Call for Papers & Proposals:

2026 Youth Symposium: Youth Agency and Activism in an Age of Precarity

The Intersection of Research, Civil Society, and Young People

The University of Tokyo Komaba Campus, Tokyo, Japan
September 7-8, 2026

Concept Note

“Why is the world falling apart when it’s my turn to be adult?” As the future grows less assured and more precarious for the younger generation today, this viral question has been circulating and echoing across the digital landscape worldwide, especially under the gloom of a global resource crisis, the rise of populism, the backsliding of democracy and the rule of law, and more. While for some young people living in war-stricken or less privileged regions, the threats are far graver and more imminent than the others, the majority of youth nonetheless seem to be shadowed by such existential questions. Will the planet cease to be habitable when I grow older? How do I live in a society that does not guarantee my basic rights or denies my autonomy? How do I still change the world for the better when my voice is so small and not represented in decisions that directly influence my future?  

Despite the youth’s wish to fight for their future, frustration arises when their voices are not reaching the older, decision-making generation. Many youth find that adult-dominated activist venues are too dismissive of their concerns and agency, according to some research (O’Donoghue & Strobel, 2007). Such sentiments are also reflected in spaces specifically set up for youth, for example, youth advisory councils, since adult-directed political socialisation is dissonant with youth’s own self-perception (Taft & Gordon, 2013). This phenomenon has prompted some young people to start their own youth-centred organisations (Gordon & Taft, 2010). The characteristics of these spaces include inventive direct actions, flat hierarchies, and benefits from well-connected online networks (Juris & Pleyers, 2009). 

Moreover, we can observe a rise in young people pushing the boundaries of traditional elements of international human rights law by taking their actions to court. Against the image of being incompetent political actors, litigation brought by young people to the Internation al Court of Justice or the European Court of Human Rights has upended the usual legal procedures in these platforms. These novel cases include, for example, multiple young students suing several respondent states, none of which they are residents of, on the grounds of anticipated and aggravated harm caused by these states to the climate (Daly, 2022). Indeed, there is no guarantee that these new developments will rewrite the language of human rights law. However, a certain impact can already be observed through cases such as Sacchi v. Argentina, where for the first time a state could be deemed violating children’s rights under international law on the basis of insufficient reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (Sacchi and Others V. Argentina, 2026). 

Scholars argue that such momentum is actually built on a growing “autonomous identity” that is shared by the youth through globalisation and networked communication systems (Eide & Kunelius, 2021). Essentially, the youth movement operates on a network of “shared stories and collective concerns” that empower their voices and create resonance (Starr, 2021). Therefore, in the Youth Symposium 2026, our goal is to cultivate a space where such stories and concerns can be shared among young scholars, civil society actors or individuals with similar visions. The Youth Symposium 2026 seeks not only to examine the conditions shaping youth today, but to collectively imagine and insist upon the futures they deserve, and the future we all share. 

References:

Daly, A. (2022). Climate Competence: youth climate activism and its impact on international human rights law. Human Rights Law Review, 22(2). https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngac011
Eide, E., & Kunelius, R. (2021). Voices of a generation the communicative power of youth activism. Climatic Change, 169(1–2), 6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03211-z
Gordon, H. R., & Taft, J. K. (2010). Rethinking youth political socialization. Youth & Society, 43(4), 1499–1527. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118×10386087
Juris, J. S., & Pleyers, G. H. (2009). Alter-activism: emerging cultures of participation among young global justice activists. Journal of Youth Studies, 12(1), 57–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260802345765
O’Donoghue, J. L., & Strobel, K. R. (2007). Directivity and freedom. American Behavioral Scientist, 51(3), 465–485. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764207306071
Sacchi and Others v. Argentina. (2026). International Law Reports, 211, 373–399. https://doi.org/10.1017/ilr.2025.14
Starr, P. (2021). The relational public. Sociological Theory, 39(2), 57–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/07352751211004660
Taft, J. K., & Gordon, H. R. (2013). Youth activists, youth councils, and constrained democracy. Education Citizenship and Social Justice, 8(1), 87–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/1746197913475765
Themes

We welcome submissions on a wide range of topics related to youth issues, including citizenship, governance, technology, identity, and social change. Interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives are especially encouraged. We also welcome submissions addressing other contemporary challenges and issues affecting youth beyond the themes listed above. Young scholars and early-career researchers are particularly encouraged to participate and submit their work.

1. Youth, Citizenship, and Participation
   Youth political participation and activism
   Citizenship, identity, and political culture
   Civic engagement and citizenship education
   Youth and populism
   Children’s Rights

2. Democracy, Authoritarianism, and Resistance
   Democratisation and democratic backsliding
   Authoritarianism and governance
   Social movements and protests
   Cross-border solidarity and resistance

3. Diaspora, Migration, and Transnational Politics
   Diaspora politics and mobilisation
   Transnational repression
   Immigration, identity, and belonging
   Cross-border political networks
   Youth and Human Rights

4. Juvenile Jurisdiction, AI, and Technology
   AI ethics and juvenile justice
   AI-induced crimes and juvenile jurisdiction
   Digital literacy and youth
   Technology, surveillance, and society

5. Youth Identity, Culture, and Society
   Ethnic relations and identity politics
   Religious revival and everyday life
   Global histories and cultural change

6. Youth’s Role in Governance and Global Change
   International relations and global governance
   State-society relations
   Governance, legitimacy, and citizenship

7. Special Topics
   Philosophical Perspectives on Youth and Society
   “Youth Are Political Agents! Except They Are ‘Too Young’.” Age, Behaviour, and the Psychological Development of Youth
   Civically Engaged Research
   Key Event Details

 

Key Information

The Symposium will be held mainly in-person.
The Symposium opens to public submission. Submissions will be reviewed. Authors of accepted submissions will have the opportunity to present their works at the Symposium. Submission Guidelines and other submission details are now avaliable. Please also note that depending on the panel/category that you are submitting to, the guidelines could be different.
We welcome both individual submissions and panel proposals. For individual submissions, they must select either research or civil society track when submitting their works.
We welcome submissions from all over the world. Priorities will be given to scholars (including graduate students, doctoral students, and early career researchers/professors) whose works demonstrate high academic rigor and originality, and civil society actors who share works that have significant impact on youth and society. Limited online presenters will be accepted.
While some submission categories may allow submissions in languages other than English, all presentations must be conducted in English.
No registration fee is required to participate in the Symposium. However, all presenters must register as a member of EAYSA.
No financial aid or VISA support will be provided to both presenters and audiences. All participants should manage their own travel.

Key Timeline

Submission Period: 20 May 2026 - 30 June 2026

If you have any questions about the Symposium, please stay with us on this website or contact us through youthsym.ircy.info@gmail.com.

 

   

 https://eaysa.org/2026-youth-symposium-concept-note/

 youthsym.ircy.info@gmail.com

 Haeun Kim

I have often tried to explain my teaching methodology to my students, but have never provided them with a somewhat coherent written explanation of it. I believe my students, especially undergraduates, could learn better if they understood the underlining features of my classroom practices. This brief article, therefore, is an attempt at explaining my teaching practices. During my graduate education, I was trained by professors who specialized in critical pedagogy. Critical pedagogy claims its lineage to the work of Paulo Freire, famous for his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Now, Freire himself rarely used the term “Critical pedagogy” in his book, but the process of education that he streamlines in the book has come to define an entire field of pedagogy called critical pedagogy. In his book Freire names the traditional method of teaching the Banking System of education. In this system, according to Freire, the students are considered empty vessels into which the teacher pours his or her knowledge. In such a process, the students have practically no say in their education and are often passive recipients of the “wisdom” and knowledge provided by the teacher. In critical pedagogy, the teacher hopes to inform his or her teaching by incorporating the student input and by encouraging students to have a say in their own education.

Thus, in my classes, even though they can sometimes be lecture heavy, the students are always encouraged to suggest a better way of tackling a subject. To answer the question “Why Critical pedagogy,” one first has to know the purpose of education. If education for you, especially humanistic education, is meant to offer not only literal knowledge but also a humane, compassionate, and inclusive worldview, then critical pedagogy is the only way of teaching this way of living, for the students will not only learn the class materials but also learn, it is hoped, a way of living responsibly in the world, especially when it comes to their relations with their less fortunate local and global others. But this leads to yet another question: Does critical pedagogy work with privileged students?

This is an apt question. We know that the students in our classes who come from an “oppressed” class/ group would sympathize with a mode of teaching that encourages them to think of their local and global others, but would the students who do not come from any such marginalized class not feel threatened in such a classroom? And if they do feel threatened, would they not also become defensive or, at worst, belligerent? In my experience, most students are open to critical pedagogy if they know that their views and opinions are respected and that they have a right to their opinions in class. Thus, in my classes I ensure that I encourage open discussion and also develop a sense of mutual respect. I also use Mark Bracher’s research on how to use critical pedagogy more effectively without bringing my students’ identity perception into crisis. In his book Radical Pedagogy, Bracher explains that the most important aspect of human existence is our need to safeguard our identity. Thus, to put it succinctly, if our students feel threatened by our ideas and if they see them as a threat to their identities, they will completely shut us off. In order to reach most of my students, I ensure that at no point in my classes do they feel like having been put upon or having been considered less intelligent or not in possession of the “right” kind of politics. Freire, Tagg and so many others inform my teaching methodology.

What are the Learning Paradigm and the Teaching Paradigm?

Furthermore, I also rely on the latest research in pedagogical methodologies. For example, I believe that learning is a process and cannot really be reduced to a semester timeframe. Thus, the emphasis in my classes is not on coverage (the model in which the teacher forces students to cover all the texts in the syllabus) but learning, which means that I sometimes spend more time than planned on a certain subject, especially if I notice that the students might need a few more class sessions on the topic. By far the best book on this subject is John Tagg’s The Learning Paradigm College. In this book Tagg clearly distinguishes between the teaching paradigm and the learning paradigm. In his opinion, the teaching paradigm focuses on coverage and the teacher is supposed to cover all the knowledge in the syllabus, whereas in the learning paradigm the teacher focuses more on learning and less on coverage and in this way the students become participants in their own education. If one follows the learning paradigm, then one would rather spend more time on one topic rather than rushing through to cover all topics.

So, I have incorporated elements of both Freire and Tagg in my teaching practices: I try to make sure that the students have the freedom to express themselves without any fear of reprisals and that they can also suggest how best a certain subject should be discussed in class and, furthermore, I ensure that we do not sacrifice learning for the sake of mere coverage. Based on this brief article, here are some of the things my students may experience in my class:

• The books/ topics are covered in a chronological sequence per week, but there are no dates on the syllabus. Instead I use week 1, week 2 etc. [Of course the assignments and tests do have a date and it is announced in the class]. What this means is that as we discuss a certain topic or text, if the students feel that there is more to learn about that text, then we stay a little longer on it instead of just rushing through it.
• The students can also vote to change the format of any class assignment: for example, they can vote to turn in journals instead of the weekly quizzes. The only condition is that they have to prove to me that what they are proposing would be more effective for their learning.
• The students are encouraged to be polite and respectful to each other and I also make it a point to respect my students.
• Since I am teaching them to be kind and generous to others, in my classroom practices and even after class hours I try to display these qualities in my conduct: I try to be generous with my time, and try to give my students as much help as they need.

So, overall my classes might not be deeply structured and if a student only relies on the syllabus, they might feel lost but if they come to class regularly, they know where we are in the course. In my teaching methodology, I make it a point to announce at the end of each class as to what we will be discussing in the next class. I also encourage my students to ask their classmates about what is planned for the next class, if they had missed class or they always have the option of emailing me about it. Overall, teaching to me is a constant practice of learning to be a more effective, compassionate, and generous teacher and I welcome any suggestions that you might have in helping me improve my teaching.

About the Volume
Artificial intelligence is reshaping higher education at a pace that outstrips both institutional response and scholarly understanding. From adaptive learning systems and AI-assisted assessment to automated advising, research acceleration, and the integrity questions that follow, universities and colleges worldwide are navigating a transformation for which few have prepared.
This edited volume Higher Education in the Age of AI: Opportunities, Challenges, and Ethics brings together rigorously documented case studies from across higher education—spanning teaching and learning, academic governance, student support, research practice, and institutional strategy. The goal is not to celebrate or condemn AI in education, but to offer an honest and critical examination of what is actually happening on the ground: what works, what fails, what raises new dilemmas, and what these experiences reveal about the future of higher education as a human institution.
The volume is structured around three interconnected themes — Opportunities, Challenges, and Ethics—and seeks cases that illuminate all three -- either individually or in combination.
 
Thematic Focus
I. Opportunities
Cases exploring how AI creates new possibilities in higher education, including but not limited to:
•       Personalised and adaptive learning at scale
•       AI-assisted feedback, writing support, and tutoring
•       Early identification of at-risk students and targeted intervention
•       Research acceleration: literature synthesis, data analysis, hypothesis generation
•       Expanding access for underserved, remote, or non-traditional learners
•       Administrative efficiency and resource reallocation toward teaching
•       New forms of assessment that better measure competency and understanding
 
II. Challenges
Cases examining the difficulties, failures, and unintended consequences of AI adoption, including:
•       Resistance to AI tools among faculty, students, or leadership
•       Implementation failures, poor tool selection, or lack of training
•       Widening inequalities in access to AI-enhanced resources
•       Threats to academic labour and the restructuring of teaching roles
•       Student over-reliance on AI and erosion of foundational skills
•       Data privacy risks and inadequate institutional governance
•       Institutional lock-in, vendor dependence, and loss of pedagogical autonomy
 
III. Ethics
Cases engaging with ethical dimensions of AI in higher education, including:
•       Academic integrity, AI-assisted writing, and rethinking what honesty means
•       Bias, fairness, and algorithmic discrimination in AI-driven systems
•       Informed consent, surveillance, and the limits of student data use
•       The ethics of AI use in admissions, grading, and credentialling
•       Institutional responsibility when AI systems cause harm
•       Questions of transparency: what students and staff have a right to know
•       The philosophical question of what AI changes about education’s purpose
Case Format and Requirements
Contributions are preferably presented as cases — real, documented situations drawn from actual institutional experience. While purely theoretical or conceptual papers may be considered where they offer substantial analytical grounding, case-based submissions are strongly encouraged. Case studies may be authored by faculty, administrators, educational developers, researchers, or practitioner-scholars.
Each case should include the following elements:
1.     Institutional and contextual background (type of institution, discipline, country/region, scale)
2.     The situation or problem — what AI-related challenge, opportunity, or dilemma arose
3.     The decisions made and actions taken — by whom, under what constraints
4.     Outcomes — intended and unintended, short- and longer-term
5.     Analytical reflection — what does this case reveal about higher education and AI more broadly?
6.     Discussion questions for use in teaching or professional development (3–5 questions)
7.     References (APA 7th edition)
 
Cases may draw on a single institution or offer comparative analysis across two or more. Multi-authored chapters reflecting collaborative institutional experience are especially welcome.
Submission Guidelines
Stage 1 — Abstract Submission
Prospective contributors are invited to submit a structured abstract of 500–750 words by 1 July 2025. Abstracts should outline:
•       The case context and the AI-related situation at its centre
•       The thematic focus (Opportunities / Challenges / Ethics, or a combination)
•       The disciplinary or institutional setting
•       The nature of available evidence and data
•       A preliminary list of authors and their institutional affiliations
•       Abstracts should be submitted as a single PDF or Word document to scholarly2033@gmail.com with the subject line: Abstract for Higher Education in the Age of AI
 
Stage 2 — Full Chapter Submission
Invited authors will receive feedback on their abstracts and guidance on chapter development. Full chapters of 5,000–8,000 words (excluding references and appendices) will be due by 31 August 2025. Chapters will undergo double-blind peer review.
 
Formatting Requirements
•       Word document (.docx), APA 7th edition
•       12pt font, double-spaced, 1-inch margins
•       Abstract of 150–200 words and 5–7 keywords on first page
•       Author details on a separate title page (removed for blind review)
•       Tables and figures embedded in text and separately provided as image files
 
Review Process
All submissions will undergo a two-stage review. Abstracts will be assessed by the editorial team for fit, originality, and analytical potential. Full chapters will undergo double-blind peer review by at least two independent reviewers drawn from a panel of scholars in education, AI, and related fields. Authors will receive structured feedback regardless of outcome.
 
Timeline
Abstract submission deadline: 1 July 2026
Notification of abstract decisions: 20 July 2026
Full chapter submission deadline: 31 August 2026
Peer review feedback to authors: 30 September 2026
Revised chapters due: 31 October 2026
Final manuscript to publisher: 30 November 2026
Anticipated publication: 2026

Publication
Accepted chapters will be published as part of an edited volume under the laboratory publications series of Hassan I University, with indexation at the Bibliothèque Nationale du Royaume du Maroc (Rabat) and the Al Saoud Foundation. The editors are additionally in discussions with other academic publishers for wider international distribution; contributors will be informed of any developments in this regard.

Enquiries
For questions regarding fit, scope, or any aspect of the submission process, please contact the editorial team at scholarly2033@gmail.com . We encourage prospective contributors to reach out before submitting if they are uncertain whether their case aligns with the volume’s focus.

 scholarly2033@gmail.com

 Saad Boulahnane

We often think of kindness as something we offer to others. I would like to suggest that kindness to others, especially strangers, is the ultimate form of self care. Of course, I didn’t come up with this insight: a lot of people have researched the value of kindness to our own social identity needs. So, my thoughts are informed by what I have read and experienced about the salutary effects of kindness to others. Let me elaborate.

When we are in stressful conditions, could be at work or in a relationship, we feel the weight of negative emotions in our bodies. We often find ways to ease the anxiety and stress caused by our negative experiences. Most of the times, according to Mark Bracher, (Mark Bracher. Radical Pedagogy. https://amzn.to/3pbS01c) if we do not know how to cope with this surfeit of emotional stress, we turn to self harm (Drugs, Alcohol etc.) or we lash out at others. All these modes of expressing our frustrations and anger actually end up aggravating the very thing causing the stress in the first place.

According to latest research on consciousness and the brain (cited by Mark Bracher), if we feel under stress, one immediate way of easing ourselves out of that stress and anxiety is to actually do something we can call “good.” This means that if we are under some kind of stress, our body is in an anxious state, so if we go out and help someone else, or actually are just nice to someone else, we feel good about it and that feeling helps us transform the negative emotions associated with the stressful emotions into something positive.

I have tried this technique in my personal life: Every time I feel slighted or offended, instead of getting angry, I try to act even softer and am extraordinarily kind to anyone I encounter immediately after the negative experience with someone else. In a hundred percent of cases, I always feel better when I transfer my anger into genuine kindness of speech or gesture towards others.

So, in this world of heartbreaking inequalities, we can, actually, enable ourselves to feel better through simple acts of kindness to others.

In a sense, then, kindness that we render unto others is actually a kind of self care!

This session is part of the 2026 PAMLA Conference in Seattle, 11/12-11/15

This session, Premodern Literature in East Asia, aims to underscore the interconnectedness of East Asian literary traditions and emphasize the profound impact of the region’s material and intellectual heritage on shaping and inspiring contemporary cultural landscapes. The 19th-century encounter with the West has undeniably reshaped East Asian society and opened a significant field of research. However, contemporary scholarship often overemphasizes the modern at the expense of the complexities and significance of the premodern era. This tendency is particularly pronounced in East Asian literary studies, where research has largely shifted from classical literature toward modern works and often to more accessible popular media. This session seeks to redress this imbalance.

We invite scholars to explore various aspects of premodern literature in East Asia—covering the classical works of the core civilizations of traditional East Asia, including China, Japan, and South Korea, as well as regions profoundly influenced by Confucian societal values, such as Vietnam and Mongolia. The topics include but are not limited to the critical analysis of individual works, the evolution of literary genres, and the transmission of literary theory, topoi, images, and narratives. We will additionally be pleased to receive any papers dealing with the relationship between power and literature in accordance with this year's theme.  

 anthonywood261@gmail.com

 Anthony Wood

This is a “Showcase” post for an app that I recently developed. OAScholar, now available on the App Store, offers access to over 216 million open access articles.
Using the app, you can search major open access directories like DOAJ, arXiv, PubMed and many others. You can also save lists of your articles in different folders in your Library page and create Quick lists of your search and download or email the lists.
Overall, this app has pretty much everything academic that is open access in the palm of your hand. It will soon also be available on the Playstore.

Please check it out and let me know what you think. All suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Seattle, WA

Organization: PAMLA

Event: Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association

Engaging with PAMLA’s 2026 theme, “Our Ruling Classes: Culture, Power, Conflict,” this panel asks: How do esoteric ecological imaginaries reinforce, negotiate, or resist ruling ideologies? How have spiritualized visions of nature shaped elite cultural production, countercultural movements, or alternative political communities? What conflicts emerge when esoteric environmental ethics confront institutional religion, scientific rationalism, or capitalist extraction?

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, literary representations of enchanted ecologies, spiritual ecologies in travel writing or poetic form, occult environmental metaphysics, and the role of esoteric belief in shaping ecological imaginaries. We welcome historically grounded and theoretically informed approaches to literature, art, travel writing, popular culture, and critical theory. Topics may include ecospirituality, occult environmentalism, esoteric dimensions of deep ecology, and aesthetic practices that envision enchanted or spiritually animated landscapes as sites of cultural struggle and renewal.

To submit a paper and present, you must become a PAMLA member by paying the member fee and the conference fee. For graduate students, there are scholarships available to help with the conference fee in exchange for some volunteer hours.

 https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/

 nathan.bonar@cgu.edu

 Nathan Bonar

The Victorian period saw the introduction of a multiplicity of overlapping technologies and cultural practices of lighting, which radically transformed labour and the medical sciences, reinvented the night and connected ideas of leisure and security, refashioned the domestic interior as well as the perception of public appearance, and greatly impacted architecture and urban planning, policing, warfare and, not least, philosophy and the arts.

Light was central to the construction of Victorian subjectivities, not only as the support for disciplinary power and colonial control exerted through vision and inspection, but within a broader and multiple field of contingent encounters, artistic techniques, and dramatic situations. From this perspective, the iconic figures of the Victorian eye - the guard in the panoptical tower and the flâneur, the detective and the man in the crowd, the artist and the monster, the crystal palace and the heart of darkness, the hall of mirrors and the slum - can be placed within a more material and situated aesthetic, cultural, and political history of light (see Barnaby, 2017).

Thinking about light in material terms rather than only as metaphor or as disembodied and disembodying vision, can be seen as part of a methodological shift toward new materialism and ecocriticism in the humanities. Like water in the blue humanities (see Mentz, 2024), the materiality of light challenges clear-cut spatial distributions and delimitations, as well as constructions of bodily boundaries and binary attributions of agency and passivity through the look. Light, as Mieke Bal suggested, "actively contributes to the modification and the transformation of [...] experience" (2007).

The Victorian era's "relentless drive toward spectacular radiance" (Otter, 2008) set some of the conditions of the transition to modernity and its glare and glitter are, in many ways, still with us. Especially given the ongoing popularity of neo-Victorian fictions, and in the context of a constant expansion of the boundaries of the Victorian and the neo-Victorian as academic categories, a focus on material light also becomes an occasion for tracing the afterglow of Victorian visualities as they still influence the present politics of visibility and aesthetics of perception.

This edited volume seeks to explore how neo-Victorian fictions (not only novels, but also films, videogames etc.) address the materiality of light, illumination, and visibility and how they re-deploy and re-interpret the Victorian politics of light in relation to the present.

Possible topics may include how neo-Victorian fictions stage and transpose:

Light technologies in Victorian architecture and material culture
Light, illumination, visibility, darkness and dusk in Victorian literature, painting, theatre, and popular entertainment
Disciplinary practices of illumination in urbanism and the medical sciences, in the organisation of domestic and industrial labour, in colonial and correctional spaces
Reflective and transparent surfaces, twilight, exposure, and concealment as part of the construction of Victorian subjectivities
Metaphors and performances of light and darkness in the colonial imaginary and in the construction of abled, gendered, and racialised bodies
Visibility and invisibility, in their material, relational, and ecological aspects, as part of Gothic fiction and of Victorian constructions of happiness, monstrosity, and madness
Ligthscapes: the enchantment and disenchantment of the night, light shows, theories of colour and visions of electricity, photographic and optical techniques

 

We invite expressions of interest accompanied by abstracts of possible contributions (approx. 500 words) and the authors’ short biographical notes (up to 150 words). The deadline is 15 September 2026. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 15 October 2026. We will expect finished versions of the chapters (8000 words max) to be ready by 1 March 2027.

Please send the abstracts to both editors: Anna Gutowska (agutowska1@swps.edu.pl) and Carlo Comanducci (c.comanducci@vistula.edu.pl)

 

Selected bibliography

Armstrong, Isobel. Victorian Glassworlds: Glass Culture and the Imagination 1830-1880. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Bach, Susanne and Folkert Degenring, eds. Dark Nights, Bright Lights: Night, Darkness, and Illumination in Literature. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015.

Bal, Mieke. “Light Politics,” 153-181. In Madeleine Grynsztejn, ed., Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson. San Francisco: Thames and Hudson, 2007.

Barnaby, Alice. Light Touches: Cultural practices of illumination, 1800–1900. London: Routledge, 2017.

Connor, Steven. The Matter of Air: Science and the Art of the Ethereal. London: Reaktion Books, 2010.

Dove, Danielle Mariann, and Sarah E. Maier, eds. Neo-Victorian Things: Re-imagining Nineteenth-Century Material Cultures in Literature and Film. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.

Duncan, Rebecca. "Decolonial Gothic: Beyond the Postcolonial in Gothic Studies." Gothic Studies No. 24, Vol. 3 (2022): 304–322.

Espinoza Garrido, Felipe, Marlena Tronicke and Julian Wacker, eds. Black Neo-Victoriana. Leiden: Brill, 2022.

Heilmann, Ann, and Mark Llewellyn. Neo-Victorianism: The Victorians in the Twenty-First Century, 1999–2009. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Kaplan, Cora. Victoriana: Histories, Fictions, Criticism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007.

Kleinecke-Bates, Iris. Victorians on Screen: The Nineteenth Century on British Television, 1994–2005. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Kohlke, Marie-Luise, and Christian Gutleben, eds. Neo-Victorian Families: Gender, Sexual and Cultural Politics. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2011.

Kohlke, Marie-Luise and Christian Gutleben, eds. Neo-Victorian Cities: Reassessing Urban Politics and Poetics. Leiden: Brill, Rodopi, 2015.

Koslofsky, Craig. Evening Empire: A History of the Night in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Louttit, Chris, and Erin Louttit, eds. 'Screening the Victorians in the Twenty-First Century.' Neo-Victorian Studies Special Issue 10.1 (2017).

Maier, Sarah E., and Brenda Ayres, eds. Neo-Victorian Madness: Rediagnosing Nineteenth-Century Mental Illness in Literature and Other Media. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

Maier, Sarah E., and Brenda Ayres, eds. Neo-Gothic Narratives: Illusory Allusions from the Past. London: Anthem Press, 2020.

Mentz, Steve. An Introduction to the Blue Humanities. New York: Routledge, 2024.

Moore, Abigail Harrison and R.W. Sandwell. In a New Light: Histories of Women and Energy. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021.

Otter, Chris. The Victorian Eye: A Political History of Light and Vision in Britain, 1800–1910. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.

Primorac, Antonija. Neo-Victorianism on Screen: Postfeminism and Contemporary Adaptations of Victorian Women. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

Sayer, Karen and Maryse Helbert. "Illuminating Women," Perspectives No. 1 (special issue on Women and Energy, 2020): 30-35.

Schivelbusch, Wolfgang. Disenchanted Night: The Industrialisation of Light in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Berg, 1988.

Stern, Rebecca F. "Gothic Light: Vision and Visibility in the Victorian Novel." South Central Review, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Winter, 1994): 26-39.

Stetz, Margaret. 'Neo-Victorian Studies.' Victorian Literature and Culture 40.1 (2012): 339–346.

Wester, Maisha and Xavier Aldana Reyes, eds. Twenty-First-Century Gothic. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019.

 c.comanducci@vistula.edu.pl

 Carlo Comanducci and Anna Gutowska

https://preview.redd.it/emtqnddf9a1h1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=c4a29307d75dfb577fe6be16d0a46fc616906444

This is our welcome post, meant for all those who need a place to contribute without undue constraints. If you have anything to say about humanities and your humanistic interests, please feel free to comment on this post.

If you have any questions about our posting policies or our hopes and aspirations for this community, please comment and share your thoughts.

Most importantly, if you have any suggestions to improve r/Humanities, please take a few moments to add your thoughts in the comments.

Note: This post is set to be least restrictive, and your comment will be approved and posted as long as it follows our community rules.

Thank you in advance!!

I'm curious: if you had a major publisher want to make an anthology of short fiction chosen by you, to show what kind of person you are, what would the ToC be?

1. Laird Barron, "Tiptoe" or "The Forest"
2. George Saunders, "Puppy"
3. Thomas Ligotti, "The Bungalow House" or "Our Temporary Supervisor"
4. Joe Hill, "Pop Art"
5. Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily"
6. T.E.D. Klein, "Petey" or "Children of the Kingdom"
7. Karl Wagner, ".220 Swift" or "Where the Summer Ends"
8. Michael Shea, "The Autopsy" or "Uncle Tuggs"
9. Bruno Schulz. "Street of Crocodiles," or "The Cinnamon Shops"
10. Kelly Link, "Stone Animals"

Lately, I have been reflecting a lot on the role of humanities in the current age of AI and Large Language Learning Models (LLMs). I know that some of my students probably find it convenient to use the semantic search functions to craft their essays, journal entries, and even larger research papers, but how do we convince them to rather do the hard work of crafting a thesis and then working over several drafts?
So, as teachers and humanists, what can we do to still encourage the traditional methods of learning and producing scholarly work? That is the question that we humanists need to think about.

Please share your thoughts.

https://preview.redd.it/asn2imzrjw0h1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=8fa18d51b54fcac7ce75729726ce3e5f6d137eb7

Simply stated, r/humanities is a space for discussing the things we humans create to understand ourselves and the world: history, philosophy, literature, religion, art, language, culture, politics, media, mythology, and everything in between.

While humanities comprise individual, stand-alone disciplines, it is in the very nature of humanities and humanistic pursuits to be cross-disciplinary

Interdisciplinary by Design

The humanities overlap constantly. A discussion about a novel might turn into a conversation about politics, ethics, religion, culture and more: That’s the point. We encourage connections across disciplines instead of strict academic silos.

What You Can Post Here

• Questions about ideas, texts, or historical interpretation
• Discussions of books, essays, philosophers, or theories
• Connections between art, politics, culture, and history
• ·Recommendations for reading or study
• Thoughtful agreements and disagreements
• “Why does this matter?” questions
• Big questions with no easy answers
• Your accomplishments, announcements, CFPs

What This Sub Is Not

We are not a "home work" help community, nor do we tolerate any kind of harassment and writing just meant to enrage a constituency.

What We Value

We value curiosity, good-faith discussions, intellectual openness, kindness, and generosity. All these values ensure that we remain an intellectually rich and nourishing community. So, you all are welcome here and let us build this community together!

How is our Content Organized?

We request all contributors to use specific flairs that point to the type of content being shared, and that, in turn, allows us to moderate and organize the content in r/Humanities . Please take a look at our Wiki for further explanation of the topics.

Thank you all so much for joining us. Please write, discuss, and comment so that we can all grow this community into a vibrant and welcoming place!

https://preview.redd.it/lxv2ltxa2j0h1.jpg?width=802&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1961c804d70be76632ec9e6a3bc16576bbacdf7e

A few years ago, some of my senior colleagues at Kent State University decided to start a pedagogy discussion group. Almost all of us in the group were heavily invested in social justice pedagogy and generally believed that a well-informed humanistic education can be instrumental in enabling more compassionate and caring human subjectivities.

We chose John Tagg’s The Learning Paradigm College as our first book for discussion. It has been years since I read the book, but some of it’s important suggestions and claims have stayed with me and have often informed my pedagogical practices.

Teaching Vs Learning Paradigm

Tagg distinguishes between two dominant paradigms: Teaching and Learning. For him, I would say in the same tradition as Freire, the teaching paradigm involves the coverage model, in which the teacher imparts knowledge to a passive body of students and emphasis is on covering the syllabus. The students are required to master the knowledge so imparted and are supposed to reproduce it in exams or tests. While this method is convenient for teachers, they only have to cover the syllabus, it trains the students only in learning under direction and does not encourage independent or critical thinking. According to Tagg, most US colleges and the K-12 system are teaching heavy and are organized under the teaching paradigm model.

The Learning Paradigm takes the students as active learners in class and assumes that learning is a continuous process. In this Paradigm the teacher encourages critical thinking and students, instead of just learning the subject matter, also learn how to learn. This method of teaching is more likely to produce students who understand things better and are capable of learning on their own as life-time learners.

Types of Learners

Another thing I recall from the book, and it has been useful in my own teaching, is the way Tagg discusses different types of student learners. Of course, Tagg uses empirical research by other scholars in his discussion of learning, but his point is that if we knew what kind of students we are dealing with, we can make their learning even better.

There are generally two kinds of students in any given classroom: Those who believe learning to be a a process and whose identities are in flux and those who subscribe to an entity theory of identity. The latter consider themselves as fully formed human subjects. These two views of self have a huge impact on student responses to instruction.

A student who believes that his or her identity is constantly in flux would take critical comments on his or her work as something positive, for it shows them that you have shown interest in their work and that your comments can help them improve it. In other words, such students welcome constructive criticism and since their idea of self is based in constant improvement, they apply the same rule to their work. Such students will always thank you for your suggestions and are never reluctant to revise their work.

Students who inhabit the entity theory of self do not accept criticism easily. It is because they deem themselves to be fully realized entities and see their work as an extension of themselves. Any criticism of their work, thus, comes across as a criticism of their selves.

Now, knowing what kind of identity beliefs a student holds can be crucial to our teaching and their learning, for our approach to working with them will be completely different in both cases.

Concluding Thoughts

In a Learning Paradigm college the teachers and professors would emphasize learning and the teachers would, ideally, know their students to tailor their pedagogy to the students particular needs.

Most importantly, in a Learning Paradigm the students will be seen as active participants in their own education and would know that learning is a continuous process and not necessarily defined by semester or course timelines.

I have previously discussed some of my teaching practices. Most of those practices are informed by my reading of John Tagg and, of course, Freire. For anyone interested in learning a little more about informed critical pedagogy, I highly recommend The Learning Paradigm College.

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

 associate.director@nemla.org

 Dr. Derek DiMatteo

https://preview.redd.it/ijf226sr1j0h1.jpg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=57d499727b1c4636081a145b9422c9c58cc9bb00

This life in academia is actually my second career. I am a combat veteran who came to academic life after spending most of my youth in the Pakistan army. In the process I also made the transition from my primary culture, Pakistan, to that of the United States. Thus, even when I try not to think of my two careers in comparative terms, sometimes I cannot help but think of my life in academia in comparison with my life as a soldier.

While this is a reflective essay about my own life in academia, it is also addressed to all of you out there who are planning a career in academia.

First, I must state outrightly that there is only one group in academia that is in fact the raison de’atre of my career: my students. I find my students to be kind, generous, and deeply interested in learning. Every day I walk into my class, they give me hope and inspiration.

The profession itself, on the other hand, is a totally different story. (The Chronicle of Higher Education also offers various reflective articles on the profession) Bear in mind that my reflections are grounded in my experience in the humanities and may translate differently for those in other fields.

I find life in academia to be an extremely isolating; academy is a place where we all seem to be busy competing for the scraps that university administrators throw at us. The sad part is that most of us have internalized the system of power so deeply that we are not often aware of why or how we are doing certain things. We accept the inherent inequalities of our system as natural and most of us only try to perform our role within these predetermined, unjust, and exploitative boundaries.

Take a look at varied gradations of faculty at any institution of higher learning: we have tenured/ tenure track faculty, contract lecturers, adjunct faculty, and graduate teaching fellows. Out of all these, the tenure track faculty are considered the heart of any department: they have higher salaries, lower teaching loads, and more access to departmental resources. In symbolic terms they also receive a higher degree of departmental and institutional recognition. In most cases, these faculty members also develop an implicit sense of their own superiority.

Now this sense of superiority can only be maintained through willful acts of ignorance and only a little bit of math is enough to dispel such views. But since we are humanists, facts usually tend to be pretty unwelcome in our world. But let us take a look at a hypothetical situation.

Let us assume that the funding model in your state is based on student retention and not just enrollment. This means that you get your state formula funding against the number of students you can retain over a certain period. The quality of instruction and faculty engagement play a huge role in this retention. Now, let us ask what role do tenure track faculty play in this vital function?

So, let us do some basic math. Let us assume a department with twenty tenure track faculty and twenty lecturers. The former teach two courses per semester and mostly teach upper division courses: courses for juniors and seniors. The lecturers teach four courses per semester and these are mostly freshman and sophomore courses. This means that if the classes are capped at twenty five, a TT faculty member will teach fifty juniors or seniors, while a lecturer will teach 100 freshmen or sophomores per semester.

Now, we know that the highest level of attrition at college level is within the first two years, and if we want to improve retention we will have to have a highly motivated and well trained instructional pool. But in practice we have assigned this job to the least paid, overworked and often unappreciated class of faculty: the lecturers! Note also that the TT faculty’s role in student retention, crucial to the viability of the institution, is minimal. They are teaching students who have already decided to finish their degree!

But despite these facts, the people who contribute least to the university’s financial future are often found strutting around the department, as if they are the ones holding the proverbial sky on their shoulders.

Academic departments are also prone to factionalism, favoritism, petty grievances, and isolationist practices. The factionalism is built into the way disciplines are organized. In any given English department there is usually a basic divide between the British literature specialists and the Americanists both of whom see rhetoric and composition parts of the department with varied degree of hostility and suspicion, as if they are still perplexed at what their colleagues in Rhet-comp actually do. Meanwhile, the Brit lit people tend to protect their turf against the ever increasing imperium of American literature. In this “colossal” fight, those of us who teach African American, postcolonial, ethnic, or non-traditional literatures are either reduced to the level of bystanders, if we are lucky, or forced to the margins if we make the mistake of being too uppity or too vocal in our opinions. Chances are the term team player, collegiality, and student enrollment will be employed to convince you of your insignificance if any of your colleagues from the real and mighty English studies decide to come down from their lofty Olympus and actually talk to you.

Most of the times, people trained in traditional sub-fields would either be completely unaware of what you do, or would have a very dismissive attitude toward your area of expertise. I once had a colleague who asked me if I was mostly focused on “public” scholarship? In this person’s view, my work, published with established academic presses, was somehow not “scholarly” enough, as it tended to be “political.”

Then in every department you will find a few who are creatures of the system: they are on every committee, are part of the in-group, and pretty comfortable in being apolitical. These system creatures will always remind you of the rules and of the significance of being a member of the team, but will never “pick” you for the team. They also claim to be leaders in the department, but their leadership mostly involves implementing whatever the dean or the provost tells them and they have neither the vision nor the backbone to actually take a stand for their faculty or for their department. Be extra careful about these system creatures, for they can make your life really hard, and they will also be on every committee in the afterlife as well:)

No doubt, you will make a few good friends, but often you will have to create a support system outside your department. Chances are, if you are part of the non-traditional faculty expertise, you will have a hard time being recognized by your own department even though you could be a well respected scholar in your own field.

As a veteran who still has deep relations with my former military colleagues, I find the life in academia comparatively impoverished and void of deep and lasting human connections. So, as someone on your way to join the professoriate, please remember that academia can be a place of exceptional promise but also of the basest pettiness. As a rule, do your work, make a few good friends, and be generous and kind to your students and to the precarious workers in your department.

Do not make the recognition by your colleagues too central to your happiness, but rather focus on your students, for they are the ones who brought you to teaching in the first place and they are the ones who will give you hope when some of your own peers let you down!

(Note: These views and opinions are based in my reflection and experience and, obviously, do not need to be your views as well. But if you have some thoughts about your own experiences, please do share in the comments)