Founded in 1975 in the wake of Canada’s official ratification of multiculturalism, the Association for Canadian and Québec Literatures has, over more than 50 years, emerged as Canada’s premier association for showcasing multilingual and transnational research in Canadian and Québec literatures.
As the ACQL seeks to provide accessible and affordable conference opportunities to students and scholars, the association proposes both in-person and online conferences on a yearly rotational basis. Last year’s in-person conference was held on the campus of McGill University, Montréal, in collaboration with the Canadian Comparative Literature Association (CCLA).
This coming Spring 2027, the ACQL is once again hosting an ONLINE CONFERENCE.
DATE: Monday, May 31st to Wednesday, June 2nd 2027.
We understand the value of in-person gatherings; however the ACQL hopes that this virtual meeting will provide Canadian and international students and scholars with an affordable platform to share their research at a time of funding cuts, while also reducing our environmental impact.
We will meet again in person in 2028.
Theme 2027: Rivalries, Revolts and Resolutions
The ACQL always welcomes a broad range of talks, with proposals encouraged across diverse themes and perspectives. This spring, we also invite you to reflect more specifically on the topic of rivalries, revolts and resolutions in the wake of antagonisms within Canada and its current relations with the USA. This broad tripart theme also evokes many other past and on-going socio-political situations across the globe and thus lends itself to a wide variety of analyses. The theme is NOT intended to restrict the scope of proposals, but rather to encourage scholars to reflect on conflicts, contestation, and reconciliatory efforts, as represented in the literature and cinema produced in both English and French in Canada.
Among the immediate questions that scholars may ask themselves are how authors, poets, filmmakers, essay writers and others go about describing the development of rivalries in their works. What issues and rights are involved in interpersonal or collective competition and clashes? How do situations escalate and what are the actions taken by individuals and groups regarding resolutions or other means of moving forward? How does the form of the work, publication context, and other such questions contribute to our understanding of difficult situations or, at times, seemingly irreconcilable differences?
Proposals
Talks can be given in either English or French. As the ACQL constantly strives to embody an equitable and inclusive association, we encourage bilingual sessions, as well as thematic and methodological research on literature and cinema focusing on issues of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization as they intersect with language, class, gender, sexuality, handicap, and other sites of social hierarchies and oppression.
We seek proposals for a variety of session types:
• Paper Panel: Panelists present a formal paper of 15-20 minutes, followed by questions and discussion.
• Member Organized Sessions: Panel organizers may present their own papers in the session that they organize.
• Seminar Workshop: Participants complete their papers in advance and distribute them to other seminar participants prior to the conference. Participants are encouraged to limit their presentations to 8-12 minutes to promote a substantial discussion period.
• Roundtable: Participants give brief presentations (roughly 5-10 minutes) in response to a specific question or concern, followed by discussion and debate with the audience.
• Pecha Kucha: 20 images are displayed for 20 seconds each, with explanation or commentary keyed to the images.
• Professional Development Workshop: Intensive presentations led by a moderator, revolving around issues of professional development that are of specific relevance to stages of their academic careers.
Submission Deadline
1. Panels – Sunday, January 31st 2027 (with individual summaries of each proposed talk)
2. Individual talks – Sunday, February 21st 2027
Please specify (if applicable) in your submission (in WORD or RTF)
1. Title of your paper
2. Concise summary (300 word max) of your talk.
3. Nature of your presentation (traditional 20-min talk, poster, Pecha Kucha, etc.)
4. Title (professor, independent researcher, student) and a short biographical note
5. Institutional affiliation
Email address for submissions: alcq.acql@gmail.com.
ACQL Membership and Conference Fees
1. Presenters at the 2027 online conference require up-to-date ACQL membership(before the online conference takes place).
2. As this year’s ACQL conference is online, there will be NO registration fees.
3. Members are reminded that the ACQL awards the Gabrielle Roy Prize to outstanding critical works and thus invites participants to donate to the prize.
4. See the ACQL website (www.alcq-acql.ca) for membership and registration information.