BWWC 2026: Call for Papers

The 34th Annual 18th- and 19th-Century British Women Writers Conference: Auburn University, May 7-9, 2026

“Collections & Collectives”

The organizers of the 34th annual British Women Writers Conference (BWWC 2026) invite proposals for papers focusing on the theme of “Collections & Collectives.” The organizers wish to consider ways in which those who identify as women engaged in or textually represented practices of collecting and collectivity within global and transatlantic contexts during the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Proposals could consider collection materially or conceptually: in terms of objects and institutions or in terms of creating, organizing, and mobilizing collectively. What personal or public benefit comes from collections and collective action? What harms are involved in various means of collecting or in collective action? How might these be mitigated and redressed?

Proposals might engage with the conference theme as it relates to the following topics:

  • Libraries (personal and public)
  • Archives (physical and digital)
  • Museums (art, portrait, zoological, natural history)
  • Scrapbooks, extra-illustrated books commonplace books, anthologies
  • Print and manuscript ephemera, autographs
  • Menageries, botanical gardens, conservatories
  • Tchotchkes, mementos, souvenirs
  • Salons and soirees
  • Bluestockings
  • Suffrage
  • Socialist activism
  • Collaborative writing
  • Artists’ collectives
  • Cooperatives
  • Communes

Proposals on other topics related to archives and collections, as well as topics that fall outside of the scope of the conference theme, are also welcome. We are also strongly encouraging submissions on pedagogical and professional issues, including roundtables, workshops, and plenary discussions.

Signed pot, James Wesley Curry, potter (1903). Inscribed with the names “Janie Simmons, Viola McGraw, Emma Ogelsby, Fannie Ogelsby, and John Ogelsby.” Southern Folk Pottery Collection, Pebble Hill, Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities, Auburn, Alabama.

Conference Highlights

  • Keynote speakers: Elizabeth Miller, Julie Park, and Julian Whitney

Proposals for individual papers and panels are due January 15, 2026.

Please click here to begin submitting your proposal.

For information on past BWWC conferences, visit the Archives section of the website.