Landscapes of Data and DebtDeadline: April 20, 2026Submission Requirements: Please email a 250-word abstract and brief bio-note to powellti@gvsu.edu. What histories, epistemologies, and systems of power shape the social, spatial, and environmental dimensions of financialization and datafication in the globalized present? And what role does literature, art, and storytelling play in representing life—datafied, indebted, and in climate crisis? Exploring debt and data reveals systems of collection and control, as well as ecological harm. This panel welcomes a range of disciplinary, theoretical, and pedagogical approaches exploring the socioenvironmental impacts of data and debt. We welcome topical engagements with fiction, creative nonfiction, film, journalism, documentary, testimony, and multimedia storytelling and scholarship, among other forms and genres. Some areas to explore may include the Environment and:

• Datafication, Data Centers, and AI
• Forms of Debt and Narratives of Indebted Life
• Data and Archives; Archives of Debt
• Stakes of Public Education
• Colonialism, Racial Capitalism, and Financialization
• Privatization and Enclosure
• Organizing and Activism; Solidarity in the Polycrisis

Please submit a paper proposal of 250-words and a brief bio-note to Tierney Powell (powellti@gvsu.edu) by 20 April 2026. --

MMLA's 2026 Convention
"After the Archive"
12-14 November 2026

voco Chicago Downtown
350 W. Wolf Point Plaza Building 1
Chicago, IL 60654

More Information about MMLA 2026: https://www.midwest-mla.org/convention

*Note: AV Not Supported: Since installing and maintaining projectors and screens in the convention venue’s presentation rooms is cost-prohibitive, the MMLA will not be supplying the AV equipment needed to support PowerPoint, Keynote, etc., slide projection at its 2026 convention. Presenters interested in supplementing their spoken remarks with visual aids are encouraged to bring printed handouts to distribute to audience members attending their sessions. Alternatively, presenters may wish to distribute QR codes enabling audience members to view a remote slide presentation on their mobile devices.