Permanent Section Calls for PapersPermanent Sections address a range of established topics of perennial concern to scholars in our discipline. Because the field is continuously evolving, the MMLA welcomes proposals to establish a new Permanent Section on an emerging topic. Inquiries may be sent to [email protected]. Each Permanent Section has a pre-selected organizer/chair who not only decides whether the panel will be tied to a version of the convention's theme or have an open topic but also drafts its call for papers by the March 15 deadline. The organizer then receives and vets individual paper proposals to build a full, three-paper panel, which may also include a paper of his/her own. Individual proposals to a Permanent Section are due to the organizer by his/her imposed deadline but no later than April 25 (please see the calls for papers below for more information). After soliciting, reviewing, and selecting individual proposals, all Permanent Section organizers must submit the following materials to the MMLA by May 01:
For a helpful resource that breaks down the primary components of a strong abstract, visit Karen Kelsky's "How to Write a Paper or Conference Proposal Abstract" page on her website, The Professor is In. Presentation Format: In-Person Only The African Literature Permanent Section of the Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA) requests abstracts for this year’s convention which will be held in person in Milwaukee, WI. As this year’s theme is “The Humanities is Where Hope Lives,” the African literature section seeks scholarly work on how the element of hope is threaded throughout both the literature and the theoretical production of the continent. Questions to consider, but are not limited to, are How does hope function within the African literary project, and its body of literary and cultural criticism and theory? What does the work of hope accomplish as we consider the evolution of literatures of the African continent? In what ways can the element of hope be utilized pedagogically in the teaching of African literature, literary criticism, and theory? Please submit abstracts of 200-300 words to Judah-Micah Lamar ([email protected]) no later than April 25, 2025. Presentation Format: In-Person Only The African American Literature Permanent Section of the Midwestern Modern Language Association (MMLA) is requesting abstracts from potential panelists for this year’s in-person conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Informed by this year’s conference theme, “The Humanities is Where Hope Lives,” this section is calling for scholarly work that ties literature written by Black Americans to concepts of hope and its relationship to artistic production. Potential questions to address include, but are in no way limited to: How have representations of hope in Black American literature shifted across the centuries? What do depictions of hope look like when it has been disrupted or challenged? How have Black literary traditions in the Americas been used to foster non-normative constructions of hope? What does hope look like intergenerationally? Other possible topics to address:
Whether in the throes and wake of war, the pain of loss, or the inhumanity of bondage, “hope” is a consistent theme in early American writings. This panel will explore the meaning(s) of hope in early American literature. What aesthetic goals can it achieve? What political power does it wield? And how does it reframe a young, deeply divided nation? Papers on any aspect of hope in pre-1870 America are welcome. Please send an abbreviated CV proposals to Sarah Dennis ([email protected]) by April 25, 2025. Please additionally indicate whether you plan to present in person or virtually. The American Literature II: Lit after 1870 permanent section of the Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA) is requesting proposals for this year’s conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The conference’s theme, “The Humanities is Where Hope Lives,” finds fertile ground in the America of 1870 to the present day, a period marked by moments of change like the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the mobilization of the Civil Rights Movement, the election of the first Black president, and the current disintegration of American democracy. Literature provides such moments with expressions of hope (or the lack thereof), and as literary scholars, it is our duty to explore the intersection between literature and hope at this time when the humanities is under attack. We are accepting all proposals with a focus on American literature after 1870. We particularly welcome submissions that engage with this year’s theme. The American Literature II: Lit after 1870 permanent section panel will be held in person. Please submit abstracts of 200 to 300 words, a title for your paper, and a bio of no more than 50 words to Alp Eren Pirli at [email protected] no later than April 25, 2025. Title: Do Animals Hope?
Presentation Format: Virtual Only Although many books have been written on hope for non-human animals, their collective or individual survival, this session invites proposals on hope by non-human animals, or representations of such hope. Many different approaches are welcome—literary critical, ethnographic (human or animal), environmental, affect studies, thought experiments. Please submit a 1-2 page abstract to Lucinda Cole ([email protected]) by April 14, 2025. Presentation Format: In-Person Only The Antiracism Permanent Section of the Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA) is requesting abstracts from prospective panelists for this year’s in-person conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With this year’s conference theme— “The Humanities is Where Hope Lives”—as a foundation, this section calls for scholarly work that connects antiracism work with hope along with resilience. When researching or performing antiracist work, there is the risk of focusing on the despair brought on by racism without highlighting ways communities have and continue to build and foster resilience. Potential questions to address include, but are not limited to: In what ways have communities developed narratives that highlight resilience and joy while doing antiracist work? What do narratives of hope and resilience look like amid heightened racial tensions? How can pedagogies surrounding antiracism focus on empowering students instead of viewing them as victims? Please send a 200-300 word abstract to Cedric Burrows at [email protected] no later than April 25, 2025. Humanistic Approaches to Environmental Organizing
Deadline: April 20, 2025
Submission Requirements: Please email a 250-word abstract, brief bio-note, and A/V requirements to [email protected].
Presentation Format: In-Person Only In line with the 2025 MMLA Conference theme, “The Humanities is Where Hope Lives,” this ASLE permanent section seeks abstracts of 250-words which consider humanistic approaches to environmental organizing. Amid advancing ecocide and imperiled environmental action, how might humanistic approaches enable us to mobilize people and resources? Papers may take a range of approaches to address such topics including (but not limited to):
Please submit a paper proposal of 250-words, a brief bio-note, and any A/V needs to Tierney Powell ([email protected]) by 20 April 2025. More information about MMLA: https://www.midwest-mla.org/convention
All Convention Deadlines: https://www.midwest-mla.org/convention-deadlines
Unity, Hope and Resistance in Central America
Presentation Format: In-Person Only From the poetry and music of Liberation Theology to testimonial novels and films, the theme of communities coming together to resist oppression has long been explored in Central American cultural production. How does unity in the face of violence, poverty, environmental degradation and other challenges bring hope for humans, nonhuman animals and the planet they inhabit? This panel invites presentations that investigate how literature and film depict and strengthen bonds that empower individuals and communities to survive, to confront systemic injustice, and to make positive change. If you are interested in participating in this in-person panel, please send an abstract (roughly 250 words), a short biography, and any A/V needs to [email protected] by April 20, 2025.
Session Coordinator: Dr. Amberyl Malkovich
Dept. of English, Concord University
“Hope and the Humanities ” in Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Cultures At a time when the Humanities are sometimes devalued and threatened, it might be questioned as to how they can offer a semblance of hope locally, nationally, and globally. Concepts of the Humanities and hope might also be up for consideration as societal and cultural upheavals continue. Yet such disruptions can be cause for growth, hope, change, and (r)evolution. Changes and challenges to global, national, and local communities can be difficult to understand and handle as they often transform that with which we are familiar. Such topics have long been addressed in Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Culture, which impacts not only adolescence but also adulthood. Adults often reflect on their adolescent experiences with text, in its varying forms, as they situate themselves within adult spheres. Questions may arise such as: How does Children’s and Young Adult Literature create/develop/preserve hope? What is the role of Children’s and Young Adult Literature within the Humanities? How do events such as war or migration cause reflection and change? We seek papers that explore all aspects of Children’s and Young Adult Literature, as well as those addressing the conference theme of “ The Humanities is where Hope Lives.” Considerations may be given to varying concepts of “Hope ” across themes as it pertains to deportation, immigration, play, community, the environment, audience, war, race, technologies, body image, sexualities, disabilities, politics, literacies, socioeconomics, rural/urban spaces, post/humanism, regionalism, and any other critical issues in children’s and young adult literature from any period and genre. Panel proposals are also welcome. Presentation Format: In-Person Only
The MMLA conference will take place in Milwaukee, WI November 14-16th, 2025. Inquiries and/or abstracts of 250-300 words should be sent to Amberyl Malkovich at [email protected] by April 25th, 2025. Please include your name, institutional affiliation, e-mail address, and paper title in your abstract.
Chair: Keegan Lannon, University of Illinois – Chicago. What Does Hope Look Like? If it is true, as the CFP for this conference notes, that “hope can be found in the Humanities,” then comics and graphic novels offer a unique glimpse into that hope by drawing on the media affordances of prose and the visual arts. Comics let us “see” hope and optimism is ways other media are unable to. This panel is looking for papers that examine how comics and graphic novels explore hope in its many forms, but specifically it is interested in papers that discuss how comics visualize hope for the reader. Some questions include, but are not limited to:
If you have a paper that addresses any of these, or any other questions, related to comics or graphic novels and hope, please submit an abstract of 200 to 300 words, a title for your paper, and a bio of no more than 50 words to Keegan Lannon ([email protected]) no later than April 25, 2025. Note: this panel will be conducted in-person.
Stories from the Brink: Crafting Hope in Grim and Uncertain Worlds
Presentation Format: In-Person Only How do we, as fiction writers and essayists, craft narratives that foster hope while honestly assessing the dangers and complexities of our world? What methods and rhetorical strategies might prose writers use to integrate hope into their stories? Given the rapid resurgence of anti-progressive forces and imminent ecological catastrophes, should fiction and creative nonfiction even embrace narrative spaces for hope and possibility? These pressing questions have been at the core of many recent works of prose that oscillate between the brink of personal or global calamity, including works of fabulism like K-Ming Chang’s Bestiary or Amanda Leduc’s The Centaur’s Wife, memoirs like Sarah Smarsh’s Heartland, the personal essays collected in Jesmyn Ward’s volume The Fire This Time, Kristen Radtke’s graphic memoirs on loneliness and isolation, and numerous others. This is the central problem that this panel seeks to address through readings, craft presentations, or performances from works of fiction and creative nonfiction. As the above list suggests, this panel is open to abstract submissions from fiction writers and nonfiction writers working in any genre, form, or mode. This panel invites abstract submissions from creative writers whose work in fiction, nonfiction, or graphic modes explores the possibility (or impossibility) of hope, when writing from the brink. We especially seek submissions of proposals from fiction and creative nonfiction writers interested in sharing from their published and/or works-in-progress, while connecting their observations about how narratives may reinforce broader conversations about the conference theme of hope in/for the humanities. Papers will be considered for presentation on the Creative Writing: Prose permanent section panel at the 2025 Midwest Modern Language Association annual conference in Milwaukee, WI, from 14–16 November 2025. (This panel will be in-person only.) For consideration, submit an abstract of no more than 250 words, along with your current short bio, by email to Dr. Patrick Henry at [email protected] no later than 25 April 2025. The Creative Writing II: Poetry permanent section of the Midwest Modern Language Association seeks creative, critical, and hybrid proposals that connect to this year’s convention theme of "The Humanities is Where Hope Lives”. We are particularly interested in presentations from poets and poet-scholars who engage with the value of the Humanities in languages, literature, pedagogy, writing studies, linguistics, folklore, film studies, the digital humanities, and library studies. Any humanities-oriented poetics and praxis are welcome to address any element of these considerations that are pertinent to the discussion. Questions to consider include: How does (your) poetry and poetic practice engage with ‘humanity’ considering both capitalist and cultural pressure? How does poetry complicate or redefine the role of the ‘human’ in reshaping and building ‘hope’? What possibilities and interventions does poetry have to offer when it comes to defying the monetization of objects, phenomena, or even persons? The root word for this expansive field of Humanities is “human,” and as such, we welcome poetry, critical-creative papers, and digital poetics projects, and are especially interested in works that revolve around real human connection that hope for our future is fostered, sharing our common humanity as expressed through the written word, languages, and the literary arts. Presentations should be approximately 15 minutes in length and must be in-person only. To submit your work for consideration, please send a 200-300 word abstract and a brief bio to the section chair, Ola ElWassify ([email protected]), by April 15, 2025. Proposals of creative projects should include a brief sample of creative work (3-5 pages of poetry) along with the abstract. Please include your name, professional affiliation, e-mail address, and paper title in your submission. MMLA's 2025 convention will take place in Milwaukee, WI from November 14-16. More information about the convention can be found at: https://www.midwest-mla.org/convention Presentation Format: In-Person Only Taking inspiration from the convention theme, this year’s short story panel asks presenters to consider how the unique properties of the form contribute to its ability to offer hope, particularly the hope of human connection in an inhuman time. Panelists might explore how formal considerations inform the short story’s relationship with hope:
Alternatively, contributors to the panel might explore the form’s ideological associations:
The MMLA permanent section on Disability Studies invites paper proposals on the subject of “Disability and the Digital Humanities” for the 2025 conference of the Midwest Modern Language Association to be held in Milwaukee, WI on November 14-16, 2025. Any approach to the connection between disability and Digital Humanities is welcome (pedagogical approaches, unique resources, analysis of digital texts, challenges and possibilities for Disability Studies, etc.). Presentation Format: In-Person Only Please send abstracts of approximately 250 words and a brief bio to [email protected] by April 25, 2025. John Allen, Milwaukee Area Technical College. The MMLA permanent section on Disability Studies invites paper proposals on the subject of “Disability Narratives and the Search for Social Justice” for the 2025 conference of the Midwest Modern Language Association to be held in Milwaukee, WI on November 14-16, 2025. How can disability narratives promote equality, protect rights, ensure justice? Papers may explore any aspect of these and related questions. Presentation Format: In-Person Only Please send abstracts of approximately 250 words and a brief bio to [email protected] by April 25, 2025. John Allen, Milwaukee Area Technical College. Making Our Case For Early Modern English
Presentation Format: In-Person Only In keeping with this year’s MMLA conference theme, “The Humanities is Where Hope Lives,” this permanent session is seeking proposals, which discuss how we “make our case” for Early Modern English. How do we explain to our audiences – both in our classrooms and in public settings – on what interests us and motivates our scholarly activities? How do we demonstrate impact and encourage further participation? Where does the study of Early Modern English align with other organizations and initiatives designed to promote the humanities in public life? What has worked for us? What hasn’t? Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words, along with a brief biographical statement or cv, to Adam Kitzes, [email protected], by April 25, 2025. The MMLA conference will take place this November 14-16 at Marquette University, in Milwaukee, WI. Literary Influences and Relationships in 19th-Century British Literature
Presentation Format: In-Person Only Literary influence and relationships are foundational to literary changes, culture, and traditions. For every writer, there are important links to other writers and texts. For example, Blake grappled with and took inspiration from Milton and the King James Bible. Dickens loved Smollett, Fielding, and Defoe; and Hardy was inspired by Shelley, Wordsworth, and Shakespeare, among others. If the literary past affects the present, which in turn contributes to the literary possibilities of the future, how did this fundamental dynamic manifest itself in the texts and lives of 19th century British writers? This session invites contributions that analyze and historicize the importance of literary influences and relationships in 19th-century British Literature. Please send a brief abstract (250 words), bio, and C.V. to Kevin Swafford at [email protected]. Deadline: April 25, 2025. Optimism Against All Odds in Modernism
Presentation Format:In-Person Only Modernists in the 20th century certainly faced their fair share of unprecedented times: an influenza pandemic, economic collapse, two global wars—the latter punctuated by cataclysmic events that shaped our very understanding of humanity. And yet, beyond all odds, there is undeniably the presence of “optimism” in their work. This panel will investigate how (and why) did modernist writers maintain this “optimism.” We demarcate “optimism” with quotation marks to encourage panelists to consider what this word meant for writers, and the subjective nature of the term. This panel seeks to consider their “optimism” in a variety of contexts. These may include, but are not limited to:
Darkness Visible – American Dark Film during the Long 1950s (1945-1964)
Presentation Format: In-Person Only The standard historical narratives of America in the 1950s tend to emphasize conformity and suppression of alternative views. This was also a time of Hollywood’s blacklist and its obsession with big productions—westerns, historical and biblical epics, and classic musicals. At the same time, Hollywood also faced the erosion of its market from the growth of television, and so it felt compelled to produce films that could show what the new small screen could not. While the production code was still in effect, its impact was starting to wane, but television had to deal with the limitations imposed both by the FCC and, even more so, by conservative sponsors. The big-budget, technicolor epics were one way of Hollywood’s countering television’s growth, but they were high-risk investments. As a result, Hollywood allowed a large number of lower-budget, black-and-white films that covered much darker, alternative views of post-war America, films that questioned the status quo and resisted the conformity of the broader popular culture, subjects unlikely to be available on the small screen. This session invites proposals for papers concerning darker, more transgressive films of this period that present the counternarratives to the more general narrative of conformist American 1950s. Send 250-word proposals to Vincent Casaregola at [email protected] no later than April 25, 2025.
Contemporary Film in the Classroom
Presentation Format: Virtual Only We welcome proposals that explore how representation is forged in connection with collective acts in contemporary film. How, for example, are cultures created by the gathering together of human subjects? What modes of collectivity, be they formal or informal, arise from culture or have arisen historically? How have directors represented the salient political and social challenges of our time through notions of collective response and collaboration? How does this impact the aesthetic of the film? We seek proposals that wrestle with these (or related) transhistorical questions. Proposals that explore innovative pedagogical methods when teaching contemporary films or documentaries are welcomed. In this session, we also seek to explore how teaching across disciplines can lead to new dialogues or teaching methods/instruction. How does film pedagogy intersect with the work of colleagues in other disciplines? How does it take shape and come to fruition in the classroom? Topics could include, but are not limited to:
Raising Global Conscience through Empathetic Films
Presentation Format: Virtual Only The role of the Humanities in our educational system is to understand the human condition and how to get along with others and the natural world. Lately the Humanities have suffered both financial and programmatic cuts. Films offer hope by providing new visions of what our world can be, while raising empathy for the lives and tribulations of others regardless of geographical, cultural, religious, and economic differences. Please send four-to-five-hundred-word abstracts for presentations on independent, fictional, science fiction, romantic, comedic, and/or animated feature films from different global or minority communities and cultures that impact global audiences with their cultural backgrounds and varied perspectives. Papers can focus on any aspects of the films that raise awareness of other cultures and build empathy. Please send abstracts and a current C.V. to Khani Begum ([email protected]) by April 25, 2025. Hope and Resilience in Global Conflict Films
Presentation Format: Virtual Only Two films that carry messages of hope while emphasizing the resilience of their protagonists under extraordinarily difficult circumstances of dictatorship in Brazil of the 1970s and war-torn conditions in the West Bank just before 2023, won Oscars this year. I'm Still Here became the first ever Brazilian film to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Feature and No Other Land became the first independent film without distribution to mainstream theaters in the US to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Please send four-to-five-hundred-word abstracts for presentations on either of these two films or others on these and similar types of conflicts in films from other years that showcase the power of hope and the resilience of ordinary human beings in the face of the darkest manmade catastrophes. Please send abstracts and a current C.V. to Khani Begum ([email protected]) by April 25, 2025.
The Early Modern “Underground”: Marginalization, Community, and Survival
Presentation Format: In-Person Only While the Early Modern period in France saw an uninterrupted continuity of royal power until the French Revolution, its authorities, like in many European kingdoms, nevertheless brutally repressed countless marginalized individuals, beginning for instance with the Cathars in the 13th century and intensifying during and following the Reformation with Protestantism in France. In light of current world affairs and the current political climate, this period also saw the need for these oppressed groups to develop strategies for survival, to foster solidarity, and to communicate or coordinate under the watchful eyes of the king’s henchmen. This panel welcomes proposals for papers exploring the ordeals of oppressed or subversive political, intellectual, religious, ethnic, or socio-cultural persons or populations in France from the Middle Ages until the late 18th century. Furthermore, this panel welcomes proposals that seek to demonstrate how, for example, these individuals cultivated “underground” communities of resistance, how they made sense of the fragility or vulnerability of their human condition in the wake of their oppression, and how they reflected on hope for the future. The panel is open to a wide range of possibilities of writers, of writing, or of literary movements coinciding or involved with any form of persecution in Early Modern France. If you would be interested in participating in our in-person panel, please send an abstract of around 250-300 words, a short bibliography, and any audio-visual requests to Anthony Radoiu ([email protected]) by April 25.
Revolutionary Dreams and Literary Hopes: Navigating Humanity
Presentation Format: In-Person Only The French Revolution and its aftermath created a landscape of both disillusionment and possibility, prompting writers to confront questions of societal progress, individual agency, and the endurance of humanistic values. This panel explores how French literature and thought from the Post Ancien Régime era grapple with concepts of hope, humanity, and meaning-making in the wake of revolutionary change and societal transformation. Panelists are invited to examine how writers starting from the late 18th century conceptualize hope amid political instability, artistic innovation, and philosophical re-evaluation. Ultimately, this panel aims to illuminate how literature of the post-revolutionary period serves as a medium for grappling with lost ideals and proposing new pathways toward hope. Such explorations speak to the broader theme of how the Humanities serve as a space where human connection, creativity, and the potential for renewal are continually reimagined. If you’d like to participate in this in-person panel, please send abstracts of 250-300 words, a short biography, and your A/V requests to Noëlle Brown: [email protected] by April 20. Resistance and Defiance in Francophone World(s) We invite papers for an in-person panel, “French: Cultural Issues,” at the 2025 Midwest Modern Language Association Conference themed “The Humanities is Where Hope Lives.” As authoritarian regimes rise and democratic institutions face unprecedented challenges, the Francophone world has long been a site of resistance and defiance against oppression. From colonial-era struggles, liberation movements in the Francophone world to contemporary movements that have challenged political repression, systemic injustice, and cultural erasure both inside hexagonal France, in its overseas departments and territories, as well as neocolonial spaces in the rest of the Francophone world. As a result, acts of defiance have consistently shaped histories, literatures, and identities across diverse Francophone spaces. We invite papers that explore traditions of resistance within the global Francophone space. This panel seeks to examine how individuals and communities have responded to authoritarianism and/or engaged in practices of resistance through literature, activism, cultural expression, and political engagement. Papers might consider these topics (not limited to) within the Francophone context:
Panel Title: Hope for Voice and Gender
Presentation Format: Virtual Only Maybe love is like rain. Sometimes gentle, sometimes torrential,
flooding, eroding, quiet, steady, filling the earth, collecting in hidden springs.
When it rains, when we love, new life grows.
—Carol Gilligan, The Birth of Pleasure: A New Map of Love (232) During turbulent times of social, political, and cultural change, executive orders are placed to eradicate differences than celebrate their uniqueness. On shifting the paradigm, Carol Gilligan argues that equal voice is the condition for love and democracy and in the absence of voice, we cannot deal with conflict in a relationship as it is only resolved in domination. Voices are to be valued and met with resonance by what Carol Gilligan calls, Radical Listening through actively seeking where voices come from. Yet not all voices are heard. Navigating the voices that are internally spoken within us versus the voices that are spoken to us from the outside, the panel seeks for voices that seek for community and transformation. The Gender Studies panel asks how the dynamics of gender affect the distortions of voices, responsibility of the transformation, and communication and reading of people’s needs during difficult times of exclusion of identities. With ethics of care in mind, the panel asks presenters to address communication of support and hope that focus on empathy, relationships, and connection. This permanent panel welcomes discussions on queer voices and pedagogy on such topics below but not limited to:
Please send an abstract of no more than 250 words to Hye Hyon Kim via [email protected] by April 25, 2025. Presentation Format: In-Person Only The Permanent Section for German Literature and Film is seeking proposals exploring any aspect of German Studies; topics aligning with the 2025 convention theme, “The Humanities is Where Hope Lives,” are especially welcome. Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words to [email protected] by April 25th. The MMLA is currently seeking a new Organizer/Chair to oversee this permanent section! If you are interested in organizing the Indigenous Literature and Cultures section or co-organizing it with a trusted colleague, please reach out to [email protected] with a current CV and a brief statement of qualifications for all persons involved. Presentation Format: In-Person Only The International T.S. Eliot Society is accepting proposals for a panel at the 2025 Midwest MLA conference at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI to be held November 14-16, 2025. Any proposal on a subject reasonably related to Eliot studies will be considered. Papers on Eliot and religion, or those drawing from the Hale correspondence, The Complete Prose, or Letters would be especially welcome. If you are interested in participating, please send abstract proposals (250-300 words) to Professor Edward Upton ([email protected]). Submissions must be received no later than April 15, 2025. For more information on MMLA 2025, please see https://www.midwest-mla.org/convention. Please note: the Society does not provide funds for travel to and from the conference.
Echoes of Hope: Resilience and Renewal in Irish Literature 2025 Midwest Modern Language Association Conference
14-16 November 2025
Marquette University
Milwaukee, WI This virtual panel welcomes proposals that speak to the ways in which Irish literature, past and present, offers visions of resilience, renewal, and the possibility of a brighter future. From the lyrical verses of W.B. Yeats to the contemporary narratives of Colm Tóibín and Marian Keyes, Irish writers have grappled with hardship, exile, and identity, yet running through these works is also a profound sense of the endurance of the human spirit. Hope manifests in various forms: as political defiance in the works of Seamus Heaney, as personal redemption in the fiction of Edna O’Brien, and as a quiet but persistent force in the poetry of Eavan Boland. Proposals that likewise examine the role of folklore and mythology in preserving cultural hope, particularly in times of colonization, famine, and social upheaval are also welcomed. At a time when global uncertainty looms large, the themes of Irish literature offer valuable insight into how storytelling can sustain hope. By looking at works both canonical and contemporary, this panel highlights literature’s ability to inspire change, provide solace, and illuminate paths forward. Presentation Format: Virtual Only
Submissions should include the following:
Deadline for Submissions: April 25, 2025
Presentation Format: In-Person Only
Chair: Timothy Erwin When Emily Dickinson writes that “Hope is the thing with feathers – / That perches in the Soul –” she links the emotion to lyric indomitability. For Czeslaw Milosz hope is “with you when you believe / The earth is not a dream but living flesh,” that is, when dreams surprisingly come true. Yet for Dickinson hope is always tested, and for Milosz it actually dies when you turn your back on it. Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, and Huckleberry Finn all give us a central character whose hopes are by and large fulfilled. Again, none of their endings are unproblematic. Jane has enjoyed a decade of what the novel calls “perfect concord” with Rochester, but St. John Rivers is on a postcolonial mission to India. Pip and Estella are reunited but will apparently never marry. And Huck uses his freedom to light out for the territories, suggesting that his escape is ongoing. With Huckleberry Finn, Twain tells us that even satire can be hopeful. Other genres like the religious hymn, the great ode, or the bildungsroman seem especially predisposed to hopefulness. Is optimism best activated by generic features like suspense? Or is anticipation less intense in comedy than tragedy? Is the trope of allegory more hopeful than the conceit? How are narrative hopes realized differently in lyric, drama, and fiction? As a discipline, literary criticism answers to theory as well as to close reading, to phenomenology as well as historicism. In practice, its varied approaches are often mixed or interdisciplinary, embracing the other humanities. They may well have other disciplinary origins, in fact, much as post-structural analysis can be traced back to Levi-Strauss and Saussure. The “Literary Criticism” panel at MMLA 2025 invites trans-humanities approaches to mixed hopefulness in the study of writers from Milton to Murakami. Please send along your proposed paper title, a 200-300 word abstract, and a brief two- or three- sentence biographical introduction to Timothy Erwin ([email protected]) by midnight April 25, 2025. 40 Years of The Handmaid’s Tale In 1985, Margaret Atwood’s sixth novel was published. The Handmaid’s Tale was a finalist for the Booker Prize and won the inaugural Arthur C. Clarke Prize. Impressive, yes, but the novel would not reach the height of its cultural relevance until decades later. The Handmaid’s Tale has been reimagined in numerous ways, including a 1990 film (with Natasha Richardson and Elizabeth McGovern), as an opera, a stage play, a streaming series (a format unimaginable at the time of the novel’s release), a ballet choreographed by Lila York, art and immersive exhibits, and a graphic novel adapted by Renée Nault. And it compelled Atwood to write its sequel, published 34 years later. This panel invites papers that explore the rich and varied imprints The Handmaid’s Tale has made on the humanities: how audiences interact with it, how it inspires conversation and protest, and what parts of its legacy have yet to be written. Please submit your 250-word abstract and brief biography to Denise Du Vernay, [email protected], by April 15. To See and to Be Seen in Luso-Brazilian Cultures
Presentation Format: Virtual Only Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous individuals, the working class, women, queer, and disabled subjects have frequently been positioned as objects of the gaze in literature, the social sciences, and visual and performing arts. These subjects, however, have also often provided privileged perspectives and critical observations on Brazilian society that challenged or exposed dominant ideologies and official discourses. How do these dynamics of seeing and being seen operate within Luso-Brazilian cultures? The Luso-Brazilian Section of the MMLA invites paper proposals exploring scenes of observation in Luso-Brazilian cultures. We seek analyses of moments in which subjects who have been historically "otherized"—due to race, gender, class, disability, or other social markers—either observe or are observed. We welcome presentations on topics that include, but are not limited to:
Panel Title: Culture and Hope: Multimodal Humanities in Action
Presentation Format: Virtual Only In a time marked by utilitarian pressures and uncertainty, the Humanities stand as a vital space for imagining and creating a more hopeful future. As Rebecca Solnit eloquently states, “To hope is to give yourself to the future - and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable” (Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power). We invite submissions for a Multimodality Panel that explores how the Humanities, through various creative expressions, can provide a beacon of hope, build resilience, and offer a sense of connection in these challenging times. We welcome papers that examine how cinema, comics, music, literature, photography, and other forms of creative expression communicate human experience and resilience, and provide hope for future generations. Submissions can explore, but are not limited to, the following topics:
Please email your submission to Viviane Martini at [email protected]. Deadline: April 25, 2025. Deadline for Submissions: April 25, 2025
Presentation Format: In-Person Only
Contact Email: [email protected] The Native American Literature Permanent Section of the Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA) seeks proposals for papers addressing the Midwest Modern Language Association conference theme of “The Humanities is Where Hope Lives,” with a focus on representations of hope in Native literature. Abstracts addressing any aspect of the conference theme in texts of Native literature will be considered. In particular, papers may explore literary treatments of survivance, futurisms, cultural preservation, or any other way in which hope is woven into the fabric of Native life. The MMLA Convention will be held in Milwaukee, November 14-16, 2025. Please send an abstract of 200-300 words by April 25, 2025 to Jonah Francese, at [email protected].
Presentation Format: Virtual Only The general call for this year, inviting “papers that explore the value of the Humanities in relation to a more hopeful future” in areas including but not limited to “languages, literature, pedagogy, writing studies, linguistics, folklore, film studies, the digital humanities, and library studies”, has broad possibilities within the languages, literatures, histories, and cultures related to Old and Middle English. This panel welcomes papers that address the presence, importance, and/or relevance of hope as a concept, mindset, language, and/or practice in Old and Middle English works of any kind, as well as explorations, arguments, or discussions of the relevance or importance or perceptions of these texts and ideas in both the medieval and the modern world. Such considerations might take the form of (but need not be limited to) exploring any or all of the following: hope in, with, for, by humans and/or humanity; development of humanism as a literary, scientific, or historical or cultural movement; medieval literature/history/culture and medievalism as sources of study of or inspiration for hope; hopes for the field(s) now and in the future, and/or ways to cultivate such hopes. Please send abstracts of approximately 350 words, along with a cv or brief biographical statement, to Dr. Kathleen Burt at [email protected] by no later than April 21, 2025. The Midwest Modern Language Association welcomes proposals dealing with any aspect of the theme "The Humanities is Where Hope Lives" for the 2025 conference. Please find a general description of this theme here: https://www.midwest-mla.org/call-for-papers. Our permanent panel--Peace, Literature, and Pedagogy--will explore this theme at the intersection of peace studies, the cultural value of literature and related media, and methods and outcomes of reading/interpreting those media in learning environments. The list of topics provided by MMLA is a good starting point for us as well, for the interplay of peace studies, literature, and pedagogy opens many lines of inquiry. Here are some others to consider:
We encourage submission on these topics or others that promote discussion of (a) peaceful conflict resolution, (b) literature (media) about peace or its absence, and (c) pedagogical issues that influence or emerge from peace studies. We are especially interested in proposals that explore the intersection of all three. Please submit a Word document, via email attachment, containing your presentation title, an abstract (250–400 words), and your name and affiliation to Dr. Alex Johns ([email protected]) and Dr. Matthew Horton ([email protected]) by April 25, 2025. In your email message with the attachment, please also provide a short-bio, any A/V requests, and your willingness to present (a) in-person, (b) virtually, or (c) either format. Co-Chair: Dr. Alex Johns, University of North Georgia
Co-Chair: Dr. Matthew Horton, University of North Georgia
Deadline for Submission: April 10
Presentation Format: In-Person Only The Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies Permanent Section of the Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA) seeks abstracts in line with this year’s conference’s theme: "The Humanities is Where Hope Lives." From the conference’s website,As the country generally and the academy specifically head into an uncertain future, hope can be found in the Humanities. This assertion may seem especially quixotic considering both capitalist and cultural pressure in the United States to privilege the “usefulness” of any object, phenomena, or even person that is measurable in some kind of way, often monetarily. The effects of this utilitarianism on higher education have been manifold, such as reducing college degrees to passports to the working world and the vocations therein. The panel welcomes approaches that highlight the human element of the humanities. This includes seeking to understand the space humans occupy in this ever-changing world as we see the push for technologies that may supplant human labor. Please do not feel limited by the above questions and topics, the section welcomes interdisciplinary approaches to all topics that intersect the conference’s theme and postcolonial or decolonial studies. For consideration, please send a 200 to 300 word abstract to Jose Intriago Suarez at [email protected] no later than April 10 for full consideration. This year’s conference will be hosted by Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI on November 14 through the 16, 2025. For more information see the conference’s website: https://www.midwest-mla.org/convention. Presentation Format: In-Person Only This section invites papers that examine the production, teaching, study, and performance of literature in historical and contemporary carceral institutions. In the past we have hosted panels on a wide range of topics, such as:
These are merely suggestions and not intended as limits. We also welcome studies of fictional accounts of imprisonment and encourage proposals that engage the convention theme: “The Humanities is Where Hope Lives.” Please send abstracts and questions to William Andrews at [email protected] by April 15, 2025. Theme: “The Health is Where Hope Lives with the subtopics of Race, Gender and Subalternity"
Presentation Format: Virtual Only Deadline for submissions of abstracts are due April 25, 2025 and they must be between 300-500 words in length and MLA format:
Paper Topics for the Race, Gender, and Subalternity Panel
Paper Topics Based on the theme of "The Humanities is Where Hope Lives"
Presentation Format: In-Person Only The Religion and Literature permanent section invites proposals for the 2025 Midwest Modern Language Association convention in Milwaukee. Those aspiring to be on the panel should feel empowered to offer proposals that interpret the concept of religion rather loosely by potentially including “the humanities” and the academy as faith driven institutions. Maintaining a broad interpretation of religion to include all intersections of faith, folklore, belief, and literature; expressions of belief may include creeds, mottos, mission statements, charters, manifestos, doctrines, etc. We are accepting all proposals that explore the intersection of religion and literature. Papers that engage with the convention’s theme, “The Humanities is Where Hope Lives,” are particularly welcome. Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words, a title for your paper, and a 50-word bio to Dr. Seth Johnson at [email protected], no later than April 25, 2025.
Panel Title: Finding Hope in Science and Fiction
Chaired by Nesrine Affara (Carnegie Mellon University Qatar- Biology) and Jeffrey Squires (Carnegie Mellon University Qatar- English)
Submission Deadline: 18 April 2025
Presentation Format: In-Person Only In their interdisciplinary analysis of Hope, Pleeging et al. (2021) explore the many ways that hope resonates in differing fields, concluding that further research needs to be done on “what degree the different characteristics of hope play […] in specific contexts, cultures and groups” (n.p.). In line with this research and this year’s conference theme (“the humanities is where Hope lives”), our Science and Fiction permanent session seeks papers on how hope participates in scientific, medical, or science fiction discourse. In particular, we’re interested in both conceptual and affective arguments, including discussions of where hope is and is not present in these discursive fields. Given the nature of hope as an often transitory or personal state, we feel this particular panel offers ample opportunity for novel and interdisciplinary approaches that investigate how hope impacts our academic, professional, and personal experiences. Some themes may include hope’s presence or absence in a particular discipline, text, or cultural practice. Please see the following list for generative themes:
Presentation Length: 15 Minutes (7-8 Double-Spaced Pages)
Presentation Format: In-Person Only
Submission Materials: 250-Word Abstract and C.V.
Submission Deadline: April 25, 2025 The Shakespeare and Shakespearean Criticism permanent section of the MMLA seeks abstracts of 250 words that offer a fresh, critical perspective on Shakespeare’s poetry or drama. Abstracts that speak to or explore the Convention theme, “The Humanities is Where Hope Lives,” in relation to Shakespeare are especially welcome but are not required. Potential topics include (but are certainly not limited to): literary, cinematic, and/or theatrical adaptations; textual variance among the quartos/folios; Shakespeare in translation; connections with or to fellow playwrights; pedagogical approaches in higher education; Shakespeare and the so-called “Canon;” meaningful rhetoric and/or metaphors; connections to the socio-political milieu of early modern England; witchcraft and magic; sixteenth- and seventeenth-century representations of disability, race, or sex on the page/stage, etc. The requisite materials may be submitted to Krislyn Zhorne ([email protected]) before the aforementioned deadline. Title: Hope and Hybridity in Working-Class Midwestern Literature
Presentation Format: In-Person Only
E-Mail Address: [email protected]
Description & Requirements: Requesting Abstract and CV. Douglas Wixson, in his Jack Conroy biography, Worker-Writer in America, 1994, demonstrates that there is a tradition of twentieth-century Midwestern literary radicalism. Has that tradition changed in the last several decades? How? What is the role of place in it? Is this literature hybrid or experimental? Does it (drama, poetry, fiction, or nonfiction) demonstrate hope—directly or indirectly? Working-class literature is diverse, and it needs to become more visible—perhaps one text at a time. Submission Deadline: Friday, April 25, 2025
Organization: Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature
Contact: Marilyn Judith Atlas ([email protected]) Ohio U, Athens
Title: Current Conversations on Postcolonialism
Presentation Format: In-Person Only This panel seeks proposals that analyze the postcolonial relationship between Spain and Latin America from a cultural studies perspective. Through an examination of literature, film, music, newspapers, social media, art, or other cultural artifacts, this panel aims to explore the lasting effects of this postcolonial relationship. This panel is interested in a variety of themes linked to postcolonialism in the Spanish and Latin American contexts, including but not limited to:
The Spanish I (Peninsular Literature before 1700) permanent section of the Midwest Modern Language Association seeks proposals for the upcoming MMLA Conference in Milwaukee (November 14-16, 2025). Though proposals on any topic related to Medieval and Early Modern Spanish Literature are welcome, we also seek proposals that specifically engage with the 2025 MMLA theme of “Health in/of the Humanities.” Please submit a 250-word abstract and a brief bio (or brief CV) to John McCaw at [email protected] by April 25, 2025. Papers will be delivered in person, and may be in Spanish or English.
Presentation Format: In-Person Only This panel invites presentations proposals of any topic related to Spanish Peninsular Literature After 1700. However, proposals that specifically explore and engage with the 2025 MMLA Conference theme “The Humanities is Where Hope Lives” that explore the value of the Humanities in relation to a more hopeful future will be given special consideration. Topics could include, but are not limited to:
Where Hope Lies?: The Evasiveness of Hope in Latin American Literature and Culture
Presentation Format: In-Person Only We seek submissions for presentations on Latin American literary and cultural production focused on the aforementioned topic. Please include abstracts around 250 words along with contact information. Send your abstracts to Chris Schulenburg at [email protected] no later than 25 April 2025. Writing Hope, Living Resilience: Feminist, Queer, and Trans Voices in French-Language Contexts
Presentation Format: In-Person Only Women in French invites papers for a session at the 2025 Midwest Modern Language Association Conference themed “The Humanities is Where Hope Lives.” We seek submissions exploring how women, nonbinary, transgender, and queer writers, artists, and thinkers within French-language contexts across time periods cultivate hope and resilience through their work. We invite submissions from all Women in French members, regardless of their geographic location. International and independent scholars are also strongly encouraged to contribute. Women in French offers a complimentary one-year membership to new members. Additionally, competitive travel funds are available for graduate students. Papers might consider:
Hope, Resilience, and Feminist Political Agency in French-Language Online Participative Culture
Presentation Format: In-Person Only While increasing critical attention has been placed on social media and (micro)blogging as a means of political discourse, this discussion has often focused on the products of online participative culture, rather than on the root causes that led individual actors to adopt glocalized forms of political action. This is especially the case with women’s online activism, which has historically operated outside of institutionalized avenues of social discourse and has consequently offered a privileged means of self-expression and collective association that transgresses – or at the very least, calls into question – gendered norms and societal expectations. In accordance with the MMLA’s 2025 presidential theme, Women in French invites papers that examine how productive dimensions of hope and social resilience have led women to leverage the participative culture of the Internet as a means of engaging with public opinion and advocating for social change. We invite submissions from all Women in French members, regardless of their geographic location, and offer a complimentary one-year membership to new members. Possible topics include, but are certainty not limited to:
Literary and Cinematic Representations of Motherhood
Presentation Format: In-Person Only This panel seeks proposals related to literary, cinematic, and/or cultural analyses of motherhood. How is motherhood represented in the literature of different time periods and cultures? How is motherhood addressed and experienced differently by authors of various genders, sexual orientations, races, ages, and social classes? This panel welcomes proposals related to any aspect of motherhood, including challenges, rewards, motherhood communities, fertility-related topics, societal pressures and constructions of motherhood, and the connection between motherhood and identity. This panel is also interested in the absence of motherhood (whether or not it is a chosen role), and how the decision not to become a mother can shape or define identity. Analyses of texts and/or films in languages other than English are encouraged (although presentations should be in English). Please submit a 250-350-word proposal, C.V., and brief academic bio to Dr. Heather Jerónimo ([email protected]) by April 25th, 2025.
The MMLA is currently seeking a new Organizer/Chair to oversee this permanent section! If you are interested in organizing the Writing Across the Curriculum section or co-organizing it with a trusted colleague, please reach out to [email protected] with a current CV and a brief statement of qualifications for all persons involved. |