Dear colleagues,

We invite proposals for a guaranteed panel at the Modern Language Association Annual Convention (MLA 2027) in Los Angeles, to be held January 7–10, 2027, titled “Romanian, Hungarian and Other Emancipatory Narratives.”

This panel examines emancipatory narratives emerging from Romanian, Hungarian and broader Eastern European cultural contexts, focusing on how literature and cultural production imagine, negotiate, and contest structures of domination and marginalization. Approaching emancipation as a political, social, gendered, and epistemic process, the panel foregrounds narratives that respond to histories of oppression, silencing, and uneven power relations, both before and after 1989.

Possible Sub-Themes

Contributors are invited to propose papers that might engage with, but are not limited to, the following thematic axes:

Imperial Legacies and Romanian/Hungarian emancipation Romanian emancipatory narratives in relation to imperial domination, particularly under the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg/Austro-Hungarian Empire

Roma emancipation and representation Narratives of resistance, self-representation, marginalization, and cultural survival.

Emancipation from Communism and its aftermath Literary and cultural responses to political oppression, censorship, surveillance, exile, and post-Communist disillusionment or reconfiguration.

Women’s emancipation and gendered narratives Feminist interventions, women’s writing, gendered labor, reproductive politics, and challenges to patriarchal structures.

Minority, ethnic, and linguistic emancipation Hungarian, Romanian, Jewish, German, or other minority voices within Eastern European contexts.

Postcolonial, decolonial, and peripheral perspectives Eastern Europe as semi-periphery; internal colonialisms; epistemic emancipation.

Memory, trauma, and testimonial narratives Emancipation through remembrance, witnessing, and narrative reconstruction.

Migration, exile, and transnational emancipation Diasporic writing, border-crossing narratives, and cultural renegotiation.

Deadline for submissions: Saturday, March 28, 2026

Ileana Chirila, University of New Hampshire (ileana.chirila@unh.edu ) Zsuzsanna Varga, University of Glasgow (zsuzsanna.varga@glasgow.ac.uk )