Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada
2024 Biennial Conference: Migrations
Call for Proposals
19-22 June, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario
The 2024 Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada (ALECC) biennial conference takes migrations as its theme as it seeks new ways of comprehending and responding to the complexity of migration in the past, present, and future. Migrations, in its plural register, is understood expansively, recognizing its many forms and the modes of unevenly distributed power that shape migrant experiences, whether human or otherwise. We understand migration not only as a consistent theme in planetary human and more-than-human history, but also as a phenomenon that is historically interconnected and shaped.
Our host site, Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, is located on the shared traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishnaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples, which is part of the Dish with One Spoon Treaty between the Haudenosaunee and Anishnaabe peoples. This Treaty symbolizes the agreement to share and protect our resources, and not to engage in conflict.
The 2024 ALECC conference invites thoughtful responses to interactions between literal and figurative more-than-human and human migrations. Submissions are welcome on the proposed theme and other related areas of interest from artists, creative writers, and scholars in the environmental arts and humanities, and migration studies, broadly defined.We welcome those working in the following areas: Indigenous thought and practices, interdisciplinary praxis, pedagogy and climate change migrations, environmental feminisms, critical refugee studies, border studies, ecopoetics and literary studies, animal studies, plant humanities, materialisms, blue humanities, petrocultures and energy humanities, visual art, film, ecomedia studies, environmental histories, mobility studies, health studies, cultural geography, environmental philosophy, cultural studies, and related areas of environmental studies.
Migrations will be an in-person conference.
Submission Information
Proposals must be submitted by December 15th, 2023 to conference@alecc.ca.
To propose an individual paper, creative or other work, including a reading (20 minutes), please submit an anonymous (no name included) proposal that includes a title and a 250- to 300-word abstract, noting whether it is a creative or an academic paper. In a separate document (but the same email submission), please send name, proposal title, your preference for a scholarly, creative, or mixed session, any requests for audio-visual equipment, current contact information, and a one-page curriculum vitae (used for funding applications).
To propose a pre-formed scholarly panel or creative session (three to four presenters for a 90-minute session), please submit an anonymous proposal that includes a session title; a 200-word session abstract, including whether it is a creative, academic, or mixed panel; and a 250- to 300-word anonymous abstract for each paper/presentation. In a separate file, please send the session title, any requests for audio-visual equipment, and the names, contact information, and a one-page curriculum vitae for each presenter and the session organizer. Note the deadline for pre-formed panels or creative sessions is 01 December 2023.
To propose some other kind of format or presentation (e.g., workshops, roundtables, exhibits, performances, lightning talks), please contact the organizing committee in advance of the deadline to discuss proposal submission requirements.
Submissions in English, French, or Indigenous languages will be accepted. Proposals should indicate clearly the nature of the session and all requests for audio-visual equipment and any other specific needs (e.g., space, moveable chairs, outdoor location, etc.). We ask that panel organizers attempt to include a diversity of participants.
Email submissions should include in the subject line the word SUBMISSION, the abstract type (panel, paper, other), and your (or the panel proposer’s) name: SUBMISSION paper Julia Devi, for example, or SUBMISSION panel Bo Kwon. We will acknowledge all submissions.
For more information about the Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada / Association pour la littérature, l’environnement et la culture au Canada, please visit our website at https://alecc.ca/. All presenters must be paid members of the organization or an affiliate by the date of the conference.
Acknowledging the ongoing, evolving conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, ALECC will follow municipal, provincial, and federal regulations (if any) and supports voluntary mitigation practices like masking.
General queries for the organizing committee may be sent to conference@alecc.ca.
ALECC 2024 Organizing Committee:
Jenny Kerber Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON
Jordan Kinder Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON
Lisa Szabo-Jones John Abbott College, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC
Conrad Scott University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Ariel Kroon Independent scholar, Kitchener, ON