37.1779, Confs: Encountering the Human(ities): Anxiety, Storytelling, Futurity (Bangladesh)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1779. Fri May 15 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.1779, Confs: Encountering the Human(ities): Anxiety, Storytelling, Futurity (Bangladesh)

Moderator: Steven Moran (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Managing Editor: Valeriia Vyshnevetska
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Mara Baccaro, Daniel Swanson
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Editor for this issue: Valeriia Vyshnevetska <valeriia at linguistlist.org>

================================================================


Date: 13-May-2026
From: Department of English and Modern Languages, North South University [conference.deml at northsouth.edu]
Subject: Encountering the Human(ities): Anxiety, Storytelling, Futurity


Encountering the Human(ities): Anxiety, Storytelling, Futurity

Date: 30-Oct-2026 - 31-Oct-2026
Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh
Contact: Department of English and Modern Languages
Contact Email: conference.deml at northsouth.edu
Meeting URL: https://www.internationalconference.nsudeml.com/

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition; Psycholinguistics;
Sociolinguistics
Subject Language(s): English (eng)

Submission Deadline: 30-May-2026

Dates: 30-31 October 2026 (Friday-Saturday) Hybrid Event
"The posthuman predicament confronts us with a fundamental tension:
"we" may well be confronting the threats and challenges of the third
millennium, together, but "we" are not One, or the Same—we are
differently positioned in terms of power, entitlement, and access of
the very conditions that define us. "We" are not a homogeneous notion
but a complex and diverse one, which reflects the multiple differences
that compose "us." But it is nonetheless the case that "we" are in the
posthuman convergence together" (Braidotti, 2025)
The Department of English & Modern Languages at North South University
presents “Encountering the Human(ities): Anxiety, Storytelling,
Futurity,” 2026 International Conferencein Language, Literature, and
TESOL.
What do we mean by an encounter with the human subject in our
contemporary moment? How might we rethink modernity's construct of
‘the human,’ not merely as a rational being, but also as a species
deeply entangled with nonhuman forces, such as the environment and
technologies? At a time when AI-generated technologies are rapidly
transforming modes of being, education, and critical thinking, it
becomes urgent to ask: are the human and human(ities) at stake? As
educators working in the fields of language, literature, and TESOL,
how might we reimagine alternative modes of critical inquiry,
pedagogy, and praxis within and beyond the academy at our current
historical juncture?
Given the highly polarized world marked by warfare, fascism, genocide,
digital colonialism, ecological devastation, threat to identity, and
ongoing forms of capitalist and neo-colonial domination, the need for
overcoming the limitations imposed by dominant discourses has become
imperative. Where do we situate ourselves as thinking beings within
these overlapping hierarchies of power? What role can the humanities
play in disrupting exclusionary frameworks and reasserting their
critical, ethical, and imaginative capacities in a moment of profound
transformation? And how might we reimagine our understanding of
meaning-making by attending to nonhuman agencies—animals,
environments, and ecological systems?
Positioned at this critical intersection, this conference seeks to
renegotiate, rethink, and reconceptualize foundational assumptions
across literature, languages, cultures, and education. We invite
original contributions in the form of full papers and posters that
investigate forms of resistance, alternative epistemologies, and
world-building practices that foreground the entanglement of humans
with material environments, nonhuman life, and technological systems.
Avenues of inquiry may include, but are not limited to:
 - Neo-liberal economization
 - Language development and maintenance
 - Language, identity, and multilingualism
 - Digital and multimodal storytelling
 - Sociolinguistics, ecolinguistics, and psycholinguistics
 - Language policy and planning
 - Climate anxiety and environmental collapse
 - Language and ecological Translations
 - Premodern Anthropocene
 - World literature and transnational identities
 - Migration, diaspora, and exile narratives
 - Decolonizing the canon
 - South Asian / African / Global South literature
 - Race, ethnicity, caste, indigeneity
 - Gender and sexuality
 - Myth, folklore, storytelling, and indigenous cosmologies
 - Multispecies justice and sacred geographies
 - AI and contemporary thinking
 - Digital humanities
 - War, violence, and trauma narratives
 - Grief and memory studies
 - Speculative and dystopian fiction
 - Language, capitalism, and colonialism
 - Life-writing and graphic novels
 - Posthumanism
 - New materialism
 - Object oriented ontology
 - Student-centered / experiential learning
 - Technology-Enhanced pedagogical approaches in TESOL
 - Equity, inclusion and social justice in TESOL
 - TESOL in crisis
 - Language education and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
 - Structural and Cognitive Futurity
 - The future of English and Post- English paradigms
 - Teacher cognition, agency, and professional development
 - Innovative pedagogies and curriculum design in TESOL
 - Mental health, well-being, and affective factors in language
education
Keynote(s):
Professor N. Katherine Hayles
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emerita of Literature
Duke University, USA
Publication opportunity:
Selected papers will be published as proceeding by a reputed
publishing house.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------

********************** LINGUIST List Support ***********************
Please consider donating to the Linguist List, a U.S. 501(c)(3) not for profit organization:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=87C2AXTVC4PP8

LINGUIST List is supported by the following publishers:

Bloomsbury Publishing http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics

Cascadilla Press http://www.cascadilla.com/

De Gruyter Brill https://www.degruyterbrill.com/?changeLang=en

Edinburgh University Press http://www.edinburghuniversitypress.com

European Language Resources Association (ELRA) http://www.elra.info

John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/

Language Science Press http://langsci-press.org

Lincom GmbH https://lincom-shop.eu/

MDPI Languages https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages

MIT Press http://mitpress.mit.edu/

Multilingual Matters http://www.multilingual-matters.com/

Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG http://www.narr.de/

Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT) http://www.lotpublications.nl/

Peter Lang AG http://www.peterlang.com

SIL International Publications http://www.sil.org/resources/publications


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1779
----------------------------------------------------------