The Old English Forum will be sponsoring the following two panels at the MLA Convention in Toronto meeting from January 8-11, 2026. We’re accepting 250-word proposals until March 15, 2025 for 15-20 minute papers. Please share widely!! And don’t hesitate to get in touch with any questions.
Language Play in Old English Literature
This session invites papers on how Old English texts play with language, from riddles to word play, from uses of humor to scenes of play, broadly defined. Papers might consider multilingual language effects, reversals of conventional formulas, uses of runes or ciphers, and other linguistic special effects across genres and formal conventions, across translations and adaptations, and across the boundaries of language. Send a 250-word proposal and CV to jalorden@wm.edu and saltzman@chicago.edu by 15 March, 2025.
Please note that all accepted presenters must be members of MLA by 7 April, 2025.
Devotional Forms in Old English Literature
This session invites papers on how Old English texts explore questions of religious and spiritual devotion, broadly conceived. Papers might focus on monastic life, poetry, hagiography, homiletics, and other genres, forms, and spaces for devotional expression in early medieval England. Send a 250-word proposal and CV to jalorden@wm.edu and saltzman@chicago.edu by 15 March, 2025.
Please note that all accepted presenters must be members of MLA by 7 April, 2025.
Jennifer A. Lorden 