its meanings shape us as individual citizens and as participants in globally networked societies?  
• Why do we embrace certain types of labor while eschewing others?  
• How do we define and use labor, or rather how does labor define and use us in the twenty-first century? 
• How do we teach and theorize labor inside and outside the university?

To answer these questions, we welcome submissions that create, embody, and/or criticize labor from across disciplines. Presentations are open but not limited to scholarly essays and scientific articles, creative fiction and poetry, and digital or visual art pieces. Topics include, but are not limited to: 

• History of labor movements, unions, strikes, and alternative labor movements. 
• Archival projects that consider labor as a significant part of the original circulation and archival conservation/curation process. 
• Object lessons tying the material qualities of an artifact to the labor that produced them. 
• Impacts of Marxism on literary theory and philosophy 
• Literary and textual analyses contemplating labor
• Labor pedagogies and pedagogical perspectives on labor
• Creative labor and craft
• Audience and fan labor
• Impacts of labor on the body, mind, and heart
• ...or any other creative or scholarly project that considers labor in any capacity! 

Our conference offers you the opportunity to gain experience presenting at an academic conference, and we welcome your unique scholarly and creative submissions. Moreover, our conference provides a space for the University of Iowa community to engage in critical academic discussions, meet colleagues across departments, forge meaningful connections between University of Iowa community members and strengthen our academic network. All University of Iowa faculty, staff, and students are invited to attend. 

Please submit a 250-word abstract for all presentations to c3conf@uiowa.edu by Wednesday, December 31, 2025, for consideration. 

For more information, please visit: craftcritiquecultureconference.wordpress.com