Call for Papers: Why Does the English Department Matter Today?

deadline for submissions: October 10, 2025
full name / name of organization: 
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
Contact: Annalisa Zox-Weaver
contact email: [email protected]

News of the demise of literary humanities, college-level reading and writing, and American higher education is ubiquitous. AI is replacing critical thought, preprofessional ambitions guide undergraduates, and students can’t—or won’t—read good books. And though in rapidly diminishing numbers, students continue to become English Majors and enter graduate school for PhDs in English.

In the spirit of American Philosophical Society’s guiding purpose of “promoting useful knowledge,” this call for papers seeks discussions of the pleasure and persistence of the English Department. What remains sacred, vital, and animating about English Departments? What can we document and observe of its meaning to those who study and teach—and believe—in this institution? What “definable expertise” does an English Department offer and promote? As William M. Chace lamented over fifteen years ago in the pages of American Scholar: “In the face of one skeptical and disenchanted critique after another, no one has come forward in years to assert that the study of English . . . is coherent, does have self-limiting boundaries, and can be described as this but not that.”

I am interested in essays that brave such challenges. Essays may be informal in tone or more academic in their efforts; or a bit of both. Submissions from senior scholars and undergraduates are welcome.

The American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned society in the United States, was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purpose of “promoting useful knowledge.” Proceedings operates in the founder’s spirit of inquiry, providing a forum for the free exchange of ideas and conveying our conviction that intellectual inquiry and critical thought are inherently in the best interest of the public.

Please take a look at previously published issues here. Consult the submission guidelines carefully before
submitting article.