Arabic Elit

Call for entries: Arabic Electronic Literature: New Horizons and Global Perspectives – deadline 24 July 2017

Arabic Electronic Literature: New Horizons and Global Perspectives
An International Conference, Feb 25-27, 2018 (July 24 deadline)

The international conference on Arabic Electronic Literature: New Horizons and Global Perspectives, will be held in Dubai, UAE from February 25-27, 2018. The conference is organized by Rochester Institute of Technology and hosted at the RIT-Dubai campus.

In a world of global networks and transnational information flows, electronic literature (commonly defined as “born digital” literature or e-lit) is a site for new forms of communication, creation, and community. While much of the prominent current scholarly and artistic work in elit is based in the USA and Europe, e-lit is in fact a diverse global practice. In the Arab world,there is a growing network of e-lit scholars, many of whom are also practitioners or deeply connected to artistic practices. Interested authors and experts are invited to submit papers and creative works on topics including, but not limited to:

• scholarship on digital literature and digital criticism as a field and in a global context;
• intercultural issues in literacy, expression, and difference;
• communication and publishing in digital and social media environments;
• histories, precursors, movements, and readings;
• emulations, virtualizations, re-readings, and interpretations;
• preservation, archiving, and access;
• methods, tools, and best practices for creation and scholarship;
• translations, including linguistic, intermedial and intersemiotic, code-text translation;
• children’s electronic literature;
• and other research topics related to the conference theme.

Topics pertaining to Arabic language works and contexts are especially welcome, but submission is open to any work pertaining to electronic literature.

Submission Schedule
The conference will be in English and Arabic. All participants are expected to attend the conference in person.

Scholarly Papers. Submit an abstract of no more than 500 words, along with a brief biography of no more than 100 words, and contact information. Along with presentation at the conference, scholarly papers will be published in a peer reviewed journal.

Creative Works. Artists are invited to submit works of electronic literature from the Arabic world or otherwise related to the conference topics. Accepted works will be presented at festival events scheduled during the conference. The conference will also include a curated exhibit of works of electronic literature. To submit a creative work for presentation, send an abstract of no more than 250 words, along with a URL link to the work or sample of the work, a brief biography of no more than 100 words, and contact Information.

Abstract submission July 24, 2017
Acceptance notification September 18, 2017
Full papers for conference program January 8, 2018

Send submissions to

Details about registration, conference fees, and other logistics will be available June 2017.