JoLLE 2027 Conference

                           

                                Call for Proposals: Journal of Language and Literacy Education Conference 2027
                                             February 12-14, 2027 in Athens, Georgia at the University of Georgia

Literacy, Education, and Healing in Times of Crisis: Community as Praxis, Language and Literacy as Power

“Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other”
 - Paulo Freire, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Considering ongoing global challenges, as well as political polarization, social fragmentation, displacement, violence, censorship, and collective trauma, we turn our attention to community as a sustaining and relational practice in language and literacy education – holding space for transformation. In moments shaped by harm and instability, community emerges not as a reaction driven by urgency, but as an intentional and proactive space for care, resistance, continuity, and collective healing. Community-based literacy and language practices remind us that these practices are not individual skills, but they are dialogic, cultural, political, and even emancipatory. Through shared narratives, creative forms of expression, and collective meaningmaking, communities are crucial to foster critical consciousness, offer avenues for hope, love, and belonging.

In this spirit, JoLLE’s 2027 Conference Theme encourages literacy and language scholars to consider community as both a response to crisis and a generative force for transformation, hope, and love. We welcome conference proposals that spotlight how language and literacy practices rooted in and with community present counternarratives of liberation, solace, and continued spirit. Our call invites scholars, educators, students, librarians, artists, and community members to explore the power of community as a site of literacy, learning, and collective care.

Specifically, we invite submissions that address, but not limited to, the following questions:
• How can community act as a site of healing, care, and collective resilience?
• How do marginalized linguistic and literacy practices act as pedagogies of love, freedom, and hope?
• How do children’s and young adult literature aid in fostering belonging and relationality of literacy practices from diverse community spaces?
• How can family and community literacies and resources, such as storytelling, oral histories, zines, and multimodal experiences contribute the growing space of literacy education?
• What do transnational, diasporic, or multilingual communities’ literacy practices offer for the critical expansion of language and literacy education?
• How do youth, community, and intergenerational knowledge-making practices practice their community literacies in times of collective challenges?

Please consider attending the in-person Journal of Language and Literacy Education 2027 conference on February 12-14, 2027, in Athens, Georgia at the University of Georgia. Your participation will enrich our collective reflections and discussions.

Presenting at the JoLLE 2027 also offers an opportunity to publish your scholarship so that it reaches a larger audience beyond those attending the conference in person. One issue from the 2027 volume year of the Journal of Language and Literacy Education will exclusively feature articles that were previously presented at the 2027 conference. Interested authors can meet with JoLLE editors during the conference. All articles will go through a rigorous peer-review process before being published in this special issue.

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The following types of presentation proposals can be submitted for inclusion in the 2027 JoLLE Conference:

Individual Papers
Individual papers should present an empirical, theoretical, or other research project, and they will be combined with other papers to create a session. Proposals should be anonymous/masked and not more than 800 words (not including references). Papers should include:
• Title
• 100-150 word abstract
• Research question(s)/purposes
• Theoretical framework
• Methodology / Description of the theoretical argument being made and the basis or warrants for the arguments (for theoretical papers)
• Findings
• Contribution to theory and research in the field

Symposia
A symposium consists of a series of 3-4 papers, including a chair and discussant if desired. The presentations must be clearly related (e.g., address a topic from different perspectives, report different aspects of a larger study, etc.). The proposal should be anonymous/masked and no more than 800 words (not inclusive of references). Proposals for a symposium should include:
• Symposium title
• An overview of the symposium including a 100-150 abstract of the symposium
• Maximum 800-word description, including an overall description of the symposium and titles and descriptions for each paper.
• You will need to include the names, institutions, and email addresses for all participants, but these should not be included in the proposal document itself (the proposal should be anonymous/masked). It should be in a separate cover sheet.

Work-In-Progress Roundtables
Works-in-progress roundtable sessions provide opportunities for presenters to share empirical work-in-progress with a small group of colleagues and to engage in extended discussion of their research. Proposals should be anonymous/masked and no more than 800 words (not inclusive of references). Proposals for a work-in-progress roundtable should include:
• A title
• A 100-150 word abstract
• Research question(s)/purposes
• Theoretical framework
• Methodology
• A description of the corpus of data to be shared at the roundtable. Proposals for a workin-progress roundtable should be a maximum of 800 words (not including references). The review of proposals for work-in-progress roundtables is a “masked” review and therefore no identifying information should be included in the proposal itself.

Alternative Format Sessions
We invite proposals for sessions that employ formats other than those listed above (e.g., performances, visual or multimodal representations, immersive theatre, installations, etc.). Alternative format sessions should be designed for no longer than 90-minute sessions. Please describe space, time, and/or digital technology needs. Proposals should be anonymous/masked and no more than 800 words (not inclusive of references). Proposals for alternative format sessions should include:
• A title
• A 100-150 word abstract
• A clear description of the session
• You will need to include the names, institutions, and email addresses for all participants, but these should not be included in the proposal document itself (the proposal should be anonymous/masked). It should be in a separate cover sheet.

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Information on the submission system and logistics is forthcoming.