Call for Papers:
IR/RELEVANT – English Department PGR Conference 2025
30th May 2025, Strand Campus, King’s College London
As academics and practitioners in the Arts and Humanities, we are often required to evidence the relevance of our work, attempting to bridge an implicit separation with ‘the real world’. These efforts have become increasingly precarious, in the face of funding challenges, rising anti-intellectualism in the political sphere, and with social media amplifying scrutiny. The visibility of scholarship becomes both a necessity and a personal liability. Simultaneously, artists and academics continue to challenge exclusionary structures that have long shaped institutions and practices. Standards of relevance or relatability can be wielded as tools of exclusion.
At this critical moment, we invite reflections on relevance. How do art and literature shape how we relate to each other? To what extent do these demands promote homogeneity in art and culture? Who is excluded by these standards?
We envision this conference as a celebration of the irrelevant, incidental, marginalised, even the weird and off-putting. We invite submissions on topics including, but not limited to:
● Issues of accessibility in culture and academia
● Representation as activist project and/or artistic standard
● Questions of relevance or ‘relatability’ in literature and cultural discourses
● (Dis)identification and forms of resistance
● Affect theory and the politics of (un)feeling
● Labour and cultural production
This list is only a starting point, and we encourage all approaches. Your presentation could be part of a thesis chapter, another work in progress, or a new idea you would like to explore in an inclusive and supportive environment. We would also welcome proposals for panels or alternative mediums (e.g. art, interactive experience, creative writing).
Submission Guidelines
Please submit a brief abstract (100-300 words) for a maximum 15-minute presentation and a short bio (c. 100 words) to this form by 7th April. Speakers will be confirmed by 30th April.
Please contact englishpgrconf@kcl.ac.uk for further questions or to flag accessibility needs. We look forward to hearing from you!