cfp | call for papers

34th Conference on British and American Studies: Reconfiguring Borders and Boundaries in/through the Lens of Literature, Language and Culture

deadline for submissions:

February 15, 2026

full name / name of organization:

West University of Timisoara

contact email:

The English Department of the Faculty of Letters, History, Philosophy and Theology, West University of Timișoara, is pleased to announce its 34th international conference on British and American Studies, on the theme “Reconfiguring Borders and Boundaries in/through the Lens of Literature, Language and Culture,” which will be held on 14-16 May 2026.

Recent times have seen the creation of new borders and boundaries, such as those between humans and artificial intelligence, as well as the re-emergence of old ones, especially along nationalist, racial, ethnic, gender, class and religious divides. Such dynamics are connected to contemporary sociopolitical, cultural and technological transformations and crises, among which the wide reach of mis- and disinformation, the dissolution of trust in science and institutions, the rise of ethnonationalist populism and authoritarianism, the mainstreaming of exclusionary rhetoric, armed conflicts, environmental disasters and large movements of populations, to name but a few. At the same time, the duality of borders and boundaries, erected not only to separate, exclude or divide, but also to protect and cognitively map social reality (Tanulku & Pekelsma, 2024), prompts reflection on the potential contained therein for bridging and crossing over.

Borders are physical and territorial, while boundaries are symbolic, sociocultural and moral, productive of differentiation and hierarchization through practices of inclusion/exclusion and ordering (Lamont & Molnár, 2002; Tanulku & Pekelsma, 2024). Many scholars, however, consider them interrelated and mutually constitutive, or even use them interchangeably, depending on the context (Fischer, Achermann & Dahinden, 2020; Tanulku & Pekelsma, 2024; Yuval-Davis, Wemyss & Cassidy, 2019). The currently dominant approach to the study of borders and boundaries conceptualizes them as multiscalar, relational, processual and performative spaces and constructs, constantly made and remade, (re)produced but also challenged, in top-down and bottom-up practices, experiences and discourses, as sites of both governance and agency formation (Brambilla et al., 2015; Fischer, Achermann & Dahinden, 2020; Paasi, 2013; Tanulku & Pekelsma, 2024; Yuval-Davis, Wemyss & Cassidy, 2019). To bring these aspects into relief, the concepts of ‘bordering,’ ‘boundary making’ or ‘boundary work’ have been introduced and used alongside, and even instead of, the more static ‘borders’ and ‘boundaries.’ In a broad sense, bordering and boundary work involve, beyond nation-states and their transformation in a global world, other types of space (global cities, rural areas, frontiers, peripheries, public/private), identification practices (belonging, otherness, intersectionality), time (past/present/future), politics (ideological boundaries), disciplines, and so on.

A non-comprehensive list of the theoretical insights that inform the study of borders and boundaries encompasses the following: the socially constructed nature of space and its embeddedness in power relations (Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994; Soja, 1996) and struggles across global, regional and local scales (Brenner, 2001; Jessop, 2002; Mahler & Pessar, 2003); the fragmentation, fluidity, hybridization and performativity of identities (Bhabha, 1994; Butler, 1990; Hall, 1997); the articulation of belonging and citizenship across transnational networks and flows through physical, virtual, imaginary and affective co-presence, but also simultaneous inclusion in one space and exclusion from another (Ahmed, 2003; Baldassar, 2008; Levitt & Glick Schiller, 2004; Vertovec, 2009; Yuval-Davis, 2011); the formation of inequality and oppression across multiple, intersecting axes (Crenshaw, 1989); the global (im)mobilities of people, objects, communication technologies, information, images and money (Urry, 2007); governmentality, biopolitics (Foucault, 1977-1979) and necropolitics (Mbembe, 2006). Due to the complexity of bordering and boundary making, their research has fostered inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue, with contributions from the humanities gaining increasing weight over time (Brambilla et al., 2015; Paasi, 2013; Wilson & Hastings, 2012). Borders and boundaries are symbolically construed, (re)produced, negotiated, performed, mediated in literary and cultural discourses, in social and public imaginaries and narratives, in artistic creations and installations, in multilingual encounters, translations, linguistic change, discursive stances, positionings and interactions.

We therefore invite papers in literature, language and culture addressing, but not limited to, the reconfiguration of borders and boundaries in/through:

representations, narratives, identities and stances in discourse (literary, media, cultural)
imaginaries and ideologies in discourse (literary, media, cultural)
cognitive metaphors, schemas and cultural models
linguistic interaction practices
translation and multilingual practices
academic writing practices
language and discourse change in contemporary cultural and sociopolitical contexts (inclusive, nonviolent, discriminatory/exclusionary, polarized language and discourse)
theoretical and analytical approaches to the study of borders and boundaries in the humanities
critical approaches
interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary intersections in theory and methodology