Calls for papers – Conferences taking place in May 2022

15th International IDEA Conference: Studies in English
Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, Turkey, 11-13 May 2022
Deadline for submissions extended to 25 January 2022

This Conference will be jointly hosted by Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, Department of English Language & Literature, Department of Foreign Language Education, School of Foreign Language
& The English Language & Literature Research Association of Turkey (IDEA)

The Conference will address topics from the fields of

  • English Literature
  • Literatures in English
  • British Cultural Studies
  • Cultural and Critical Studies
  • Linguistics and English Language Teaching
  • Translation Studies

Deadline for submissions: December 31, 2021
Please submit an abstract (maximum 250 words) to: idea15hatay@gmail.com
Only email submissions are going to be accepted.
Please include your name, affiliation, abstract title, email address, a brief biography and 5-6 keywords pertaining to your topic.
We would also appreciate if you could write the name of the field of study in the title section of your email.
After sending your abstract, you should receive a confirmation email within 3 work days. If you have not received a confirmation after 3 work days, please contact us.

All the abstracts will be peer reviewed.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Hatay! https://idea15.mku.edu.tr

(Posted 27 September 2021 / Reposted 3 January 2022)

31st  Conference on British and American Studies
Timişoara, Romania  –  12-14 May 2022
Deadline for proposals: 15 February 2022

The English Department of the Faculty of Letters, University of Timişoara, is pleased to announce its 31st international conference on British and American Studies, which will be held online in May 12-14, 2022.

Should the evolution of the pandemic change by mid-March and allow us to organise the conference in a face-to-face format, we will inform you.

Confirmed plenary speakers:
Prof. Andreas Jucker, University of Zürich, ESSE chair
Prof. Nicoletta Vasta, University of Udine
Prof. Laurence Roussillon-Constanty, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour

Presentations (20 min) and workshops (60 min) are invited in the following sections:

  • Language Studies
  • Translation Studies
  • Semiotics
  • British and Commonwealth Literature
  • American Literature
  • Cultural Studies
  • Gender Studies
  • English Language Teaching

Abstract submission

Please submit 60-word abstracts, which will be included in the conference programme:

Deadline: 15 February 2022

Conference fee
The conference registration fee is EUR 25.
For RSEAS members the fee is 100 RON.

Conference website: https://bas.events.uvt.ro/

Event website: http://litere.uvt.ro/cs-events/31st-conference-on-british-and-americanstudies-2022/

For additional information, please contact:
Luminiţa Frenţiu, luminita.frentiu@e-uvt.ro, tel + 40 744792238;
Loredana Pungă, loredana.punga@e-uvt.ro, tel + 40 763691704

(posted 16 November 2021)

Metre and Rhythm in Medieval and Early Modern English Poetry
Padova, Italy, 19-20 May 2022
Deadline for proposals: 30 September 2021

‘Tunable rhyme or metrical sentences’, the distinguishing features of poetry according to George Puttenham, do not only mark the passage from prose to ‘poesy’: they also make such texts as orators’ and doctors’ sermons acceptable to princes as well as the common people. In chapter 6 of his Art of English Poesy, Puttenham thus attributes to poetry a fundamental role in the community: it turns discourse into public utterance, it lends memorability and authority to speech, both in the ancient and in the contemporary world: ‘And the great princes and popes and sultans would one salute and greet another – sometime in friendship and sport, sometime in earnest and enmity – by rhyming verses, and nothing seemed clerkly done but must be done in rhyme’.

These reflections come after centuries of change in the English language, a change that is also reflected in the extraordinarily rich range of metres and poetic forms that develop between the medieval and early modern period in the British Isles, and that by the sixteenth century become also the object of theoretical reflection.

The present conference investigates all aspects of this phenomenon in medieval and early modern poetry in English and Scots. Topics include (but are not limited to):

  • Alliterative poetry
  • Connections between metre and genre
  • The sonnet and its development
  • Cross-cultural exchanges: metres from different languages
  • Rhythms on the stage: versification and dramatic forms
  • Epic poetry and its metrical modes
  • Metre in prose: the rhythm of public speaking and of scientific discourse
  • Musical modes and metres
  • Description and prescription: treatises

Keynote speakers:

  • Ad Putter, University of Bristol
  • Robert Stagg, Shakespeare Institute / University of Oxford

Please send an abstract (roughly 500 words) and a brief curriculum by 30 September 2021 to

Alessandra Petrina alessandra.petrina@unipd.it

(posted 18 August 2021)

Futures of Crime: A hybrid meeting exploring the evolving terrain of crime fiction
Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Wolverhampton. Friday 20 May 2022
Deadline for submissions: 22 April 2022

Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Wolverhampton present:
Friday 20 May 2022
2pm-6pm
Futures of Crime:
A hybrid meeting exploring the evolving terrain of crime fiction

With:

  • Dr Charley Barnes (University of Wolverhampton, UK)
  • Dr Charlotte Beyer (University of Gloucestershire)
  • Sharon Dempsey (Queen’s University Belfast, UK), 
  • Professor Sebastian Groes (University of Wolverhampton, UK) 
  • Professor Andrew Pepper (Queen’s Belfast, UK) 
  • Anthony J. Quinn (Queen’s Belfast, UK) 

Crime fiction has been evolving rapidly and finding new exciting forms including queer crime fiction and crime fiction by writers of colour. We have also seen the rise of regional noir, of which the booming Northern Irish crime fiction scene is a splendid example. This symposium provides an opportunity to assess the current transformation of crime fiction and to reflect on the various responses that the genre is receiving from the public, critics and the academy.  We will ask questions about the changing status of genre fiction and explore how readers’ perceptions of crime fiction affects their judgement of literary quality. We will also discuss where crime fiction might be headed next.

We invite critical (position) papers, panels, as well as creative responses that contribute to mapping the evolving field of crime fiction (studies). Note that this hybrid event will be held in person at Queen’s University Belfast whilst virtual contributions are invited as well. 

Please send your 150 word proposal and biography to Professor Sebastian Groes at s.groes@wlv.ac.uk mentioning “CrimeFutures” in the subject line. The deadline for submissions is 22 April, 2022.  Decisions will be communicated by 29th April, 2022. For further information, please contact Professor Groes.    

 Conference organisers: Sharon Dempsey (Queen’s University Belfast) and Professor Sebastian Groes (University of Wolverhampton). The event is co-organised and partly funded by the AHRC-funded research project Big Book Review and University of Wolverhampton’s Centre for Transnational and Transcultural Research.

(Posted 20 March 2022)

The Role of the Child as Citizen: Constructing Childhood through Agency and Activism: The Child and the Book conferences
University of Malta, 26-28 May 2022
Deadline for proposals: 15 November 2021

The International Conference: The Child and the Book, launched at Roehampton University, England, in 2004 and has since taken place in different countries, as listed below. It gathers children’s and young adult literature scholars and students who exchange research, knowledge and experience in this interdisciplinary field.

Successive conferences were organised at University of Antwerp, Belgium (2005), University of Newcastle, England (2006), Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, Turkey (2007), Buffalo State College, USA (2008), Vancouver Island University, Canada (2009), Oslo University, Norway (2011), Cambridge University, England (2012), University of Padua, Italy (2013), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece (2014), University of Aveiro, Portugal (2015), University of Wroclaw, Poland (2016), Universitat de Valencia, Spain (2017), University of Zadar (2019), Freie Universität, Berlin (2021), University of Malta, Malta (forthcoming in 2022)

The Advisory Board is made up from children’s literature academics from all over the world:

  • Prof. Farriba Schulz, Berlin, Germany
  • Prof. Petra Anders, Berlin, Germany
  • Prof. Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer, Tübingen, Germany
  • Dr Maria Alcantud, Valencia, Spain
  • Prof. Marnie Campagnaro, Padua, Italy
  • Prof. Vanessa Joosen, Antwerp, Belgium
  • Dr Georgia (Tzina) Kalogirou, Athens, Greece
  • Prof. Xavier Minguez Lopez, Valencia, Spain
  • Prof. Dorota Michułka, Wrocław, Poland
  • Prof. Smiljana Narančić Kovač, Zagreb, Croatia
  • Prof. Åse Marie Ommundsen, Oslo, Norway
  • Prof. Ana Margarida Ramos, Aveiro, Portugal
  • Dr Giuliana Fenech, Valletta, Malta

We would like to inform all attendees that the conference will be held both physically and virtually. For more information one can check out our social media pages: Facebook or Twitter.

Conference website

Literary representations of children have always been influenced by the child’s perceived role in society. From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, children have increasingly been viewed as a central influence on both family and nation. Laws related to health, education, work and exposure have been debated and implemented throughout the ages with each new law allowing children better living conditions and wider opportunities to improve themselves. Never, however, have children had the possibility to lead public debate and development as widely as in the current time. Mobilised by the Internet and a growing culture of global activist movements, one might argue that children and young adults are using their voice to lead adults into discussions on all of the contemporary critical issues: environment, climate change, race, immigration, displacement, education, marginalisation, poverty, financial equity and LGBTIQA+ rights.

The Role of the Child as Citizen: Constructing Childhood through Agency and Activism has a twofold objective. On the one hand, we are interested in deepening our understanding of the growing or diminishing power of the child through history, exploring the paradigm of adult control and child emancipation. Representations of this paradigm in children’s literature and media provide insight into the interactions and influences between adults and children, state and family, public concerns and private worries on multiple levels including the political, cultural, aesthetic and pedagogic. Additionally, we encourage discussions on the current state of childhood and the reflections of this in literature and media, such as film, comic books, television series and online fandom activities among others. Across the board, from picture books to presidential inaugurations, we are seeing children and young adults claiming the public sphere as active citizens. What has brought us to this emancipation? What are the opportunities and pitfalls in the current cultural moment? Where may this lead us next?

We invite papers related to the conference theme. Possible areas for investigation include, but are not restricted to children’s literature and:

  • Child and young adult voices on global issues
  • Child and young adult leadership in global movements
  • Children’s literature’s role in the battle for human rights
  • Adult resistance to child power
  • Adult pleasure in consuming childhood
  • The growing power of the child in the long nineteenth century
  • Historical case studies of child agency and activism
  • Representation of child agency and activism in literature
  • Children and young adults narrating positions of power
  • The displaced child
  • Positive relations between younger generations and science
  • The impact of technology on child mobilisation
  • Digital civic engagement
  • Education and social justice
  • Children and young adult literature and the United Nations SDGs
  • Literary fandoms inspiring social change
  • Reflections on the publishing industry

The Role of the Child as Citizen: Constructing Childhood through Agency and Activism will reflect academic diversity and host studies from across different fields of research, academic methods and cultural backgrounds. We welcome proposals for individual papers as well as panels. We particularly encourage graduate students and other early-career scholars to apply.

Please send an abstract of 300 words and a short biography (100 words) as two attached Word documents to: childandbook2022@um.edu.mt before 15 November 2021. Kindly indicate if you plan to attend the conference in person or online.

Panel proposals
Panel proposals should consist of three papers that focus on the main theme of the conference. The panel organiser should invite participants and evaluate each paper in the panel, but the panel as a whole and its individual papers will also be reviewed by external evaluators. For a panel proposal, the panel organisers should submit a short overview statement of the panel theme (300-500 words), a list of participants and the abstracts of their papers.

Abstracts should include the following information:

  • author(s) with affiliation(s)
  • title and text of proposal
  • selected bibliography with 3-5 academic references
  • five keywords

Dates and logistics
Deadline for abstract submission: 15 November 2021
Notification of acceptance: 15 January 2022
All submissions are blind reviewed by the members of the Reading Committee.
All abstracts and papers accepted for and presented at the conference must be in English.
Papers will be 20 minutes maximum followed by a 10 minutes discussion.

Poster presentations
Running alongside our main programme, we plan to organise a series of poster presentations focused on the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) in relation to children’s literature, media, and popular culture. We are interested in exploring how the SDGs serve as a focus for agency and activism in both local and international communities, as well as the ways in which these are reflected in books for children. For this purpose, we invite scholars to submit a poster plus brief explanation or a five-minute video including captions related to their work on the SDGs. This work may have taken place in the field of publishing, education (schools), community centres (including libraries) or elsewhere. Chosen projects will be displayed throughout the conference and included in a roundtable discussion. A selection of project leaders may be invited to contribute articles on the projects for publication.

(posted 15 October 2021)

Culture as Interface and Dialogue: An Interdisciplinary Conference
Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, 27-29 May 2022
Deadline for proposals: 31 December 2021

Nowadays, nations and ethnic groups face a crucial political and cultural challenge: to supplant traditional concepts of identity based on national mythology, exclusivity and political sovereignty with new ones stemming from the plurality of identifications and richness of inter- and transcultural communication based on dialogue. This change is becoming increasingly necessary because of the rise of aggressive ethnic nationalism responsible for the surge of manipulative propaganda on social networks, the growth of political divisions within individual countries and the escalation of international conflicts.

The main objective of the conference is to discuss alternatives to essentialist notions of cultural identity. We invite the reconceptualization of cultures interfaces of transcultural communication which engender dialogue and use fictions to enable and facilitate sharing knowledge, emotions, attitudes, beliefs and values.

This approach may be viewed as parallel to ecocriticism, complementing its nature-based and largely material notion of environment with a pragmatic understanding of culture as human-made habitable and sustainable surroundings.

Suggested paper topics:

  • Culture as an emergent phenomenon
  • Uses of cybernetic concepts (e.g., recursivity, feedback, entropy) in theorizing culture
  • Culture as interface in perceptual systems, information space, inter- and transcultural communication
  • Fictions as protocols in the process of interfacing
  • Dialogue and recursivity – functional approximation
  • Dialogue and interfacing – fictions and conflict resolution
  • Dialogue as a means of cultural communication and a catalyst of cultural diversity

Abstracts of 300 words with bio-notes of 100 words should be submitted by 31 December 2021 to Dr Martina Pranić (martina.pranic@ff.cuni.cz). Selected presenters will be notified by 31 January 2022. Conference registration will start on 1 February 2022. Registration fee will be specified at the beginning of January 2022.

The conference is supported by the European Regional Development Fund Project “Creativity and Adaptability as Conditions of the Success of Europe in an Interrelated World” (No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000734).

Professor Clare Wallace and Professor Martin Procházka, Conference Convenors

(posted 2 June 2021)

Lendings, signifying, identities
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, UK, Saturday 5 November 2022
Deadline for proposals: 31 May 2022

Identity, role and gender have their parts to play in narratives, and recognition may be a feature in plots. Clothing functions in a cultural, semiotic, system. It’s a signifier in the Bible and Shakespeare. We look for associations with Christian and Biblical themes in literary texts, and  papers will have a reading time of 20 minutes. Fuller details are on the conference page of the CLSG website.

The deadline for offering a paper is 31 May 2022. Send a provisional title, a few words on how you will tackle your topic and a note about your background by email to Dr Roger Kojecký, secretary@clsg.org

(Posted 24 February 2022)