Call for Papers

28th Southeast Conference for Languages, Literatures, and Film (Feb 27-28, 2027)
St. Petersburg, Florida (on the University of South Florida St. Petersburg Campus)

Languages and Cultures in a Changing World: Identity, Responsibility, and Justice

Abstracts for papers (and panels) are now being considered. Deadline for abstracts: Nov. 16, 2026

Selected papers will be published in a post-conference anthology. To view prior publication, click HERE

The SCFLLF welcomes papers on all aspects of literature, theoretical and applied linguistics, culture, philosophy, cultural history, film, other popular media, second language acquisition, and language pedagogy pertaining to non-English languages (ancient and modern). We would like to encourage (but not limit) submissions addressing our conference theme: Identity, Responsibility and Justice, in its broadest understanding. Selected papers will be published in a post-conference anthology.

The humanities and the study of languages are facing changing institutional and social expectations. These changes encourage us to reconsider what work we do and the people and communities our work serves. To whom and to what, are artists, scholars and teachers accountable? How do languages, literatures, films, and other forms of cultural expression preserve or challenge established narratives and structures? How do they engage with different identities? How can they help us understand the present and/or imagine different futures? What responsibilities come with teaching and learning languages as well as with studying, interpreting, and representing other cultures?

This conference invites scholars working in non-English languages, literatures, film and media, cultural studies, applied and theoretical linguistics, second-language acquisition, and language pedagogy to explore these and related questions from a wide range of disciplinary, theoretical, historical, and methodological perspectives.

The conference theme, Identity, Responsibility, and Justice, is deliberately broad. Responsibility may involve our relationships with students and communities, with texts and their histories, with linguistic and cultural traditions, or with the institutions in which we teach and conduct research. Or responsibility can be interrogated with regard to artists and art, in a broad sense. Justice can also be approached in diverse ways. It may involve social justice, questions of representation and recognition, historical memory, inclusion and exclusion, or access and lack thereof to language learning. Justice may also concern translation and cultural mediation or the ways in which literature, film, language, and other cultural practices engage with conflict, inequality, trauma, discrimination, displacement, and/or social change.

The SCFLLF keynote speaker is Adam Schwartz (Associate Professor of Language, Culture & Society, Oregon State University). Dr. Schwartz's research addresses Spanish language education and Spanish-English multilingualisms in the U.S. He takes particular interest in intersections of language, race and racism, wherein questions of identity, responsibility and justice persist. In addition to various articles and chapters, he has authored three books. These include Spanish So White: Conversations on the Inconvenient Racism of a 'Foreign' Language Education (2023). He is also the co-author of Aquí se habla: Centering the Local and Personal in Spanish Language Education (2025) as well as Language, Identity and Justice: The Anthropolitical Worlds of Ana Celia Zentella (2026).

Some suggestions of topics and their artistic representations include:

  • identity, responsibility, and justice represented in literature, art, film, and other forms of popular media, including social media
  • influence of film and literature on the public and private sphere
  • reassessing the purpose and value of language teaching
  • expressions and perceptions of trauma in response to injustice
  • justice in utopian fictional worlds
  • addressing and expressing identity in the language classroom
  • questions of identity in literature, film, the arts, and other popular media
  • responsibility issues in production and reception of artistic expressions
  • responsibilities associated with researching and representing cultures apart or in comparison to our own
  • the broader influence of imaginary worlds created in film, literature, the visual arts, and other forms of media on real political and personal justice
  • language and linguistic-related topics concerning identity, responsibility, and justice
  • other topics

Please submit a proposal (of no more than 250 words) for a single paper or a full panel (max. of 3 presentations) on the conference webpage. We can only accept online submissions. You can find the link to submit abstracts in the top menu bar.

Please contact Margit Grieb ([email protected]) if you have any questions.