CELJ 2026 Virtual Conference

Collaboration & Community

October 1–2, 2026 (Live)

The Council of Editors of Learned Journals is pleased to host its second virtual conference to expand the knowledge sharing CELJ provides through its listserv, mentoring workshops, and Modern Language Association convention sessions. Sessions will occur live over Zoom on 

  • Thursday, October 1, from 1–5pm ET (1–2pm will be the Annual All-Member Meeting)

  • Friday, October 2, from 12–4pm ET

The online format offers a space where more of our members, and potential new members, can be included. The conference will be free, recorded, and available for CELJ members who are not able to attend live. 

Call For Papers

The conference theme is Collaboration and Community. The organizers encourage CELJ members to submit discussions specific to editorial and publishing topics, including but not limited to

  • Models for enacting collaboration and community in editorial work

  • DEI-oriented editorial practices

  • Creation and maintenance of independent OA journals

  • Invisible and inequitable labor in editing (at the journal; at one’s institution)

  • Editorial mentorship and pedagogy

  • Models of accountability and redress

  • Affordances and losses due to changes in publishing

  • Community-building around and across journals

  • Models for hosting productive doc sprints (do’s and don’t’s)

  • How to expand your journal’s audience (outside of academia; across disciplines)

Proposals are welcome for the following session types:

  • Panel (60 min.) presentations on a shared topic with Q&A (2–3 presenters)

  • Roundtable (60 min.) brief discussions on a shared topic with Q&A (3–4 presenters)

  • Workshop (60 min.) a walkthrough of a process, technology, platform for editorial use, with hands-on time or generous Q&A (1–3 presenters)

  • Individual (10–15 min.) presenters on a single topic (co-presenters also welcome)

  • Lightning Talk (5 min.) brief, individual talks including hot takes on editing

  • Birds of a Feather (60 min.) breakout room discussions and informal conversations around a certain topic, led by the proposer/moderator

Conference organizers will combine Individual presentations and Lightning Talks to form cohesive, 60-minute panels of each session type. 

We expect most submissions will be based on editorial praxis and expertise, not necessarily on research-based work, thus citations are not required as part of your proposal.

All proposals must be made by current CELJ members or those who plan to become members by July 1, 2026. If you are submitting a roundtable or panel, at least half of the session speakers must be current CELJ members. (Non-members can serve on panels and will need to pay a nominal registration fee to cover the cost of administering them in the registration system). 

We encourage you to read and consider CELJ’sCode of Conduct, which applies to this conference, as well as its mission to create spaces that are professional, inclusive, and collaborative—therefore, please be sure that your panel topic and its members are as diverse and inclusive as possible. We encourage you to use the CELJ listserv to share topics and find collaborators, as desired. 

The link for submitting proposals can be found via the CELJ listserv—a space reserved for current CELJ members.

Submission Deadline: July 10, 2026

Program Committee

  • Christina Cedillo (co-chair)

  • Eugenia Zuroski (co-chair)

  • Jessica Cory

  • Karen Dutoi

  • Iman Nick

  • Veronica Stanich

For conference questions, please contact the co-chairs at celj2026conference@gmail.com.

Three middle-aged women wearing conference badges and smiling inside a brick building.