CFP: AFS-Sponsored Session in 2026 MLA Convention “Family Resemblances”

Tina Lu, the 2025–26 president of the Modern Language Association (MLA), has chosen Family Resemblances as the presidential theme for the 2026 MLA Annual Convention in Toronto (January 8–11, 2026).

AFS@MLA invites proposals for papers on this theme, which may explore how folklorists have used family traditions and practices to document and to understand the values, ways of thinking, artfulness, and vitality of diverse cultures around the world. AFS@MLA is particularly interested in papers that may help illuminate the field of folklore for the non-folklorists who constitute the bulk of the MLA’s membership.

Because this is a session sponsored by the American Folklore Society, preference will be given to proposals from AFS members.

Send a 300-word abstract and brief CV to Jim Deutsch, deutschj@si.edu, by March 15, 2025.