The 21st annual conference of the European Society for Textual Scholarship

Edition and Interpretation

Venue: John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland

Call for Papers

Abstract submission deadline: 30 November 2025

The European Society for Textual Scholarship warmly invites scholars, researchers, and practitioners to participate in its 21st annual conference, bringing together international experts in textual scholarship and textual culture. At the heart of this conference lies the concept of interpretation — a fundamental practice that bridges textual scholarship and literary criticism, opening productive dialogues between editorial methodologies and critical approaches to understanding texts.

The central focus of ESTS 2026 is the complex relationship between editorial practice and textual interpretation. We seek to examine how editorial decisions fundamentally shape textual understanding, and conversely, how interpretative frameworks inform editorial methodology. We welcome submissions that engage with the full spectrum of textual scholarship, encompassing both traditional philological approaches and innovative digital methodologies. We particularly encourage submissions that explore how scholarly editions generate new interpretative possibilities, how manuscripts and printed books reveal layers of meaning through their materiality, and how textual scholarship provides fresh angles and evidence for literary criticism.

We invite contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following areas:

• Classical Textual Criticism: Theories and methodologies of scholarly editing, textual criticism, and philological practice, with attention to how editorial choices influence interpretative possibilities.
• Genetic Criticism and Authorial Philology: Analysis of creative processes, textual materiality, and the editorial treatment of authorial drafts and variants, exploring how manuscript evidence shapes our understanding of literary works.
• Material Texts and Interpretation: Studies of manuscripts, printed books, and other textual artifacts that demonstrate how physical features, layouts, marginalia, and paratexts contribute to meaning-making and interpretative practices. 
• Interdisciplinary Approaches: Integration of literary studies, philosophy, linguistics, art history, and computational methods in textual research, with emphasis on interpretative frameworks.
• Comparative Textual Criticism: Exploration of editorial traditions and methodologies across diverse cultural and linguistic contexts, examining how different editorial approaches yield distinct interpretative outcomes.
• Digital Humanities in Textual Scholarship: TEI encoding, Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) technologies, digital scholarly editions, visualisation of textual variants, and data interoperability standards, with attention to how digital tools open new interpretative dimensions. 
• Case Studies: Critical editions of literary, philosophical, musical, or manuscript works that demonstrate the interplay between editorial practice and interpretation, with particular attention to how editorial challenges and solutions affect textual understanding and critical reception.
• Editorial Practice and Literary Criticism: Explorations of how scholarly editions inform, challenge, or transform literary interpretation, and how interpretative theories and practices influence editorial decisions.

Keynote Speakers

We are honoured to present two eminent keynote speakers:

• Professor Yi Peng (Professor Emeritus of English Literature, National Central University, Taipei, Taiwan)
• Professor John Rink (Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)

Submission Guidelines

• Abstracts must be submitted in English (maximum 250 words + bio of maximum 100 words) through a submission platform on ests2026.arfi.kul.pl
• Presentations will be allocated 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for discussion.
• Contributors and panel chairs must pay the conference fee and must be members in good standing of the European Society for Textual Scholarship for 2026 (except invited speakers).
• Conference Fees: standard registration €100; reduced rate (postgraduate students and early-career researchers) €75.

Pre-Conference Workshop

A specialised one-day workshop will be conducted by Professor Roberto Rosselli Del Turco (Università degli Studi di Torino), creator of Edition Visualization Tool v. 3 and co-creator of DPhD (Digital Philology for Dummies). The workshop guides participants through the complete process of creating a Digital Scholarly Edition, focusing on two main phases with integrated software tools that simplify the workflow. In the first phase, participants will transcribe and encode manuscripts or printed texts using DPhD. This intensive session will provide hands-on training in developing scholarly digital editions using these integrated TEI-based platforms. The workshop will address the complete editorial workflow, from transcription and critical apparatus construction to visualisation techniques, with particular emphasis on genetic editing and authorial philology. This workshop is intended for scholars interested in enhancing their digital skills, especially for those who make their first steps in that area.

Publication Opportunity

Extended full paper versions of conference presentations will be considered for publication, following peer review, in Variants, the diamond Open Access journal of the European Society for Textual Scholarship. Please note that submissions to Variants are accepted in English only.

Important Dates

• Abstract Submission Deadline: 30 November 2025
• Notification of Acceptance: 20 January 2026
• Conference Fee Payment Deadline: 31 March 2026
• Final Programme Publication: 1 April 2026
• Pre-Conference Workshop: 27 May 2026
• Conference: 28–30 May 2026