Time: 24-28 June 2026
Venue: University of Prince Edward Island
The constancy of change pervades Montgomery’s life, work, and legacy. From the social, literary, political, and technological changes that took place throughout her lifetime to the ways in which she wrote about her characters coping with personal change, Montgomery engages change in all aspects of the human experience. Whether considered a positive or negative force, change is vital in both “real” life and in fiction, for without it comes stagnation, boredom, or worse. Change is not an easy force to be reckoned with, and the challenges of change are a common theme in Montgomery’s world.
The 2026 conference invites proposals for research presentations that consider the theme of change in L.M. Montgomery’s works and world. Submissions should engage some aspect of this force in Montgomery’s life, creative work, life writing, or legacy. Possible topics include, but are not limited, to:
- Changes in society during Montgomery’s lifetime
- Changes to physical environments affected by Montgomery’s legacy
- Paradigm shifts in Montgomery’s fiction or life writing: changes in dreams, life trajectories, expectations, hopes, assumptions, etc.
- Changes to Montgomery’s work due to self-editing, whether to her fiction or her journals
- Montgomery’s own dislike of change as presented in her journals and/or characters
- How Montgomery’s fictional characters deal with or feel about change
- Changes in Montgomery’s style, tone, subject matter, and voice over her career, whether in her fiction, life writing, or poetry
- Changes to the critical responses to Montgomery’s work over time—how have scholars studied or perceived Montgomery’s work?
- Changes to the ways readers (and viewers) find, accept, reject, engage with, and generally consume Montgomery texts.
- Changes made to Montgomery’s work in translation or adaptation, particularly considering the role of equality/diversity/inclusion
- Ways in which Montgomery’s works speak to current changes in aspects of our own lives, from personal circumstances to global events such as war, pandemic, the development of AI
- The agency involved in changing one's environment or circumstances in Montgomery’s fiction or life writing
- Changes in the natural world – seasons, destructive forces, or the effects of time as presented in Montgomery’s fiction, life writing, or legacy
- Climate change through the lens of Montgomery’s work and legacy
- Affective change: what emotions/ somatic experiences/ interconnections does Montgomery render in her writing? Does change hurt or heal?
Please submit 250–300-word proposals (individual paper and panel) and 100–150-word biographical statements to the submission form on the L.M. Montgomery Institute’s website (lmmontgomery.ca) by 1 August 2025.
Proposals should articulate a strong argument and situate that argument in the context of existing Montgomery scholarship. Individual paper and panel proposals are double-blind reviewed. We also welcome proposals for workshops, special exhibits, or other visual displays engaging these ideas. Proposals that view Montgomery’s life and art from different cultural and theoretical perspectives are particularly encouraged. For more information, please contact Caroline Jones (caroline.jones@upei.ca) or Allison Hudson (allison.hudson@dcu.ie), co-chairs of the 2026 conference. “L.M. Montgomery and Change” is to be a hybrid conference. It will be held in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on 24-28 June 2026; all sessions will be livestreamed, allowing for virtual presentation, attendance, and participation.
(Quelle: Aussendung)