Current Comparative Literature Conference
The 60th Annual Comparative World Literature Conference
Legacies: Nostalgia, Adaptation, and Reimaginings
Theme
Keynotes: David F. Walker (Wednesday) and Karen Tei Yamashita (Thursday)
Program
Attendee information
Submit an abstract (closes February 1, 2026)
Accessibility
Venue: Karl Anatol Center, California State University, Long Beach
Dates: April 22-24, 2026, Wednesday-Friday
Modality: Hybrid, in-person and on Zoom; Wednesday-Thursday, April 22-23 will be in-person with Zoom access, and Friday, April 24 will be entirely on Zoom
*note: All sessions will be available on Zoom regardless of modality.
Sustainability
We want to encourage conference participants to bring personal water bottles to refill at one of the many water stations around the conference venue.
Theme
How do we reimagine the past? How can we envision the future? In our present moment, how do we tell the story of a past that has become just as contentious as the many visions of where we want to go? The concept of legacies allows us to think through the continuum, the spectrum, and the sometimes-chaotic mishmash of the relationship of past, present, and future. The ideas of tradition, innovation, nostalgia, and refashionings can open up texts to consider their temporal, historical, and intertextual contexts.
The theme of this year's Comparative Literature Conference is in celebration of our 60th anniversary: the conference has been held every spring since 1966 (with the exception of the pandemic year 2020). The conference was inaugurated by Dr. August Coppola, who as one of the founding members of our department lent his creative and innovative spirit to everything he accomplished as an academic.
While we celebrate the legacy that Dr. August Coppola left for us, we also would like to make space to problematize the term “legacy.” For instance, how do legacies constrain, oppress, sanction violence, even as they enable and renew the future? Who gets to control the future, and what and how events are remembered, adapted, and reimagined from the past? Legacies also come in different valences: as inheritance, as consequence, and—to borrow a term from our colleagues in computer science—as something needing replacement that might be difficult to replace.
The academic discipline of criticism has experienced so many changes since 1966: New Criticism gave way to structuralism, post-colonialism, new historicism, feminist criticism, Marxist criticism, psychoanalytic criticism, and the multiverse of contemporary literary theory today. Media and technological advances have changed the way people create and criticize ideas. We invite proposals that consider the concept of legacy with respect to any timeframe: past, present, or future, as well as any theoretical perspective.
Keynotes
We are so excited to welcome two very special keynote speakers to our 60th anniversary conference.
On Wednesday, April 22, 2026, David F. Walker will give the keynote. ’s career has spanned multiple decades and includes work as a comic book writer, filmmaker, journalist, and educator. Walker’s work includes the Eisner Award-winning graphic novel The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History (Ten Speed Press), the Eisner Award and Ringo Award-winning series Bitter Root (Image Comics), the NAACP Image Award-nominated Big Jim and the White Boy, and the Eisner Award-nominated series Naomi (DC Comics). He has written for Marvel Comics (Luke Cage, Occupy Avengers, Power Man and Iron Fist, Nighthawk, Fury, Deadpool, Planet of the Apes) and DC Comics (Cyborg, Young Justice). His debut YA novel, The Second Chance of Darius Logan, was published by Scholastic in 2024. A respected scholar in the study of African American representation in film, Walker wrote, produced, and directed the documentary film Macked, Hammered, Slaughtered, & Shafted examining the history of blaxploition films of the 1970s, as well as writing the upcoming book Black Film: A History of Black Representation and Participation in the Movies. He also teaches part time at Portland State University.
On Thursday, April 23, 2026, Karen Tei Yamashita will give the keynote. is the author of nine books, including I Hotel, finalist for the National Book Award, and, most recently, Questions 27 & 28. Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation, the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature and a U.S. Artists’ Ford Foundation Fellowship, in 2024 Yamashita was inducted as a Literature Fellow in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She is professor emerita of literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Program
TBA, March 2026
Attendee Information
Location
The Karl Anatol Center is located on the 1st floor of the Academic Services Building, in-between the Macintosh Humanities Building (MHB) and the University Library (LIB) on the south end of campus just off 7th Street.
- The Original Conference Room is located INSIDE the Academic Services Building (AS), room 119.
- The Patio Conference Center is located OUTSIDE the Academic Services Building (AS), room 121.
Accessibility
For students: To request disability-related accommodations, complete the .
For faculty and staff: If you are needing a reasonable accommodation based on a disability or medical restriction to access this program, please contact Staff Human Resources (StaffHR-Accommodations@csulb.edu) for employees as soon as possible so we can assist you prior to the program.
Parking
We encourage sustainable forms of transportation. Help us reduce the carbon footprint of our event by choosing to bus, bike, walk, or carpool to campus. Learn more about sustainable transportation options at the .
Parking for campus events may be purchased via the ParkMobile app or the (up to 30 days prior to the event). Zone numbers are available on the app, the website or on signage posted in each lot.
Parking may also be purchased from a parking pay station located within each lot. Daily parking is valid in any parking lot or parking structure where Daily parking is sold.
Annual, academic year, and semester permits are already valid during campus events. No additional parking purchase is necessary for a campus event if you already have a valid student or employee permit.
For more information about where to park on campus please visit the Parking and Transportation website.
Lodging
Lodging information can be found on the Faculty Affairs website.
