Literary Studies Conference Focus

We have lived in turbulent times.  The not long past two-year-global Covid-19 crisis has brought about economic injustice, conspiratorial brokerage, and corrupt leadership at all levels.  To worsen this predicament, wars have escalated in Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, and there have been ill-fated transitions of political power in several Asian countries as well. In addition, threats of cyber-security, the rise of sectarian movements, and severe climate change across the globe have expedited changes in today’s geopolitical landscape.  Contestations in world powers characterized by environmental collapse are the 21st-century nightmares. 

Despite the seemingly daunting future, the shifting geopolitics may yet open up transformations toward the new world order. Concepts of East-West and North-South relations could evolve with the current global power shifts whose complexity would not exclude the archipelagic nations in the East and Southeastern Asian regions. Given this geopolitical dynamic, the transnational mobility of language, literature, and culture has never been the same. The 2023 Literary Studies Conference invites students, scholars, and researchers from different disciplines to address this geopolitical reality and its lasting implications. Contributions and ideas from the varied participants of this conference may shed light on the opportunities and challenges in literary studies.