Comparative Literature Graduate Student Organization, Binghamton University

Conference dates: April 17-18, in-person at Binghamton University (limited virtual accommodations by request)

Abstract deadline: January 16, 2026

The Comparative Literature Graduate Student Organization at Binghamton University invites proposals that examine the sociocultural experience and/or representation of trauma, destruction, resistance, and/or recovery for our in-person graduate conferencescheduled for April 17th and 18th, 2026 (limited virtual presentations may be available for special circumstances). We welcome work that treats trauma as intimate, communal, historical, and/or theoretical, and that spans across languages, media, genres, and disciplines.

As Judith Herman reminds us in Trauma and Recovery (1996), “Advances in the field [of trauma studies] occur only when they are supported by a political movement powerful enough to legitimate an alliance between investigators and patients and to counteract the ordinary social processes of silencing and denial.” Indeed, in recent years trauma studies has become a space for political dialogue, taking up issues like police brutality, environmental degradation, sex trafficking, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the war in Gaza. Amid ongoing global conflicts and political upheaval, this conference asks, what political struggles should trauma studies align itself with now? We believe that a multidisciplinary approach to the ideas of destruction, resistance, and recovery and how they interact with trauma as both a personal/communal experience and a theoretical concept may allow for a deeper insight into the current historical moment. 

 Possible approaches include (but are not limited to):

• Queer Theory

• Women and Gender Studies

• Trauma Studies

• Decolonial or Postcolonial Studies

• Psychoanalysis

• Ecocritical/Animal Studies

• Posthumanism

• Media and Materiality Studies

• Analytic and Continental Philosophy

• Marxist Thought

• Or any other academic approach which opens meaningful inquiry into these concerns.

Please send all inquiries and proposals (a title, 250-word abstract, and 100-word bio) tocoligso@gsobinghamton.org. Please include your last name and “T4 CFP Abstract” in the subject line of your email submission. The deadline for proposals is January 16, 2026. Panels will be decided and participants informed by February 16, 2026.