There are two formats:

1. Postgraduate students only: 5-minute lightning papers on any aspects of human gender and otherness in creative writing or drama, literature and/or visual culture.

2. Open call: 15-minute papers focusing on any aspects of gender and otherness in creative writing or drama, literature and/or visual culture, with particular emphasis on:

• Gender, race, disability and/or otherness in creative writing (Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, script), with topics including but not limited to:

• Female patrons and the fashioning of gender in medieval and early modern literary, dramatic and visual arts, with topics including but not limited to:

• Gender, race, disability and/or human physical otherness in religious and secular medieval and early modern theatre, with topics including but not limited to:

• The Open University Medieval and Early Modern Research Group guest panel:
Radical Otherness? Utopia and other ideal societies in the medieval and early modern world

Organised by The Open University Centre for Research into Gender and Otherness in the Humanities

Find out more here.

Please submit your proposal (150 words max) and academic bio (50 words max) on or before the CFP deadline of 12 December 2025, to m.a.katritzky@open.ac.uk & FASS-GOTH-Admin@open.ac.uk.

All presenters who stay for the whole symposium will be offered one night of paid accommodation (arrive 14 May, depart 15 May) and all refreshments on the day.