In 1978 Jerzy Strzetelski and Zygmunt Mazur from the Institute of English Philology at the Jagiellonian University organised the first of what was to become a triennial international conference. April Conference Fifteen will continue the tradition of bringing together scholars working in various fields of English and American Studies, including literature, general and applied linguistics, translation and cultural studies, teaching of English as a foreign language, and other related topics. The theme of this year’s conference is 'Humanity/Humanities'.

When Wilhelm Dilthey published his seminal work in the modern humanities, Introduction to the Human Sciences (1883), his hopes were to outline the future methods and objects of study of the Geisteswissenschaften, including such disciplines as philosophy, philology, politics and literature. By grouping them and clarifying their mutual relationships, he aimed to shed light on ‘the most important components of our picture and knowledge of reality – our own personality as a life-unit, the external world, other individuals, their temporal life and their interactions.’

Today, as the workings of humanity are increasingly linked with the destruction wrought by the Anthropocene, ‘the era of man,’ we feel compelled to re-examine our links with human and other-than-human others ever more closely. Confronting numerous crises, hostilities and conflicts, as well as witnessing an unprecedented momentum of social, political, medical, technological and linguistic change, we are now facing the challenge of redefining our goals, policies and discourses within the field of the humanities yet again.

We welcome contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following topics:

• literary texts in political contexts;
• appropriating literary texts in political debates;
• narratives of crisis and crisis in the humanities;
• imperatives and agendas behind cross-cultural literary translations, adaptations, and appropriations;
• workings of memory and trauma;
• ethics and the humanities;
• humanist perspectives in literary works;
• re(evaluation) of political and social discourses;
• discourses and communication related to war and conflict;
• (re)defining social identities in the age of rapid change;
• transgressing interspecies boundaries, including the perspectives of animal studies, plant humanities;
• transmitting values and ideas in the humanities and beyond;
• digital humanities in literary and linguistic studies;
• humanistic approaches in language education;
• whole-person involvement in foreign language learning.

Panel sessions include the following subjects:

• Medieval Studies and Medievalism
• Shakespeare 400 years after the First Folio
• Eighteenth-Century Textual Transplant(ation)s
• Narratives of Memory and Trauma
• Joyce and humanism / Joyce and the human in the 21st century
• Escape into Nature
• Human, Humanity and the Post-human in Drama and Theatre
• The Reception of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
• Gender Studies, Masculinities Studies and Feminist Perspectives in Language and Literature
• The War in Ukraine: Stance, Identity, Leadership
• Health Knowledge and Online Communication
• Language Spread and Language Contact: English in the Communication of the Modern Era
• Academic Literacy and Oracy: Teaching and Researching
• English Language Teacher Competences

The conference takes place on 20-22 April at the Institute of English studies in Krakow. 

Proposals for twenty-minute papers (ca. 200 words), with short biographical notes (up to 100 words), should be submitted via the registration portal on the Conference website by 6 February 2023. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 28 February 2023. Contributions to the panel sessions are also welcome. More information for prospective participants is available on the conference website.