Conference: Shakespeare in a Polarized World.
Location and dates: WBO, Université Libre de Bruxelles. Brussels. 6 – 9 March 2026.
Deadline for proposal submission: 31 August 2025.
Organisers:
- Waseda University (Tokyo),
- University of Birmingham’s Shakespeare Institute (Stratford-upon-Avon),
- Université Libre de Bruxelles.
The conference’s aim is to explore the raison d’être of literature and the arts in a world of increasing political and cultural divisions.
The focus of the conference will be on how Shakespeare and the study of Shakespeare might contribute to mitigating the present political and social divisions that threaten to undermine the basic principles of a democratic society: divisions that range from cancel culture and TERF activism, the vilification of immigrants and climate change denial, to geopolitical struggles around the world. It takes as its starting point Richard Rorty’s argument that literary texts are “narratives which connect the present with the past, on the one hand, and with utopian futures, on the other,” promoting human solidarity. The aim of the conference is to identify shared views and values within the palimpsestic nature of the works, the widely-varied discussions and interpretations they have invited, and the complex views that unfold in the works themselves, as points of solidarity and keys to overcoming the polarization in the world today.
Possible topics of discussion could include:
- Engagement with contentious aspects of the text through digital and other forms of media
- Theater practices that encourage the audience to engage with the text and one another
- The work of editors in dealing with politically contentious aspects of a text
- Surveys of Shakespeare criticism that identify common threads of ideas in antithetical discussions
- Politically or culturally divisive issues added to the works through translation
- Adaptations of the works that address the issue of polarization
Prospective keynote speakers include:
- Professor Nataliya Torkut (National University, Zaporizhzhia; Ukrainian Shakespeare Centre) and
- Professor Michael Dobson (Shakespeare Institute, the University of Birmingham).
Registration and proposals
Please register here. You will then receive a message with an email address to which proposals should be sent by noon (JST) on 31 August 2025. You will be notified of results of the selection by 30 September 2025.
Proposals should include 1) the name of the author, with affiliation, and email address, 2) a 100-word biographical note 3) the title of the proposed paper, and 4) a 300-word abstract. Selected papers will be organized into panels of three 20-minute papers each with a 30-minute Q&A at the end of each panel.
Inquiries
Please send inquiries here or at jean-louis.moortgat@ulb.be
Conference websites
- For more information, please visit: SHAKESPEARE IN A POLARIZED WORLD – WBO, Université Libre de Bruxelles 6 – 9 March 2026.
- For details and the latest updates on the conference: Waseda University Brussels Office.
(Posted 2 July 2025)
International Conference: Authors as Characters in Fiction, Film and Graphic Narratives.
Location and dates: Université de Lorraine, Nancy (France). 12-13 March 2026.
Deadline for proposal submissions: 1 September 2025.
Venue details: 91 Avenue de la Libération, Université de Lorraine, Nancy (France).
Event description
The aim of this international and interdisciplinary conference is to understand the fetishisation of English-speaking canonical authors (such as William Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Henry James, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Sylvia Plath, Mary Shelley, D. H. Lawrence, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway), the ‘versioning’ (Silver xvi) of their texts and images, the fabrication of myths which are ‘endlessly repeated and woven into culture’ (Miller xiii), the relationship between auctoriality and celebrity, and artistic and historiographic representations.
It will include three main generic perspectives: biofiction, biopics, graphic biofiction (see CFP).
Keynote Speakers:
- Stephanie Barron (author)
- Lucia Boldrini (Goldsmiths, University of London)
- Belén Vidal (King’s College London)
- Xavier Giudicelli (Université Paris Nanterre)
Submission guidelines: We invite proposals for individual papers or panels. Please submit paper proposals (which should include the title of the paper, author(s), a 250-300-word abstract, institutional affiliation, contact information and a short bio-bibliography) before 1st September 2025, to the following address: idea-authors-as-characters-contact@univ-lorraine.fr.
A selection of articles will be published in 2027.
Website address
All information about the conference and the conference website will be posted at the IDEA website address.
Contact details
idea-authors-as-characters-contact@univ-lorraine.fr
CFP
For further details, please check the original call inserted below.
CFP_Authors_Characters(Posted 10 March 2025)