CFP: 3rd International Interdisciplinary Conference of the Department of English, University of Zululand

28-30 September 2026

Re-imagining Language, Writing, and Literature in English in a Fast-Changing World   

In an era that has been labelled by scholars as the age of technocracy, AI and post-truth, the spheres of literature and the channels of creative and critical discourses seem to face a dire future. Society globally is becoming entrapped within an accelerated spiral comprising lowest common denominator discourse, the loss of autonomy, the dissipation of embodied social networks and the forceful commodification of imagination and creativity. Considering these threats, it is vital to create radical acts of imagining and reimagining. These should be rooted not only in the hegemonic technocratic traditions and orthodoxies imposed from the Global North, but also, and more urgently, in the lived textures of local language, memory, and survival. The need to re-imagine language, writing and literature is not only an aesthetic necessity, but a desperate need for the future of meaning and society.

In the context of AI for example, there are thriving, often cacophonous discourses debating the extent to which the technological deployment of large language models (LLMs) either enhance or curtail individual expression whether in private contexts of self-articulation or in the more public spheres of formal education. In the sphere of formal education, the issue of ethics has assumed a significant role as reliance on, or use of largely predictive AI-enabled or AI-generated content challenges previously stable notions of academic integrity and authentic authorship. While there seems to be consensus on the need for the ‘ethical’ use of AI in these contexts, the question that continues to divide commentators is: What exactly constitutes ‘ethical’ use of content or material that is generated or curated in full or part by another party? What exactly is ethical these days? Other vital questions relate to the dominance of certain languages (European) and what seems to be the increased sidelining of others (African in particular) as well as the unsubtly hidden market-centric orientation of the current drive towards AI in academic writing. These are only a few of the significant puzzles posed by the new forms of language-use inaugurated, imposed and valorised by new forms of technology.

This invites scrutiny of the more traditional roles that language plays in embodying culture, collective identity, knowledge-creation and transmission as well as in the codification of epistemologies. Given the marginalisation of indigenous languages and knowledge systems in contemporary Africa over the centuries of colonial domination, reclaiming language as a medium to address unabating local dilemmas is proving to be more daunting than ever. Yet, the rise of social media as de-facto sites of imagination and new forms of expression represent possibilities for cultural expression and practices of literature and knowledge production. Furthermore, the increasing diversity of social platforms spawned by technology has a variety of positive and negative implications for, among other things, the re-imagination of fiction, redefining realism, generating alternate currents of speculation, enforcing modes of stereotyping, unforeseen ontological hallucinations, and even contributing towards the current vivification of propaganda. All in all, there is no simple reductionist approach to interpret the current moment.

Considering the urgency of the above, the Department of English at the University of Zululand issues the following call for papers:

Re-imagining Language, Writing, and Literature in English in a Fast-Changing World

Themes and sub-themes which are encouraged (but not limited to) include:

The future of language and literature.

Imagination and conflicts/interfaces with reality.

Academic ethics, authorship and linguistic agency in the age of AI.

Ghost Writing and Co-creation

Home, homelessness, journeys and writing.

Dreaming and language.

Multilingualism and Integration

Imaginations in literature as forms of resistance and rebellion.

Postcolonial literatures, planetarity and the global technocratic order.

Imagination and the narrating of already lived (possibly forgotten) histories.

Fading/submerged names of nations, peoples, and things, and the (non)realms of departed/buried ontologies.

Cracks in reality and meaning.

Re-telling and translations

Lost childhoods and lost generational mandates/missions.

Non-existence as an outcome of personal and social life.

Survival and language.

Ecological imaginations and environmental futures.

The death of nature/ecological unravellings in literary texts

Extinctions and disappearances of forms of literature and narratives.

Otherness, adaptation and change

Possible subversive/creative uses of AI and technology as imagination tools.

Slavery, Exploitation, and AI.

Slow writing and slow reading as forms of accelerationist resistance and critique.

Furthermore, we open the call to other interpretations of the theme which weave academic insights with creative interpretations, including:

Short presentations of lived practice of language imaginings, writers’ reflections upon their own creative practice(s) which may blur lines between creative and academic spaces.

Approaches to creative writing which may enhance imaginative possibilities.

Presentations of short pieces of creative writing which directly respond to the theme/sub-themes.

Performances of language reimagining or embodied writing.

Provocations/perturbations of the possibilities/impossibilities of language and meaning when situated within structured genres/spaces/histories.

Literary manifestoes of a “decline to participate” (in the mode of Lesego Rampolokeng, in 2014) in the dominant futurity narrative (challenging the hegemonic rhetoric, adapt to 4IR or be irrelevant) with an insistence on alternative unlived narratives and subversive explorations of change.

We invite all interested parties to submit abstracts of approximately 250 words, with five keywords, by 30 June 2026, to one of the following email addresses:

allank@unizulu.ac.za / phakathib@unizulu.ac.za / ndlovua@unizulu.ac.za 

If abstract is accepted, you will receive a response before the end of July, with further details for participation.

The Organising Team, 3rd International Interdisciplinary Conference of the Department of English, University of Zululand.