CfP: Semaine Nostagain 2027 - The Nostagain Network

Submit Your Work Here!
Form closes January 8, 2027 (23:59)

“The Future of Nostalgia” is ONE of FIVE days of a week-long symposium.
This week-long symposium is called “SEMAINE NOSTAGAIN”.

SEMAINE NOSTAGAIN is happening February 8th – 12th, 2027 in Montreal.

Poster Designed by Zo Makivna.

PRELUDE

Nostalgia never gets old, according to Svetlana Boym and Dua Lipa.

For Boym, the shadow of nostalgia, from a social disease coined in 1688 to a social emotion our culture praises today, “frustrates psychologists, sociologists, literary theorists and philosophers, even computer scientists” (2001:xvii).

Dua Lipa gives Boym’s lines a melody: “I know you’re dying trying to figure me out. My name’s on the tip of your tongue…”.

Nostalgia has multiple names today, depending on why we long for something, how we express that longing, and if we had to live through something to miss it: solastalgia (Albrecht, 2005), anemoia (Koenig, 2012), refractive nostalgia (Srirachanikorn 2024), deep nostalgia (Kidd & McAvoy, 2023), digital nostalgia (Niemeyer, 2016), historical nostalgia (Bowman et al. 2022). The list keeps going.

CHORUS

“The Future of Nostalgia” is ONE of the days at our 5-day symposium, Semaine Nostagain in Montreal, from February 8th-12th, 2027.

The symposium is hybrid, but prioritizes in-person delivery and first-time, student, emerging, and early-career participants.

We invite academics, artists, and enthusiasts to submit
TALKS, RESEARCH CREATION / ARTWORK, or WORKSHOPS
that reimagine, trouble, or culturally further what we know today as ‘nostalgia’.

This is a suggested list of topics, which is an invitation to go beyond:

1. The future of archiving nostalgic moments; curation, archives, oral history

2. The future of nostalgic historical sites; museums, ruins, remembrances

3. The future of nostalgic places; malls, YouTube, third places, public institutions

4. The future of nostalgia critique; parodies, artwork, research creation, anemoia, second-hand nostalgia

5. The future of nostalgia and nature; climate anxiety, solastalgia, doomerism

6. The future of nostalgic aesthetics; Frutiger Aero, Nostalgia core

7. The future of nostalgia technologies; deep AI, 2WAI, generative memory

8. The future of nostalgia theories; various, creative, provocative ways to reimagine an old emotion

9. The future of nostalgic politics; cultural theory, spectacles, promises

10. The future of nostalgia as a discipline; methods, ideas, ethics

AI USE

Nostagain discourages Artificial Intelligence (AI) use in any proposals, whether they be for talks, artwork, or workshops. We will not consider works entirely generated by AI and are committed to centring human-made work of all levels.

We do however welcome critical perspectives that engage with AI and nostalgia, but require human perspective and labour.

If you have used AI, please provide a statement on how it was used in the submission form.

CODA

Please submit your work before January 8, 2027 (23:59).

LINK TO FORM
( or paste this into your search bar: https://forms.gle/qpnWutmaERkcfMSN6 )

“The Future of Nostalgia” is ONE of FIVE days of the Semaine Nostagain week-long symposium. The week of events is organized by the Nostagain Network, which has become North America’s largest student-led collective for nostalgic artists, academics, and enthusiasts. We have 100+ members from 16 countries.

We will send acceptance emails the following week, and Semaine Nostagain will take place between February 8th – 12th, 2027.

Any questions? Write to nostagain@gmail.com and direct to
Derek Pasborg and Richy Srirachanikorn.

OVERTURE

Semaine Nostagain 2027 is made possible with the generous and consistent support of these interuniversity and interdisciplinary bodies, both emerging and established.