Call for Papers - Crossing Borders: Transnational Perspectives on Life-Writing and Ego-Documents

University of Southampton, Tuesday 14 April 2026

Personal narratives such as diaries, letters, memoirs, and autobiographies often capture experiences of migration, exile, and cultural transition that are less visible in other forms of documentation. This conference seeks to explore how ego-documents function as records of transnational experience, linguistic negotiation, and cultural hybridity. Ego-documents allow for what Iriye and Saunier (2009) termed the ‘links and flows’ between states and the history of ‘people, ideas, products, processes and patterns’ to be elucidated. The study of the diary or the letter for example allows the scholar insight into peoples’ movement ‘over, across, through, beyond, above, under, or in-between polities and societies’. Whilst a notoriously ‘slippery’ term in various parts of the humanities and social sciences, transnationality prompts a wide array of avenues with which conference participants can traverse.

We are delighted to announce that Professor Eva Kovacs (Vienna Wiesenthal Institute) will deliver the keynote address, focusing on the history of Jewish life in Hungary through ego- documents. We invite proposals from scholars at all career stages, especially early career researchers, that address life-writing and ego-documents in transnational and multilingual contexts. Papers may focus on individual case studies, comparative approaches, methodological innovation, or theoretical reflections.

Possible themes include (but are not limited to):

• German-Jewish ego-documents and cultural identity
• European life-writing from mediterranean to Eastern European contexts
• Digital humanities approaches to multilingual personal narratives
• Historical perspectives on life-writing across cultures
• Colonial and postcolonial life-writing traditions
• Women’s life-writing and gendered voices across borders
• Literary influence and cross-linguistic creative dialogues
• Contemporary digital life-writing in global contexts
• Script-switching and multimodal ego-documents
• Migration narratives and transcontinental archives
• Indigenous life-writing and linguistic sovereignty

Details:

• Date: Tuesday, 14 April 2026 (one-day conference)
• Location: University of Southampton
• Format: In-person

Submissions:

Please send your title, an abstract of 250–300 words, and a short biographical note (max. 100 words) to charles.knight@sas.ac.uk and m.stahlberger@sas.ac.uk by 31 December 2025.

Notification of acceptance will be sent at the end of January 2025.

Postgraduate & Early Career Bursaries

A limited number of postgraduate and early career bursaries (£125 each) will be available to help cover travel and accommodation costs. Applicants wishing to be considered for a bursary should submit a brief letter of motivation (max. 300 words) outlining how participation in the conference relates to their research and how the bursary would support their attendance alongside their paper proposal.

Bursaries will be awarded on the basis of the quality of the proposal, the relevance of the paper to the conference theme, and demonstrable financial need.

For any queries, please contact the organisers:

• Dr. Rachel Pistol (University of Southampton) R.E.Pistol@soton.ac.uk
• Dr. Monja Stahlberger (Leo Baeck Institute London) m.stahlberger@sas.ac.uk
• Dr. Charlie Knight (ILCS, University of London) charles.knight@sas.ac.uk

This event is made possible through funding from the MHRA and the GHS, as well as institutional support from the organisers’ universities and research institutes. Additional funding applications are underway, which we hope will further support participation and accessibility.

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