“Global Early Modern Environmental Crises: Modes of Extraction, Settler Colonialism, and Empire” 

The Forum on Seventeenth-Century English Studies (LLC 17th-Century English) is putting together a guaranteed MLA panel for the 2027 Annual Convention in Los Angeles, CA, USA (7-10 January) on global early modern environmental crises with a focus on human interactions with the earth tied to imperial pursuits, settler colonialism, conflicts in worldviews, and methods of extraction. We hope to feature scholars with expertise in different linguistic traditions to foster cross-cultural discussions. 

Possible topics include but are not limited to: 

Resource scarcity

Mining, agricultural practices

Pollution/Urbanization/Industry

Discourses of extraction, farming, and violence

Indigenous worldviews

Settler-colonialism and the environment

Please send 250-word abstracts and 100-word bios by Sunday, March 1, 2026 to Kirsten Mendoza (kmendoza1@udayton.edu).