Event Dates
BAS Conference, 34th edition: “Reconfiguring Borders and Boundaries in/through the Lens of Literature, Language and Culture”.
Location and dates: West University Timișoara, Romania. 14-16 May 2026.
Deadline for submissions: 15 February 2026.
Venue: West University Timișoara, Romania.
Organisers: English Department, Faculty of Letters, History, Philosophy and Theology, West University Timișoara
Event Presentation
Recent times have seen the creation of new borders and boundaries, such as those between humans and artificial intelligence, as well as the re-emergence of old ones, especially along nationalist, racial, ethnic, gender, class and religious divides. Such dynamics are connected to contemporary sociopolitical, cultural and technological transformations and crises, among which the wide reach of mis- and disinformation, the dissolution of trust in science and institutions, the rise of ethnonationalist populism and authoritarianism, the mainstreaming of exclusionary rhetoric, armed conflicts, environmental disasters and large movements of populations, to name but a few. At the same time, the duality of borders and boundaries, erected not only to separate, exclude or divide, but also to protect and cognitively map social reality (Tanulku & Pekelsma, 2024), prompts reflection on the potential contained therein for bridging and crossing over.
Borders are physical and territorial, while boundaries are symbolic, sociocultural and moral, productive of differentiation and hierarchization through practices of inclusion/exclusion and ordering (Lamont & Molnár, 2002; Tanulku & Pekelsma, 2024). Many scholars, however, consider them interrelated and mutually constitutive, or even use them interchangeably, depending on the context (Fischer, Achermann & Dahinden, 2020; Tanulku & Pekelsma, 2024; Yuval-Davis, Wemyss & Cassidy, 2019). The currently dominant approach to the study of borders and boundaries conceptualizes them as multiscalar, relational, processual and performative spaces and constructs, constantly made and remade, (re)produced but also challenged, in top-down and bottom-up practices, experiences and discourses, as sites of both governance and agency formation (Brambilla et al., 2015; Fischer, Achermann & Dahinden, 2020; Paasi, 2013; Tanulku & Pekelsma, 2024; Yuval-Davis, Wemyss & Cassidy, 2019). To bring these aspects into relief, the concepts of ‘bordering,’ ‘boundary making’ or ‘boundary work’ have been introduced and used alongside, and even instead of, the more static ‘borders’ and ‘boundaries.’ In a broad sense, bordering and boundary work involve, beyond nation-states and their transformation in a global world, other types of space (global cities, rural areas, frontiers, peripheries, public/private), identification practices (belonging, otherness, intersectionality), time (past/present/future), politics (ideological boundaries), disciplines, and so on.
A non-comprehensive list of the theoretical insights that inform the study of borders and boundaries encompasses the following: the socially constructed nature of space and its embeddedness in power relations (Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994; Soja, 1996) and struggles across global, regional and local scales (Brenner, 2001; Jessop, 2002; Mahler & Pessar, 2003); the fragmentation, fluidity, hybridization and performativity of identities (Bhabha, 1994; Butler, 1990; Hall, 1997); the articulation of belonging and citizenship across transnational networks and flows through physical, virtual, imaginary and affective co-presence, but also simultaneous inclusion in one space and exclusion from another (Ahmed, 2003; Baldassar, 2008; Levitt & Glick Schiller, 2004; Vertovec, 2009; Yuval-Davis, 2011); the formation of inequality and oppression across multiple, intersecting axes (Crenshaw, 1989); the global (im)mobilities of people, objects, communication technologies, information, images and money (Urry, 2007); governmentality, biopolitics (Foucault, 1977-1979) and necropolitics (Mbembe, 2006). Due to the complexity of bordering and boundary making, their research has fostered inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue, with contributions from the humanities gaining increasing weight over time (Brambilla et al., 2015; Paasi, 2013; Wilson & Hastings, 2012). Borders and boundaries are symbolically construed, (re)produced, negotiated, performed, mediated in literary and cultural discourses, in social and public imaginaries and narratives, in artistic creations and installations, in multilingual encounters, translations, linguistic change, discursive stances, positionings and interactions.
Confirmed Plenary Speakers:
- Prof. Robert Asen, University of Wisconsin-Madison: Prospects for Democracy in an Authoritarian Age – A Rhetorical Approach
- Prof. Steven Conn, Miami University: Landscapes of Loss
- Prof. Elisabetta Marino, University of Rome Tor Vergata: Crossing Borders, Defying Boundaries: Women Travel Writers in the Victorian Age
- Prof. Ruxandra Vișan, University of Bucharest: Rethinking Linguistic Boundaries: Representations of Gender-Inclusive Language
Presentations (20 min) are invited in the following sections:
- Language Studies
- Translation Studies
- Discourse and Rhetorical Studies
- British and Commonwealth Literature
- American Literature
- Cultural Studies
- Gender Studies
- English Language Teaching
ROUND TABLE: CRISIS IN THE HUMANITIES/ HUMANITIES IN CRISIS
WORKSHOP: RETHINKING TOOLS FOR QUALITY ASSESSMENT IN LEGAL TRANSLATION
Website address
British and American Studies Conference
Contact details
CFP
For further details, please check the conference original CFP.
Call for papers BAS 2026_logos22nd Conference on British and American Studies: Tradition and Innovation in Language.
Location and dates: Brașov, Romania. 23-24 May 2026.
Deadline for submissions: 1 May 2026.
Organisers: Transilvania University of Braoșov, Faculty of Letters, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
Plenary Speakers:
- Professor Lucía Luque Nadal, PhD, Universidad de Málaga, Spain
- Professor Elisabetta Lonati, PhD, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale, Italy
Event Presentation
Presentations or workshops (20 minutes) in person are invited in the areas such as: Language Studies, Contact Linguistics, Comparative Linguistics, Language Acquisition, Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis, Computational Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Psycholinguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Language Teaching and Language Learning, Translation and Interpretation Studies, Lexicography and Terminology, Telecollaboration and Virtual Exchange, Corpus Linguistic
Website address
Contact details
CFP
For further details, please check the conference original CFP.