PAMLA 2026 Seattle: “Our Ruling Classes: Class, Power, Conflict” - https://www.pamla.org/pamla2026/

The 123rd Annual PAMLA Conference will be held November 12–15, 2026, at the Hyatt Regency Seattle,
808 Howell St., Seattle, Washington 98101.

PAMLA welcomes special session proposals for the 2026 conference on topics of scholarly interest that do not substantially overlap with PAMLA’s existing General (Standing) Sessions (see list below).

Special session proposals are not limited to the conference theme, “Our Ruling Classes: Class, Power, Conflict.” However, proposals that engage questions of class, power, hierarchy, authority, governance, resistance, or social conflict are particularly welcome. - https://www.pamla.org/conference/2026-conference-theme/

As the 2026 conference theme, “Our Ruling Classes: Class, Power, Conflict,” PAMLA invites special session proposals that address how ruling groups are constituted, legitimated, challenged, resisted, or reimagined across literary, cultural, historical, filmic, media, and artistic contexts. Possible approaches include (but are not limited to) examinations of aristocracy, meritocracy, technocracy, colonial and imperial power, revolutionary movements, counter-elites, corporate and institutional authority, and cultural narratives that sustain or contest dominance.

At the same time, PAMLA strongly encourages proposals beyond the conference theme, provided they avoid undue overlap with standing sessions. Special sessions should be clearly focused, well framed, and open to paper submissions from a broad range of scholars rather than limited to pre-constituted panels.

The deadline for special session proposals is April 10, 2026.

To submit a proposal, log into pamla.ballastacademic.com (you will need to create an account if you have not done so previously), click “Propose Session,” and follow the instructions provided.

PAMLA encourages special session proposals with alternative formats, including roundtables, workshops, creative or experimental sessions, and other innovative scholarly conversations.

PAMLA General / Standing Sessions

(Please ensure that your proposed special session does not replicate an existing standing session.)

21st-Century Literature; Adaptation Studies; African American Literature; American Literature before 1865; American Literature 1865–1945; American Literature after 1945; Ancient–Modern Relations; Anime and Manga; Architecture and Space; Asian American Literature; Asian Film and Media; Asian Literature; Austrian Studies; Autobiography; Beyond Binaries; Bible and Literature; British Literature and Culture: To 1700; British Literature and Culture: Long Eighteenth Century; British Literature and Culture: Long Nineteenth Century; British Literature and Culture: 20th and 21st Century; Canadian Literature and Culture; Children’s Literature; Classics (Greek); Classics (Latin); Comics and Graphic Narratives; Comparative American Ethnic Literature; Comparative Literature; Comparative Media; Composition and Rhetoric; Creative Writing: Brief Prose; Creative Writing: Poetry; Crime and Mystery; Critical Theory; Cultural History; Digital Humanities & Creative Praxis; Digital Studies; Disability Studies; Disney Culture; Drama and Society; East–West Literary Relations; Family and Metafamily; Fantasy and the Fantastic; Feminisms; Film and Literature; Film Studies; Folklore and Mythology; Food Studies; French; Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Literature; Germanic Studies; Gothic; Hip Hop Aesthetics and Spoken Word Poetics; Horror and the Supernatural; Indigenous Literatures and Cultures; Italian; Italian Cinema; Italian Ecocriticism; Jewish Literature and Culture; Language, Culture, and Linguistics; Latin American Cinema; Latina/o Literature and Culture; Literature & the Other Arts; Literature and Religion; Medieval Literature; Middle English Literature, including Chaucer; New Italians; Oceanic Literatures and Cultures; Old English Literature, including Beowulf; Poetry and Poetics; Postcolonial Literature; Prison Studies; Religion in American Literature; Rhetorical Approaches to Literature; Rhetorical Theory; Romanticism; Science Fiction; Shakespeare and the Early Moderns; Spain, Portugal, and Latin America: Jewish Culture & Literature in Trans-Iberia; Spanish and Portuguese (Latin American); Spanish and Portuguese (Peninsular); Teaching with Media and Technology; Teaching Writing Across the Disciplines; Television Studies; Travel and Literature; Veterans Studies; Video Game Studies; Women in Literature; Young Adult Literature and Culture.

Other Special Session Topics

In addition to theme-based proposals, PAMLA welcomes special session proposals on topics of broad scholarly interest, including proposals that may be suitable for development into standing sessions after three successful years.

Examples include (but are not limited to):

Multilingual American Literature; African Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; Arabic Literature and Culture; ASL; Audiences or Reader Response Theory; Audio or Sound Studies; Banned, Burned, or Censored: Free Speech and Books; Book History and Material Texts; Caribbean Literature and Culture; Chinese Literature, Film, and Culture; Class or Marxist Studies; Comedy or Satire; Creative Writing (Drama or Creative Nonfiction); Fan Studies; Futurisms (including Afrofuturism and Indigenous Futurism); Hebrew Literature and Culture; Hmong Language and Literature; Immigrant and Migration Studies; Interdisciplinary or Innovative Sessions; International Film and Media; Islamic Literature and Culture; Korean Literature, Film, and Culture; Modernism; Museum Studies; Object Studies; Pedagogy; Performance Studies; Portuguese Literature and Culture; Posthuman Studies; Postmodernism; Sociolinguistics; Scottish Literature and Culture; Slavic Languages and Literatures; Spatial Studies; Transatlantic Studies; Transcultural or Transnational Literature; Vietnamese Literature and Culture.

Questions may be directed to PAMLA Executive Director Craig Svonkin (director@pamla.org) or PAMLA Vice President Satoko Kakihara (skakihara@fullerton.edu).