Call for Session Proposals: 2027 NeMLA Convention (2027 NeMLA Convention)
Newport, RI (USA)
Organization: NeMLA
Event: 2027 NeMLA Convention
Submit a session proposal for NeMLA's 2027 convention, which will be hosted on the beautiful campus of Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. The dates are Saturday March 6 through Tuesday March 9. Session proposals are due by May 30!
https://www.nemla.org/convention.html
Submissions for NeMLA 2027 occur in two stages
Stage 1: Session Proposals (due May 30)
Log into the portal to submit a session proposal (https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/Login). Session proposal deadline is May 30, 2026 for priority review. Late submissions will be considered until scheduling blocks become full or until June 30, whichever comes first (with rolling notification). Please review the session types (Panel, Seminar, Roundtable, Creative, Workshop). NeMLA sessions may be in three modalities: in-person only, virtual-only, or hybrid.
Stage 2: Session Chairs post calls for papers (June 15 – Sept. 30)
Once your session proposal is vetted and approved, you may issue a call for individual paper abstracts. Guidance on how to serve as a session chair and how to issue the call for papers will be provided in late May. Individual paper submissions will open June 15 and close September 30.
2027’s conference theme is “Empowering Communities”
This theme evokes the process of transformation from a state of passivity to being active agents of change. It represents a shift away from authoritarianism and toward a model that values (and solves problems through) local knowledge, collaboration, and collective action.
Under the theme of empowering communities, we welcome scholarship that examines how cultural knowledge can serve as a source and means of empowerment, the role of culture in constructing agency, and how communities are creating spaces conducive to such empowerment. As always, we welcome proposals that extend, challenge, or bypass the annual theme to make space for everyone’s scholarship and ideas.
The opening plenary will be given by Dr. Jerome Branche, whose current work addresses the interwoven themes of slavery, necropolitics, and coloniality from a transhistoric standpoint.
The keynote address will be given by Manuel Muñoz, the author of a novel and three collections of short stories, most recently The Consequences (Graywolf, 2022), and recipient of the 2023 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize.
Please share the convention information with your department and colleagues. https://www.nemla.org/convention.html
https://www.nemla.org/convention.html
Dr. Derek DiMatteo