Our 2023 conference took place in Las Cruces, NM and the theme was Diverse Audiences, Diverse Receptions. For further information about all of our previous conferences, please visit the Conference page. The call for papers for our 2025 conference will be posted in the spring of that year. For information about our panels at other conferences, please scroll down.

Recent events

RSS panels at 2021 MLA Convention (Jan. 7-10, 2021, Toronto, Canada)

“Dostoevsky at 200: International Receptions” (Co-Sponsored with the International Dostoevsky Society)
Chair: Carol Apollonio, Duke University
“Popularizing Dostoevsky: Reflections on the Success of Italian TV Series Adaptations of the 1960-70s,” Sergia Adamo, University of Trieste
“Dostoevsky in Early 20th Century China,” Hang Yu, Guanzi Normal University
“Postcolonial Dostoevsky: Revolutions, Radicals, Rêveurs,” Melanie Jones, UCLA

RSS panels at 2020 MLA Convention (Jan. 9-12, 2020, Seattle, WA)

“Authors Made and Remade” (panel chair: Yung-Hsing Wu, University of Louisiana, Lafayette)
“The Authorship of Reception: Hermeneutic Circles and Rhetorical Assemblage.” Steven Mailloux, Loyola Marymount University
“Recovery and Disruption: Ruíz de Burton and the Expansions of National Space.” Isabel Duarte-Gray, Harvard University
“‘Many Books, Many Poes’: Pop-Culture Authorship and the Cult of Edgar Allan Poe.” Whitney May, Texas State University
“Margaret Atwood: Managing Reception and Overseeing Adaptation.” Jeremy Rosen, University of Utah

“Bad Reading” (panel chair: Yung-Hsing Wu, University of Louisiana, Lafayette)
“Gift Books and Bad Readers.” Claudia Stokes, Trinity University
“Charles Chesnutt and the Trouble with the Discerning Reader.” Faye S. Halpern, University of Calgary
“Biopoetics: Reading with the Body.” Gillian D. Silverman, University of Colorado, Denver

RSS panel at the 2018 ALA Conference (San Francisco, CA)

RSS had a panel at the annual conference of the American Literature Association, which addressed the reception of neglected works, materials and more.

“Reception Histories of the Future” Conference (Uppsala, Sweden)

From August 4-6, 2017, the Department of Linguistics and Philology at Uppsala University organized a conference on Byzantinisms, speculative fiction, and the literary heritage of medieval empire. Since Classics are often reluctant to look beyond the temporal borders of the antique world and venture into its medieval Greek imperial successor, the consideration of classical reception in speculative fiction has mostly neglected the significant impact of Byzantium and other post-Roman imperial formations and their literatures on modern SFF. This conference brought together some of the most innovative modern writers of speculative fiction with scholars working at the cutting edge of Byzantine reception studies for a two-day discussion of Byzantinism, decadence, empire, and storytelling.

RSS panel at the 2018 MLA Convention (New York, NY): “Insecure Receptions”

“The Forceful Insecurity of Minority Youth Authorship: Thea Behran’s ‘Anti-Semitism’.” Amy Fish, Harvard University.
“Staging Reception: Mary Elizabeth Braddon, ‘Babington White,’ and Colonel Shandon Face Off in the Victorian Press.” Naomi Salmon, University of Wisconsin/Madison.
“‘Facts are Stubborn Things’: Reception Theory in the Forgeries of Iolo Morganwg.” Timothy Heimlich, University of California/Berkeley.
“New Propaganda and the Regression of Reading: Harold Laswell Counts the News.” Maxwell Larson, Penn State University.

RSS panel at the 2017 MLA Convention (Philadelphia, PA): “Fandom and Reception Studies”

In an issue of Reception, Daniel Cavicchi called for a history of fandom. This panel explored the ways in which reception scholars and fan specialists contribute to an exploration of this phenomenon.

RSS panel at the 2016 MMLA Conference (St. Louis, MO): “History of Critical Reception”

RSS hosted an open topic session at the 2016 MMLA Conference in St. Louis.

RSS panel at the 2016 MLA Convention (Austin, TX)

“The Politics of Reception: Race, Gender and Ideology” (session chair: Genevieve West)
“Konstanz and the Liberals,” David Rosen and Aaron Santesso
“Reading Themselves into the World: Considerations of Race and Gender in a Black Woman Book Club,” Florence Kabba
“A Winnicottian Reading of Fans’ Sociopolitical Fulfillment in the Potential Space of Online Fandom,” Olga Kuminova

RSS panel at the 2015 MMLA Convention (Columbus, OH)

RSS hosted a session titled “Reception Controversies: Theory and History” at the 2015 MMLA Conference in Columbus, OH.

A War of No Common Description: The Transnational Reception of Waterloo in the 19th Century (Brussels)

On the occasion of the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo, the Centre for Reception Studies of the KU Leuven organized a conference on the transnational reception of the event in the 19th century as an open invitation to reconsider the Battle and its broad cultural reception throughout the century. The conference took place from June 18-19, 2015 and the keynote speakers were: Jeffrey N. Cox (University of Colorado at Boulder); Norbert Eke (Universität Paderborn); Jean-Marc Largeaud (Universite Francois Rabelais de Tours); Philippe Raxhon (Universite de Liege); Peter Philipp Riedl (Universitat Freiburg); Philip Shaw (University of Leicester); Jeroen Van Zanten (Universiteit Amsterdam) and Janneke Weijermars (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen).

RSS panels at the 2015 ALA Conference (Boston, MA)

• “Reading African-American Women’s Fiction: From Alice Browning to Toni Morrison” (session chair: Barbara Hochman)
“Recovering the Black Chicago Renaissance: The Case of Chicago Girl,” Mary Ungar
“A Cognitive Reading of Beloved,” Lydia Magras
“Toni Morrison’s A Mercy: The Critique of Patriarchy and History’s Lost Opportunities,” Philip Goldstein
• “Mark Twain’s Audiences: Reception Histories and Reconstructed Reading Communities” (session chair: Philip Goldstein)
“Reconstructing the Reading Community of the Century: The Pre-Published Chapters of Huckleberry Finn,” Barbara Hochman
“The Political Theology of Reception: From Huck Finn to Francis Finn, S.J.” Steven Mailloux
“The Reception of The Prince and the Pauper in the Early 1880s,” James L. Machor

RSS panels at the 2015 MLA Convention (Vancouver, Canada)

• “Adaptation as Reception”: Yung-Hsing Wu organized a panel focused on multimodal reception, especially adaptations as a proof that reception has happened.
• “Zora Neale Hurston Reception”: Genevieve West and Jennifer Marshall led a panel on the reception of Zora Neale Hurston’s work.

RSS roundtable at the 2014 MMLA Convention (Detroit, MI)

From Twitter and fan fiction sites to Amazon.com book reviews, the topics brought up by the presenters invited audience members to a lively discussion on personal experiences and research findings about the opportunities and challenges for Reception Study in the age of the digital social media.

RSS panel at the 2014 SAMLA Convention in Atlanta:

The panel organized by Paul Dahlgren focused on the new directions in Reception Study with paper topics ranging from pedagogy to digital reading communities, and more.

RSS panel at the 2014 ALA Conference (Washington, D.C.)

Philip Goldstein brought together a panel on Mark Twain’s readers in an effort to provide insight into eccentric fan letters, sensation effects and mysteries.

RSS panel at the 2014 MLA Convention (Chicago, IL)

Our RSS panel at the 2014 MLA Convention was selected for inclusion in this year’s presidential theme, Vulnerable Times. We had an interesting group of presentations that each extended the field of reception—while focusing even more closely on specific audience groups and reception periods. Thanks for all the presenters and attendees for the engaging discussion afterwards!

RSS panel at the 2013 MMLA Convention (Milwaukee, WI)

We had an RSS panel at the 2013 MMLA Convention, which took place between November 7-10, 2013.