ESTS & NNE 2027

We warmly invite scholars, researchers, and practitioners to the 22nd Annual Conference of the European Society for Textual Scholarship and the 19th Conference of the Nordic Network for Textual Scholarship in Copenhagen

Venue: Vartov, Farvergade 27, 1463 Copenhagen, Denmark

Dates: 19-21 April 2027

Diversity – in textual scholarship and editorial practice

Conference website: https://cas.au.dk/en/en/cdh/ests-nne-2027

Conference contact: estsnne2027@cas.au.dk

Call for Papers

For the first time, the European Society for Textual Scholarship (ESTS) and the Nordic Network for Textual Scholarship (NNE) gather for a joint conference exploring diversity in textual scholarship and editorial practice and fostering collaboration across the field.

Texts exist in multiple versions and variants, challenging the notion of the work as a singular, stable entity. They appear across different material forms and media and circulate between linguistic and cultural contexts. At the same time, texts are shaped by the archival and infrastructural frameworks within which they are preserved, organized, and made accessible, as well as by changing editorial and methodological approaches.

Such frameworks and practices are not neutral. They reflect historically situated assumptions about authority, relevance, and scholarly value, shaping not only how texts are edited, but also which texts are deemed worthy of editing in the first place.

Diversity can therefore also be considered in terms of absence and underrepresentation: those texts, voices, and traditions that have not been preserved, recorded, or edited, or that survive only in fragmentary form. Attending to such absences raises broader questions about the scope and purpose of editorial work, and about the extent to which editions do not merely stabilize texts, but also interpret, frame, and, in some cases, reconfigure them.

We welcome contributions that engage with questions of diversity from a range of textual, material, linguistic, infrastructural, and methodological perspectives.

Contributions may, for example, address the following topics:

  • textual variation, versions, and the constitution of the work;
  • editorial theory and practice;
  • manuscript, print, and digital textuality;
  • multilingual texts, translation, and transmission;
  • archival organisation, cataloguing, and metadata;
  • the role of digital tools in textual scholarship;
  • absence, fragmentation, and issues of representation.

Keynote Speakers

  • Matthew G. Kirschenbaum (University of Virginia)
  • Ane Grum-Schwensen (University of Southern Denmark)
  • Mats Malm (University of Gothenburg)

Submission Guidelines

  • Abstracts must be submitted in English (maximum 250 words, accompanied by a bio of maximum 100 words) by email to estsnne2027@cas.au.dk
  • Presentations will be allocated 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for discussion.
  • Presenters must pay the conference fee and must be members in good standing of the European Society for Textual Scholarship for 2027 (except invited speakers).
  • Conference fees: standard registration €100; reduced rate (postgraduate students and early-career researchers) €75.
  • Travel bursaries: A limited number of travel bursaries will be available for PhD students / early career scholars / scholars without a permanent academic position.

Important Dates

  • Abstract Submission Deadline: 5 December 2026
  • Notification of Acceptance: 5 January 2027
  • Final Program Publication: 15 February 2027
  • Conference Fee Payment Deadline: 1 March 2027
  • Pre-Conference Half-day Workshop: 19 April 2027 (Theme TBA)
  • Conference: 19-21 April 2027

Organising Committee

Wout Dillen (University of Borås), Josefine Hilfling (Society for Danish Language and Literature), Krista Stinne Greve Rasmussen (Aarhus University), Jon Tafdrup (Aarhus University) & Kirsten Vad (Aarhus University).