Call for Papers

Roundtable: Global Literary and Intellectual History in the Renaissance World

Renaissance Society of America Conference

March 11–13, 2027

Philadelphia

This roundtable examines global literary and intellectual exchange across the Renaissance world. Across two linked roundtables, we aim to bring together scholars working on Europe, Asia, Africa, the Islamicate world, and the Americas to show how literary forms, texts, ideas, religious traditions, and forms of knowledge circulated across linguistic, cultural, and geographic boundaries.

Possible topics include global literary history; translation and multilingual textual transmission; comparative poetics; travel writing and ethnography; religious encounter and interfaith exchange; theories of toleration and cosmopolitanism; the circulation of scientific, philosophical, and theological knowledge; cross-cultural literary forms; global networks of reading and interpretation; and new approaches to archives, methodology, and periodization in global Renaissance studies.

We welcome proposals from scholars working in literary studies, intellectual history, religious studies, book history, and related fields.

Please submit a CV and a 200-word abstract for a 10-min lightening presentation to Rhema Hokama (rhema@uw.edu) and Robert Stagg (rstagg@tamu.edu) by July 15, 2026. Accepted presenters will be notified by July 30, 2026.

This is an RSA-sponsored event for English Literature with guaranteed inclusion in the 2027 conference program.