Call for Papers

The theme of Romantic Disconnections/Reconnections is transparently suggested by our current situation, and we welcome papers that explore disconnection and/or reconnection, broadly conceived, both in Romantic-period literature and culture and in our engagements with the Romantic period in our present moment. However, we intend this conference principally to provide a means for reconnecting members of the larger Romantic Studies community, who have experienced a long period of disconnection, so we also welcome papers on any Romantic-period subjects people would be keen to discuss.

Aware of videoconferencing fatigue and people’s increased commitments at this difficult time, we are opting for ten-minute papers. We are planning to spread the schedule over four days with relatively short programmes on each day. The conference will be split into two blocks for ease of access. We will schedule sessions to try and ensure that BARS members around the world who would like to present are able to do so at a reasonable hour.

We welcome proposals for individual papers and full panels (of three or four papers); please email us if you’d like to propose an unconventional session. If you would like to submit a pre-arranged panel, please submit each abstract individually, including the panel title and the panel organiser’s name in the dedicated box on the form.

Papers should be kept to ten minutes in length and should be designed to be delivered over Zoom (screen sharing will be available to presenters, so PowerPoints or videos can be used). Papers may be given live or pre-recorded and screened in the sessions. Live conference sessions will be recorded and will be made available to delegates for a limited time.

BARS membership is required to attend or present at the conference, but there will be no registration fee.

We are putting this conference together swiftly and on a truncated timeline, so the deadline for paper proposals is Monday 28th June 2021. Abstracts should be submitted by Google Form.

We aim to send out decisions by Friday 9th July 2021. The first version of the programme will be published shortly afterwards.