Call for Papers 2026

The Intercultural Confluences Research Centre of the Department of Humanities, Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering, Miercurea Ciuc, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania, organizes the International Conference Intersections: Literature, Language, Culture on 17-18 April, 2026. The working language of the conference is English. 

The abstract submission deadline is extended until February 10, 2026.

“This web of time – the strands of which approach one another, bifurcate, intersect or ignore each other through the centuries – embraces every possibility.” (Jorge Luis Borges: The Garden of Forking Paths) Borges’s renowned metaphor of time as a web with intersecting strands resonates with the conceptual orientation of this conference on intersections, in which the strands of different disciplines or approaches intertwine to generate productive configurations. The notion of forking paths remains inspiring, suggesting that intersections bring parallel worlds into contact and open multiple possibilities for inquiry and interpretation. 

Intersections in the Humanities may take many forms; this conference fosters the dialogue across the fields of literature, language, and culture, with special emphasis on intersections, networks, crossovers, convergences, and junctions. Accordingly, the idea of intersection is understood here as a theoretical and methodological stance that fosters cross-disciplinary engagement and embraces innovative, transformative perspectives. Intersections also imply relationality, not merely at a structural level but also in the affective and interpersonal dynamics of encounter.

Proposed topics include but are not limited to:

• intersections, parallels, correspondences, conjunctions and disjunctions;
• identities in interaction; identity from an intersectional perspective;
• minority literatures and cultures, contact zones;
• intersections of myth and contemporary literature;
• intersections of classical and contemporary literature;
• the interplay of literature and the arts; screen adaptation; 
• intermediality, multimediality, transmediality; hybridity;
• language contact, language change;
• bi- and multilingualism, translanguaging, linguistic landscape;
• intercultural communication, multiculturality, transculturality, cross-cultural negotiations;
• linguistic, cultural, and multimodal translation;
• intersections in language teaching and pedagogical innovation;
• interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary approaches.

Participants are invited to exchange their findings related to intersections in the following fields:

• Literary Studies; 
• Linguistics;
• Language Teaching;
• Translation Studies;
• Cultural Studies;
• Film Studies;
• Intermedial Studies;
• Adaptation Studies.

The conference will be on-site and will also include online panels. The keynote lectures will also be transmitted online. Each paper will be allotted 20 minutes for the presentation, followed by discussions. 

Submission Guidelines:

In order to participate, please fill in the online registration form.

Please submit an abstract of maximum 250 words, written in English. The abstract submission deadline is January 31, 2026. Notification of acceptance will be sent by February 10, 2026.

The abstract submission deadline is extended until February 10, 2026.

We are expecting original and unpublished articles discussing aspects of intersections in literature, language, and culture. A selection of papers based on favourable peer-review will be published in the 2026 edition of Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, the international scientific journal of the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, indexed in several scientific databases, as well as the conference volume edited by the Scientia Publishing House, a recognized academic publisher.

Details about the registration fee are to be announced later.

Venue: Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering, Piața Libertății nr. 1, Miercurea Ciuc, Romania.

Queries can be addressed to Dr. Judit Pieldner and Dr. Zsuzsanna Dégi on the e-mail address:

humanconferenceuni.sapientia.ro 

We look forward to meeting you in Miercurea Ciuc!