[ACESSE A VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS: I Colóquio Internacional de Estudos Woolfianos no Brasil]
Call for Papers: The 1st International Colloquium on Woolf Studies in Brazil.
We are pleased to invite submissions for the inaugural International Colloquium on Woolf Studies in Brazil. Please be advised that this call is for proposals only: registration will only be completed following the peer-review process and notification of acceptance. The deadline for submissions is 22 May.
Theme: Making Room Outside — The colloquium seeks to explore ‘Making Room Outside‘ as a conceptual framework for testing the boundaries of language and identity, of belonging and unbelonging. We invite papers that consider how we might think beyond literary, social, and political establishments so as to make room outside — creating spaces folded between the internal and the external. Our theme serves as a mode of thinking through the negotiations between centre and periphery, and the spaces in between. How can Woolf help us think this liminal space in its different aesthetic and ethico-political dimensions?
Submissions: Proposals are welcome for sessions in English and should be submitted via the online form at: Woolf Studies in Brazil – Submission Form. Detailed guidance, including the requirement for an abstract of 200–500 words, is provided within the English-language submission form.
Venue & Practical Information: The Colloquium will be held at Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), at its main campus adjacent to the world-famous Maracanã stadium. The campus is conveniently accessible via metro, train, and bus. UERJ is a vital, tuition-free public institution, renowned for its leading research centres — including the Postgraduate Programme in Literary Studies — while remaining a pioneer in inclusive policies, notably through its affirmative action for Black, Indigenous, and socio-economically disadvantaged students. Reflecting our commitment to public education within a challenging landscape, facilities are modest. Delegates are responsible for their own travel and accommodation, though we would be delighted to offer guidance on local options. Lunch is available for purchase at various establishments situated in and around the campus.
Learn more about the city of Rio and UERJ at:
RioTour – What to do, where to eat, where to stay
Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ) – Official Website (in Portuguese)
Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ) – About Us (in English)
Contact: For any enquiries, please contact the organising committee at: coloquiowoolfuerj@gmail.com
We look forward to your contributions and to building this space together — making room outside.
Confirmed Keynote Speakers (English-language sessions)
Opening Keynote Address:
Jane Goldman is a Reader in English Literature at the University of Glasgow, a poet, and a translator. She is the editor of numerous collections and the author of several prominent works in Modernist criticism and Woolf Scholarship, including The Feminist Aesthetics of Virginia Woolf: Modernism, Post-Impressionism, and The Politics of The Visual (Cambridge University Press, 1998), Modernism, 1910-1945: Image to Apocalypse (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), The Cambridge Introduction to Virginia Woolf (Cambridge University Press, 2006), and With You in the Hebrides: Virginia Woolf and Scotland (Bloomsbury Heritage, 2013). She is also a General Editor of the Cambridge University Press edition of the works of Virginia Woolf, among many other lasting contributions to the field.
Plenary Roundtable:
Benjamin Hagen is the editor of Woolf Studies Annual, author of The Sensuous Pedagogies of Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence (Clemson UP, 2020), and an Associate Professor at the University of South Dakota. Beyond his extensive scholarly contributions, he is a former President of the International Virginia Woolf Society and a devoted presence within the Woolf community.
Laci Mattison is the editor of Virginia Woolf — Objects, Things, Matter (Edinburgh University Press, 2025) and series editor for Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism (Bloomsbury Academic). She is an Associate Professor at Florida Gulf Coast University and, as part of her long-standing commitment to the Woolf community, she served as the organiser of the 32nd Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, ‘Virginia Woolf & Ecologies’.
Shilo McGiff is a poet, a modernist scholar, a professional editor, and a founder of the Woolf Salon Project. Her work is deeply rooted in the Woolf community, having served as guest editor of ‘Portmanteau Woolf’ (Woolf Miscellany, 99). Together with Hagen and Mattison, McGiff is editing the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Virginia Woolf.
Organising Committee
Chairs: Davi Pinho & Marcela Filizola.
Advisory Board: Ana Carolina Mesquita, Fernanda Medeiros, Flavia Trocoli, Gabriel Leibold, Jane Goldman, Leonardo Bérenger, Luísa Freitas, Marcela Santos Brigida, Maria Aparecida de Oliveira, Maria Conceição Monteiro, Maria Rita Drumond Viana, Nícea Helena de Almeida Nogueira, Patricia Marouvo, Victor Santiago.
Academic and operational support: Ruan Felipe Madela Lima.
Collaborating Postgraduate Programmes:
- Postgraduate Programme in Letters — Literary Studies (UERJ);
- Postgraduate Programme in Literary Theory (UFRJ);
- Postgraduate Programme in Language Studies (PUC-Rio).
Sponsors: CAPES, CNPq, FAPERJ.