Oxford Comparative Criticism & Translation (OCCT) invites proposals for its annual graduate symposium, centred on the theme of Embodiment.
Bodies read and listen; voices translate and transform; texts themselves evoke flesh, voice, skin, gesture, and movement. Embodiment is represented, imagined, theorised, technologised, and archived. Attending to embodiment allows us to rethink how literature travels between languages, how meaning is shaped by material and metaphorical forms, and how comparative reading makes bodies legible — human and nonhuman, textual and virtual, vulnerable and resistant.
We invite papers that explore embodiment across and between languages, cultures, periods, and media and we welcome proposals from postgraduate researchers in comparative literature, translation studies, modern languages, English, and related fields. Formal academic papers and critical-creative and performative presentations are all equally welcome.
Topics may include (but are not limited to):
- Bodies in translation
- Embodiment as metaphor, structure, or narrative strategy
- Queer, feminist, and trans embodiments across languages and traditions
- Racialised, colonised, and disabled bodies in comparative and translated perspective
- Sensory and affective dimensions of comparison and translation
- Performance, recitation, and oral translation
- Digital, mechanised, and posthuman embodiment
Please submit:
- Title
- 250-word abstract
- 100-word bio
- Institutional affiliation and contact details
These should be sent to comparative.criticism@st-annes.ox.ac.uk by 5pm on Friday, 6 February 2026.
Papers from this symposium may lead to the development of a special issue of the OCCT Review.
Papers must be no longer than 20 minutes.
