CFP: ACCL 2026 Biennial Meeting: Humanities in Uncertain Times

Conference Theme: Humanities in Uncertain Times

What is the role of the humanities in a time of global uncertainty? In a time when the values that once underpinned humanistic inquiry are under pressure, we ask: How do artistic practice and criticism address, resist, or reflect the structures of uncertainty — sociopolitical, environmental, epistemological — that now define our age? What new forms might they take? How have Chinese and Sinophone cultural traditions responded to moments of crisis in the past, and what can they offer us today? The ACCL 2026 conference offers an opportune moment for scholars of Chinese and Comparative Literature to critically examine the evolving place of the humanities and reimagine their relevance, purpose, and methods in an increasingly precarious world.

In particular, the uneven experiences of crises in the Global South — including economic instability, environmental vulnerability, postcolonial displacement, and political precarity — demand that we pay closer attention to how the humanities are practiced and imagined across different geographies. What does it mean to think and teach the humanities from the South, where uncertainty is often a structural condition rather than an episodic one? How can literature from and about the margins speak to — or challenge — global narratives of crisis and survival?

We invite scholars to present research on (but not limited to) the following topics: the role of literature and other modes of artistic practice in uncertain times; the transformation of humanistic values under crisis; rethinking tradition, memory, and continuity; precarity and the literary imagination; epistemic instability and aesthetic form; the humanities and the state; the ethics of reading in a fragmented world; literature and the climate crisis; AI and the future of authorship; Southern epistemologies and humanistic knowledge; and the place of the human in a techno-capitalist or posthuman condition. We welcome work on poetry, prose, drama, film, digital media, and genre fiction; on classical, modern, and contemporary texts; and across historical, theoretical, and comparative frameworks.

The conference welcomes papers in both Chinese and English, and that both organized panels and individual papers will be considered. Conference participants are encouraged to bring their own perspectives and provocations to the theme. We look forward to a vibrant exchange that reaffirms the vitality of the humanities — even, and especially, in uncertain times.

會議主題：不確定時代的人文視野

人文學在當今世界動盪不安的局勢中扮演怎樣的角色？當人文價值面臨挑戰，當確定性變得稀缺，人文學如何自我支撐、創新突圍？面對當代的不確定性—--無論是社會的、生存的、知識論的—--中國與華語文學傳統曾如何回應歷史危機？今日又能為我們提供什麼啟發？2026年中國文學與比較文學雙年會，我們誠邀各位學者，重新思考人文學的變遷、轉向與可能，在動盪的時代中，展望人文學的方向。

全球南方長期面對經濟波動、環境災難、殖民創傷與政治不穩等多重挑戰，迫使我們重新思考人文學的實踐場域與知識生產模式。「從南方出發」思考人文，意味著要與以中心為本位的危機敘事對話甚至對抗。邊緣與邊界的文學作品是否能提供不同的視角與詮釋可能？我們該如何理解南方的文學、語言與思想作為一種回應不穩定世界的文化實踐？

我們歡迎學者就以下（或其他相關）主題投稿：危機時代的文學與藝術實踐、人文價值的重塑與轉型、傳統與記憶的再思、文學想像與不穩定感、知識論的不確定與美學形式、國族與人文學的關係、碎片化世界中的閱讀倫理、氣候變遷與人文回應、人工智能與創作者的未來、南方知識論與人文思維、科技資本主義與後人類時代中的人文學等。我們特別鼓勵涵蓋古典、現代與當代文本的研究，歡迎涵蓋詩歌、散文、戲劇、影視、大眾文學與新媒體等多樣形式的探討，並支持跨學科、跨歷史、跨理論與比較視野的交流。

Keynote Speakers

Tina LU (Yale University)

Michael BERRY (University of California, Los Angeles)

HE Guimei (Peking University)

YUNG Sai-Shing (National University of Singapore)

主題演講人

呂立亭教授 （耶魯大學）

白睿文教授（加州大學洛杉磯分校）

賀桂梅教授 （北京大學）

容世誠教授（新加坡國立大學）