The Kate Chopin International Society is seeking individual proposals for two sponsored panels at the 2026American Literature Association conference in Chicago, Illinois, May 20–23, 2026

The first panel, a roundtable on “Teaching Kate Chopin,” seeks short (seven- to eight-minute) papers/remarks that address anyaspect of or strategy for teaching Chopin’s life or work to today’s students—to students of any kind at any level using any materials or technology in any educational environment anywhere. Proposals should include a title, your name and affiliation, and a paragraph about your proposed remarks.

The second panel, “Transgressive Voices and Female Desire in Kate Chopin and her Contemporaries,” seeks comparative depictions of Chopin with other transgressive voices. To transgress implies exceeding a boundary, or a limit. Who sets these limits? Who are they set for? What kinds of acts are they meant to contain? — What is the relationship between female desire and transgression? This panel seeks proposals examining any of Chopin’s works by themselves or in comparison with other writers who have examined the relationship between desire, resistance, and transgression. Proposals for presentations no longer than twenty minutes should include a title, your name and affiliation, and a 200- to 400-word abstract.

Send submissions for both the teaching roundtable and the “Transgressive Voices and Female Desire” panel by Friday, January 23, 2026, to both Stacy Stingle at Louisiana State University, ssting1@lsu.edu and Bernard Koloski at KateChopin.org, bkoloski@icloud.com