The Society for the Study of American Poetry invites proposals for a roundtable to be held at the 37th annual American Literature Association conference in Chicago, IL, May 20-23, 2026. 

Roundtable: “Teaching American Poetry Now”

This roundtable invites participants to reflect on the challenges, possibilities, and urgencies of teaching American poetry in the current moment. Across institutions, student populations, and media environments, instructors are rethinking how—and why—we teach American poetry now.

Rather than traditional conference papers, this roundtable emphasizes conversation, shared pedagogical practices, and brief interventions. We seek participants who wish to discuss classroom experiences, curricular innovations, and critical frameworks for engaging students with American poetry amid shifting cultural, political, and technological conditions.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

• Teaching American poetry in an era of digital platforms, archives, and AI
• Race, gender, sexuality, disability, and decolonial approaches in the poetry classroom
• Balancing canonical texts with contemporary, experimental, or social media poetry
• Teaching poetry across historical periods or in transnational frameworks
• Assignments, assessment strategies, and active-learning approaches
• Performance, sound, and multimodal pedagogy
• Student resistance, accessibility, and affect in poetry courses
• Institutional constraints and opportunities (general education, online teaching, small colleges, R1s, community colleges)

Participants will be asked to prepare a brief (5–7 minute) provocation or teaching vignette to spark discussion rather than deliver a formal paper. Graduate students, contingent faculty, and instructors at all career stages and institution types are especially encouraged to apply.

Submission Guidelines:
Please submit a 200–250 word proposal outlining your pedagogical focus and discussion contribution and a brief bio by Jan. 29 to Nikki Skillman (nskillma@iu.edu).