Conference RIVER TALKS - June 2026

Call for Papers – River Talks conference

As part of the EU GREEN Alliance, the University of Angers will host the international conference River Talks from 17 to 19 June 2026. A Call for Papers is now open, inviting researchers and PhD students to submit proposals in order to take part in the conference as speakers.

River Talks is a scientific conference selected under the 2025 EU GREEN call for research projects, which aims to strengthen joint research activities within the alliance. This call supports different types of initiatives, including the organisation of international scientific conferences involving partners from across EU GREEN.

About the River Talks conference

River Talks explores rivers from literary and cultural studies perspectives, considering them not only as geographical entities but as spaces of imagination, communication and cultural heritage. Drawing on approaches from environmental humanities and blue humanities, the conference focuses on river imaginaries, the voice of rivers, and the relationships between human and non-human worlds, while highlighting the diversity of European river cultures.

Topics may include (non-exhaustive):

·       environmental and blue humanities

·       ecocriticism and ecopoetics

·       ecofeminist and postcolonial approaches

·       cultural heritage, folk cultures and indigenous knowledges

·       rivers as agents of communication

·       language, translation and multilingual representations of rivers

Alongside academic panels, the programme will include creative and co-creative workshops, such as creative writing sessions, poetic readings and geopoetic walks along the Loire.

Who can submit a proposal?

The Call for Papers is open to:

·       Researchers and lecturer-researchers,

·       PhD students and early-career researchers working in relevant fields.

PhD students and early-career researchers are particularly encouraged to apply. One PhD student or early-career researcher from each EU GREEN partner university will benefit from financial support.

Languages

In line with the values of the EU GREEN Alliance, the conference aims to be multilingual. Applicants are invited to indicate the language in which they would like to present their paper during the conference (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Swedish or Romanian).

How to submit

To take part as a speaker, applicants must submit:

·       an abstract of approximately 300 words

·       a short bio-bibliography

Proposals must be submitted in English, French, German or Italian.

Submission deadline: 23 January 2026.

Send your proposal by email to: rivers-eugreen@ovgu.de (email subject: “Abstract Rivers”)

Download the Call for Papers

The full Call for Papers is available in four languages:

·       Click here to download the call in English

·       Click here to download the call in French

·       Click here to download the call in German

·       Click here to download the call in Italian

Conference organisers

·       Anne-Rachel Hermetet, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Angers (France)

·       Nora Plesske, Senior Lecturer in Anglophone Cultural and Literary Studies, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (Germany)

·       Gioia Angeletti, Associate Professor of English Literature, University of Parma (Italy)

A second communication phase dedicated to registration and attendance will be launched once the conference programme has been finalised.