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, qualified 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. All proposals accepted to a Permanent Section are automatically added to the MMLA's Convention program and do not require a second round of approval by the Program Committee. 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. Calls for PapersThe MMLA is in search for a new chair for this permanent section! If you are interested in serving in this capacity, please email your CV and a statement of interest to [email protected].
Michel-Rolph Trouillot argues that “archives…are neither neutral or natural” but “they are created” (48). In alignment with this year’s theme After the Archive, the African American Literature Permanent Section of the MMLA seeks proposals which interrogate and engage the archive as not only a physical repository but also as sites of memory and resistance. We are particularly interested in papers that demonstrate how the African American literary project:
· Investigates archival silences and losses
· Participates in Black Archival Practice as well as archival refusal
· Performs memory work as a form of communal and cultural care work
· Functions culturally as a shadow archive
· Challenges institutional authority
· Emerges as its own system of power
Proposals of 250-300 words should include the author’s name, email address, and institutional affiliation. Proposals should be sent to [email protected] by Friday, April 24, 2026.
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The American Literature II: Literature after 1870 Permanent Section of the Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA) is seeking proposals for this year’s in-person convention in Chicago, Illinois. This year’s theme for the conference is “After the Archive”; accordingly, the Permanent Section encourages presentations that focus on the notion of the archive. Some questions to be considered in context of American literature after 1870 are:
• The bureaucratic, legal, and institutional challenges in creating, curating, and maintaining literary archives
• Counter-archives and archival refusal
• Archival silence, loss, and censorship
• The representation of the archive
• Conventional and/or unconventional methodologies of archival
• Histories of archives
Presentations that engage with works and aspects of American literature after 1870 that do not pertain to archival and archives are equally welcome. Please send a 200-300 word abstract and a short biographical statement (c. 50 words) to Alp Eren Pirli at [email protected] no later than April 25, 2026. NB: MMLA will not be supplying presenters with AV equipment at its 2026 convention.
Sea Creatures, Then and Now
“When the abyss stares back, it demands recognition.” Stacy Alaimo’s newest book—The Abyss Stares Back: Encounters With Deep-Sea Life—challenges us to explore encounters with marine life, intimacies partly enabled by science but offering opportunities for literature and art. This panel seeks papers on any aspect of creaturely marine life and its myriad relationships with human existence. Although traditional AV will not be available for this panel, participants are both allowed and encouraged to share a QR code through which audience members may access their presentations. Please submit a 250-300 word abstract to Lucinda Cole ([email protected]) by April 10, 2026.
Archives are not neutral: they tell stories about who counts, whose experiences are remembered, and whose are erased. For centuries, racial hierarchies have shaped the preservation of knowledge, leaving silences where Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized voices should be. The Antiracism Permanent Section of the MMLA invites submissions that move beyond critique, asking how we can reimagine, rebuild, and transform the archive to reflect justice, equity, and shared humanity.
We are especially interested in work that explores:
This section seeks proposals that not only analyze inequities in archives but actively propose or model alternatives: new forms of documentation, preservation, storytelling, and cultural memory that resist erasure and center justice. Presentations may include research papers, creative projects, teaching innovations, or community-engaged initiatives that envision archives as sites of empowerment, repair, and possibility.
Submission Guidelines: Proposals should be 250–300 words. Include the author’s name and institutional affiliation (if any). Submit proposals to [email protected] by April 24, 2026.
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Central America’s Republics after the Archive: Creative Responses to Archival Histories
Central America’s histories of colonialism, armed conflict, human rights violations, and U.S. intervention are richly documented in both national archives and international institutions, ranging from the U.S. National Security Archive to physical and digital collections maintained by academic libraries and nonprofits. This panel invites presentations that investigate creative responses to the content and control of the body of archived materials that collectively narrate the Central American experience. How have the creation, curation and control of access to these repositories shaped cultural production in the seven countries that make up this culturally and geographically diverse region?
Examples might include:
• poems addressed to former dictators and military figures in the wake of declassification
• Indigenous and Black self-representation and resistance in works of fiction, poetry and theatre
• testimonial novels that challenge or supplement official narratives
• films that document oral histories of civil wars, dictatorships, and their legacies of violence and economic injustice
If you are interested in participating in this in-person panel, please send an abstract (roughly 250 words) and a short biography to [email protected] by April 25, 2026.
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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:
• Close analysis of film
• Film theory
• Film criticism
• Film history
• Modes of film studies
• Methods of film production
• World film studies
• Collaborative pedagogy and team-teaching
• Collaborations in the classroom (i.e. group assignments, collective grading, etc.)
• Cultures of collectivity
• Collective communities in film
• Language, translation, bilingualism
• History and duality
• Indigenous cultures
• Religious discourses
• Feminisms
• Border studies
• African American studies
• Afro-Latinx studies
• Queer studies
• Performance studies
• Postcolonial studies
• Cultural studies
Please send proposals of 250 words maximum by April 25, 2026 to Co-Chairs Dr. José M. Medrano [email protected] and Dr. Judit Palencia Gutierrez[email protected]. Participants are welcome to propose papers either in English or Spanish.
Global Film Panel I: Global Film as Archive: Tales of War, Conflict, and Protest from China, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, US, etc...
Proposals invited on how some 21st century international feature and documentary films from war torn and conflict-ridden parts of the globe like Iran, Palestine, Ukraine, China, etc. function as archives of untold stories of the human experience and how people learn to survive while living under threat. They document as well as celebrate individual and communal resilience and heroism during international conflicts, wars, and protests which force impossible choices upon ordinary human beings. Papers can explore how these films, by addressing and recording not only cataclysmic events leading to the loss of life, land, and love, also function as an archival record to inspire us and future generations to build a better peaceful world. Proposals can focus on a single film or address a few select films thematically. Papers can also focus on the pedagogical value and use of these films in high school and college classrooms.
Some very recent films are listed below, several of which have already won numerous awards:
It was Just an Accident, 2025 (dir. Jafar Panahi)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig, 2024 (dir. Mohammad Rasoulof)
Children of Fire, 2025 (dir. Evgeny Afineevsky)
20 Days in Mariupol, 2023 (dir. Mstyslav Chernov)
The Voice of Hind Rajab, 2025/2026 (dir. Kaouther Ben Hania)
No Other Land, 2024 (dir. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, & Rachel Szor)
All That's Left of You, 2025/2026 (dir. Cherien Dabis
Palestine '36, 2026 (dir. Anne Marie Jacir)
The Sea (Hayam), 2025 (dir Shai Carmeli-Pollak)
The Encampments, 2025 (dir. Michael T. Workman & Kel; Pritsker)
Please send 300-to-350-word abstracts, and a 5-line bio with email and phone contact information to Khani Begum ([email protected]) by April 10, 2026.
Global Film Panel II: Representations of Migration, Immigration, and Citizenship in Contemporary Global Film
Proposals for papers about films relating to any aspect and/or perspective on issues of migration, immigration, and citizenship that explore how individual lives are affected by these issues positively or negatively. Papers can address at a variety of films from different countries or focus on one to two films. Please send 300-to-350-word abstracts, and a 5- line bio with email and phone contact information to Khani Begum ([email protected]) by April 10, 2026.
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The Permanent Section for German Literature and Culture is seeking proposals exploring any aspect of German Studies; topics aligning with the 2026 convention theme, “After the Archive,” are especially welcome. Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words to [email protected] by April 20th.
The MMLA is in search for a new chair for this permanent section! If you are interested in serving in this capacity, please email your CV and a statement of interest to [email protected].
The International T.S. Eliot Society is accepting proposals for a panel at the 2026 Midwest MLA conference in Chicago, IL to be held November 12-14, 2026. 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 25, 2026. For more information on MMLA 2026, please see https://www.midwest-mla.org/convention. Please note: the Society does not provide funds for travel to and from the conference.
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The MMLA is in search for a new chair for this permanent section! If you are interested in serving in this capacity, please email your CV and a statement of interest to [email protected].
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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 this year’s convention theme “After the Archive.” Please send abstracts and questions to William Andrews at [email protected] by April 25, 2026.
The Race, Gender, and Subalternity Permanent Section invites paper proposals for the 2026 Midwest Modern Language Association Conference, held November 12–14, 2026, at the Voco Chicago Downtown – Riverwalk in Chicago, Illinois.
This year’s conference theme, “After the Archive,” calls for critical engagement with what comes after, beyond, against, or in excess of the archive—particularly as it relates to race, gender, and subalternity. Archives have long been sites of power: shaping knowledge, legitimizing certain histories, and rendering others invisible, fragmented, or illegible. Yet for marginalized communities, the archive is often incomplete, violent, or inaccessible, demanding alternative modes of memory, narration, and resistance.
We welcome papers that interrogate how race, gender, sexuality, coloniality, and subalternity are shaped by archival absence, excess, refusal, remediation, or reinvention. How do scholars, artists, and communities work after the archive—when the archive fails, silences, or cannot contain lived experience? What new methodologies, ethics, and forms of knowledge emerge in its wake?
Possible topics include (but are not limited to):
We encourage submissions from scholars across disciplines, including literature, cultural studies, history, rhetoric, gender and sexuality studies, ethnic studies, media studies, and related fields. Interdisciplinary, experimental, and community-engaged approaches are especially welcome. Please submit a 250–300 word abstract along with a brief bio by April 20, 2026. Additional details regarding submission procedures will follow in accordance with MMLA guidelines. Please submit your abstracts to Dr. Tamara D. Hill at [email protected].
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"Drama, Poetry, and Fiction: The Power of Midwestern Archives and the Shaping of Scholarly Perspective”
How has a Midwestern archive changed your reading of a literary text? Which archive? Which text? Please send a 1-2 page abstract and CV to Marilyn Atlas [email protected] by April 25, 2026.
The MMLA is in search for a new chair for this permanent section! If you are interested in serving in this capacity, please email your CV and a statement of interest to [email protected].
Stay tuned for more information!
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The MMLA is in search for a new chair for this permanent section! If you are interested in serving in this capacity, please email your CV and a statement of interest to [email protected].
The MMLA is in search for a new chair for this permanent section! If you are interested in serving in this capacity, please email your CV and a statement of interest to [email protected].
The MMLA is in search for a new chair for this permanent section! If you are interested in serving in this capacity, please email your CV and a statement of interest to [email protected].
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