We invite submissions for two panels at the upcoming CAALS Virtual Conference on June 22-23, 2026.

1). Roundtable Title: Writing Right Now: Approaches to Asian American Literary Studies Dissertations and Book Projects

This roundtable invites submissions from graduate students, postdocs, and junior faculty (whether pre-tenure, non-tenure track, or contingent) who are currently working on dissertations or revising dissertations into book manuscripts in the fields of Asian American and diasporic literary studies, broadly constructed. We aim for each panelist to give a short talk (10 minutes maximum) about navigating their roles in the university and their scholarship during these contemporary times of upheaval and austerity. We are interested in presentations that both highlight (1) new and informative dissertation work and book topics in the field and also (2) best practices for navigating our various university and sociopolitical environments.

Our goal is to provide a collaborative forum for graduate students and early career researchers and faculty to share their innovative work and reflect on their experiences about what it means to be writing and doing Asian American literary studies in this critical moment.

Speakers might reflect on questions including, but not limited to, the following:
? What new and innovative methods, forms, or genres does your dissertation/book project
offer the field of Asian American and Diaspora Studies and literary studies?
? What role does Asian American literary studies play in thinking through contemporary
issues?
? How has or does your role as an early career academic informed your work?
? How do you manage your time as an early career scholar between writing, teaching, and
working?
? For graduate students, how do you write a dissertation that is legible to the academic job
market?
? For junior faculty and postdocs, how do you turn a dissertation into a book project?

Please send informal abstracts (250 words maximum) and shortened CV (2-pages) to GJ Sevillano (g.sevillano@northeastern.edu) and Karen Siu (Karen.L.Siu@rice.edu) by May 10th, 2026.

2). Panel Title: West Asia in the Asian/American Imaginary

This panel investigates the place of West Asia in the contemporary Asian/American cultural imaginary. West Asian literary and cultural histories are often marginalized in Asian American Studies. This seems ironic given the central role that West Asia has played in the U.S. political economy over the last three decades. The current war in Iran makes critical discourse on West Asia today all but unavoidable. This panel welcomes papers across the disciplines that approach West Asia as both a discourse and method for tracing social, cultural, political, and economic developments in Asian/America through the past, present, and future. It asks: how is today’s war in West Asia different from or similar to those in West Asia in the past? What does it reveal about the continuities or shifts in global imperialism and militarism? What is the place of technology and/or the tech industry in the wartime imaginary, given the power they wield over military supremacy in this specific war, one dubbed the First AI War? In what way(s) has the conflict abroad impacted the diasporic communities of West Asia in the U.S.? How does the war codify, muddle, or complicate Western political diplomacy’s present and future?

Please send abstracts (250 words maximum) and shortened CV (2-pages) to Leland Tabares (ltabares@coloradocollege.edu) by May 10th, 2026.