Subject: Call for Papers: Literary Theory at CEA 2025

Call for Papers, Literary Theory at CEA 2025
March 27-29, 2025 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square
1800 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
215.561.7500

The College English Association, a gathering of scholar-teachers in English studies, welcomes proposals for presentations on literary theory for our 54th annual conference. Submit your proposal electronically by November 1, 2024, through our conference management database housed at the following web address: www.cea-web.org

For this area, we are particularly interested in proposals that relate literary theory to the conference theme of freedom from academics from a wide range of areas across literary studies, creative writing, rhetoric, composition, technical communication, linguistics, and film.

Conference Theme: Freedom
As the location of CEA 2025, Philadelphia is perfect for the present moment. Here, the spirit of the American Revolution and the ideals that would drive it were born. The Declaration of Independence, penned and ratified in Philadelphia, argued that “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” were “inalienable rights.” As a nation, we continue to wrestle with the words of the Declaration and the men who signed it. However, our commitment to liberty is unwavering, even in the face of multiple challenges to our freedoms, our autonomy, and our choices. At the CEA, we hold close especially the belief in academic freedom.

CEA 2025 welcomes papers and panels that address our discipline from multiple perspectives and across a wide range of areas, including literary studies, creative writing, rhetoric, composition, technical communication, linguistics, and film. And, in the spirit of Philadelphia, we are especially interested in presentations that incorporate topics related to FREEDOM as it relates to literary theory in texts, disciplines, people, cultural studies, media, and pedagogy.

For your proposal you might consider, regarding literary theory:

 Freedom regarding races, classes, cultures, regions, genders, or sexualities
 Freedom between disciplines, languages, or generations
 Cultural or ideological freedom in theoretical, scholarly, or literary works
 Freedom as construct, form, metaphor, motif, or icon
 Threats or challenges to freedom explored in theoretical texts and the cultures and
societies they address
 Freedom regarding theory and practice, reading and writing, writer and audience
 Academic freedom in teaching and scholarship; faculty and administrators; professors
and students
 Freedom and materiality
 Connections between text and images or sound
 Digital humanities and freedom

General Call for Papers
CEA also welcomes proposals for presentations in any of the areas English departments typically encompass, including literary criticism and scholarship, creative writing, composition, technical communication, linguistics, and film. We also welcome papers on areas that influence our work as academics, including student demographics, student/instructor accountability and assessment, student advising, academic leadership in departments and programs, and the place of the English department in the university.

Submission: August 15-November 1, 2024

Proposals should be between 250 and 500 words in length and should include a title. Please note that only one proposal may be submitted per participant. Notifications of proposal status will be sent in early December. For more information on how to submit, please see the full CFP at www.cea-web.org

Membership
All presenters at the CEA 2025 conference must become members of CEA by January 1, 2025. To join CEA, please go to www.cea-web.org

Other questions? Please email Cynthia Leenerts at cleenerts@esu.edu.

Sincerely,

Cynthia Leenerts
Associate Prof. of English
East Stroudsburg University
200 Prospect St.
East Stroudsburg, PA 18301