Reflections on/in the Space Between Conference

The Space Between Society invites proposals for its 28th annual conference, “Reflections on/in the Space Between,” which will be hosted by the Centre for Modernist Cultures at the University of Birmingham (UK) from 9-11 June 2027. There may be pre-conference events on 8 June.

On the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Space Between Society, self-reflection is appropriate. We invite proposals that take the term ‘reflection’ either literally or figuratively, and hope to inspire reflections on the period, the periodization, and the society itself, as well as papers that deal more explicitly with mirrors, lenses, and other forms of reflection and refraction. Consider, for example, that it was partially through reflecting on his childhood outside Birmingham that Tolkien created his mirror world of Middle Earth. The theme is also a methodological invitation. Reflexivity is said (by Anthony Giddens and others) to be a marker of modernity. The years 1914-1945 certainly fostered distinctive forms of self-consciousness, forced to come to terms with the second industrial revolution of mass production (Taylorism) and its application to mass warfare; forced simultaneously to come to terms with the new science and the new psychology.

Birmingham is arguably Britain’s capital of the Space Between. Geographically, it is located in the West Midlands. Historically it sits in the space between the first industrial revolution, of which it was the birthplace, and an uncertain fourth industrial revolution AI future. As the second-most ethnically diverse region in England and Wales, Birmingham is a space between cultures, reflecting Britain’s imperial and postcolonial history. The city also stakes an important claim in the resistance to imperialism. For instance, Birmingham-born Bertha Bracey was recognized as a British Hero of the Holocaust for her leadership of Kindertransport.

Birmingham prospered between the wars, becoming the centre of the British motor industry. The University of Birmingham, established just before the First World War, is England’s first civic university, where students from all religions and backgrounds were accepted on an equal basis. Between the wars both Louis MacNeice and Nikolaus Pevsner worked at the university. Next door to the Arts Building is the Art Deco Barber Institute of Fine Arts, opened in 1939. (Though currently closed for refurbishment, we will attempt to negotiate special access to selected works from 1914-45). The campus was later home to the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies between 1964 and 2002, a research centre whose members' work came to be known as the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies. It was set up by Richard Hoggart, and later directed by Stuart Hall, whose archive is held at the Cadbury Research Library.

We invite proposals that consider literary, artistic, social, and cultural responses to the many senses of reflection in the years 1914-1945. Scholars working in any humanistic discipline and/or perspective (including literary studies, archival studies, history, art history, cultural studies, film studies, religious studies) are warmly welcome.

Broad topics include but are not limited to:

• Reflection in theory
• Reflection on disciplinary practices, evolutions, institutions, exclusions connected to contemporary scholarship in the Space Between
• Reflecting on critical university studies
• Inter-discipline: the space between disciplinary studies
• The scholarship between: careers adjacent to or outside academia
• The aesthetics of reflection: reflection, mimesis, simulacrum, parody, and imitation (including intermediality)
• The gendering of reflection practices
• Queer theories of memory in the Space Between
• Reflection on Reflection: the space between the ears, and the psychology of reflection
• Reflexivity and self-consciousness
• Reflection as introspection of self/nation/discipline
• Reflection on language/the language of reflection
• The mirror stage: reflections on psycho-analysis in the space between
• Reflective materials and surfaces (glass, water, jewels, etc.), shinyness, sparkle as theme
• Reflective genre/literary mechanism
• Reflection on new and emergent technologies
• War as the absence/presence of reflection, reflection as a pacific/problem solving cultural function
• Doppelgängers
• Mirror neurons: the social work of reflection
• Dark reflections: trauma, racism, genocide, Holocaust in the Space Between
• Reflective architecture and Lieux de Mémoire: Centenary Square, the Hall of Memory, etc.
• Municipal Socialism and the City in the Space Between
• Institutionalized practices and spaces of reflection
• Migration and Immigration
• Mirror worlds, in particular Tolkien’s “secondary worlds”
• And, inevitably: Peaky Blinders

Please email a proposal and bio to the conference committee at spacebetween2027@gmail.com by November 30, 2026.

Individual proposals should be 250-300 words and include a working title. Please also include a short bio (up to 100 words). Panel proposals (3-4 participants) should be no more than 600 words and include a panel title and working titles. Please also include short bios for each participant. Proposals for workshops related to mentorship, scholarship, or teaching are welcome. They should be 200 words and include a proposed title and bios of the leaders. Participation in multiple venues (e.g., a panel presentation and workshop leader) is allowable.

A note on period: Because we recognize that writers, artists, and culture makers did not simply stop their work at the close of 1945, topics may move outside the range of 1914-1945 as long as the link to the Space Between is manifest.

Part of the Space Between’s mission is to mentor and support graduate students at any level in their professionalization. We encourage graduate students to propose individual papers and full panels with fellow graduate students and/or faculty mentors. Please note, this year, the selection committee will be nominating graduate student proposals for our “Emergent Voices” Graduate Student Plenary Session. Graduate students chosen for this session will be mentored and offered the opportunity for a practice panel session pre-conference. If you are a graduate student and would be interested in being considered for this session, please indicate so on your individ