The American Literature II: Literature after 1870 Permanent Section of the Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA) is seeking proposals for this year’s in-person convention in Chicago, Illinois. This year’s theme for the conference is “After the Archive”; accordingly, the Permanent Section encourages presentations that focus on the notion of the archive. Some questions to be considered in context of American literature after 1870 are:

•  The bureaucratic, legal, and institutional challenges in creating, curating, and maintaining literary archives
•  Counter-archives and archival refusal
•  Archival silence, loss, and censorship
•  The representation of the archive
•  Conventional and/or unconventional methodologies of archival
•  Histories of archives

Presentations that engage with works and aspects of American literature after 1870 that do not pertain to archival and archives are equally welcome. Please send a 200-300 word abstract and a short biographical statement (c. 50 words) to Alp Eren Pirli at alppirli@iu.edu no later than April 25, 2026. NB: MMLA will not be supplying presenters with AV equipment at its 2026 convention.