2027 Conference Information At A Glance

Date: The weekend of April 16, 2027

Location: Coming soon

Registration Form: Coming soon

Program: Coming soon

IUP English Graduate Organization 2027 Spring Conference Call for Papers

Transformations

Change and adaptation are natural. The passage of time resists stagnation, and throughout history, cultures have experienced tipping points—transitions in dominant theories, literary styles, technologies, and purposes of writing that open pathways toward new ways of thinking. Yet, transformation is not inherently synonymous with progress. Change can preserve, disrupt, renew, or destroy, asking us to consider not only how we change, but what we carry with us.

Art and creative thought have long occupied a unique position within these processes of transformation. By asking us to reconsider what we believe we know, art can disrupt familiar modes of perception and invite us to encounter the world differently.

As Adam Phillips writes in Dead or Alive:

“Art of any value requires the kind of attention we don’t give to the taken-for-granted, that we don’t give to all those things we think we know. Art, in this sense, unsettles and disrupts preconceptions, it waylays our anticipation, and it does this by increasing the difficulty and length of perception; art resists and sabotages our familiar habits of perception.”

What does it mean for a text, a language, a culture, a discipline, or an individual to transform? What is gained through transformation, and what is lost? How might artists, writers, scholars, teachers, and students participate in—or resist—these transformations? What happens when familiar works are reimagined through new forms, technologies, cultures, or perspectives? And what might remain unchanged even as everything around it transforms?

We invite papers and creative works that explore transformation across language, literature, writing, pedagogy, rhetoric, and the humanities. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

·                Tipping points, thresholds, beginnings, and endings

·                Disrupting familiarity and challenging established modes of perception

·                Adaptation across media, including literature, film, television, music, video games, and other forms

·                Reimagining, recovering, or transforming neglected, forgotten, or harmful texts

·                Translation, transliteration, and the transformation of meaning across languages

·                Digital technologies, artificial intelligence, and transformations in writing, reading, and pedagogical practice

·                Transformations of genre, form, style, and narrative

·                Cultural transformation and literary exchange

·                Transformations of identity, memory, place, and belonging

·                The transformation of literary groupings and critical traditions

·                What remains untouched? What pieces of history, literature, language, or culture withstand transformation, and what new meanings might they impart today?

We welcome 250-word abstracts proposing relevant papers or creative works. Accepted submissions will be grouped holistically by the EGO Board into one of the following formats:

·      Traditional Panel: Three to four participants will present formal papers of approximately 15–20 minutes (2,500–3,000 words), followed by a Q&A session.

·      Creative Session: Three to four participants will share poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or other creative works, followed by a Q&A session.

All presentation formats may be delivered in-person or virtually.

Please submit your 250-word abstract and a brief biographical statement to iupgradego@gmail.com by December 15, 2026, 11:59 p.m. EST.

We welcome submissions from scholars, writers, teachers, and graduate students working across disciplines and encourage approaches that challenge familiar boundaries of language, literature, writing, and creative practice.

What changes? What transforms? What remains?

Voice and Voicelessness: What is Said and Unsaid (2026)

Landscapes of Language and Literature (2025)

Masks and Masking (2024)

Time and its Influences (2023)

Inclusivity Beyond Diversity (2022)