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Brussels 2026

Periodicals and the World

📅 Dates: 9–11 September 2026
đź“Ť Location: Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), Brussels

The 14th ESPRit Conference, Periodicals and the World, took place at the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels from 9 to 11 September 2026. It explored how periodicals have moved across borders, connected people and ideas, and shaped understandings of the world. The conference also considered magazines and newspapers as worlds in their own right, with distinctive editorial practices, communities and ways of seeing.

The programme brought together research on periodical cultures across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Sessions addressed translation and cultural mediation, colonial and postcolonial print cultures, transnational networks, visual and material forms, and the circulation of literature, images and knowledge. Other panels examined fashion and children’s magazines, political and commercial periodicals, and digital approaches to periodical research. A postgraduate workshop formed part of the opening day.

Three keynote lectures approached the conference theme from different perspectives:

  • Stefano Evangelista, “At Home in the World: Translation and the Idea of World Literature in Esperanto Periodicals at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”
  • Barbara Mittler, “Changing Worlds — Rethinking Histories and Herstories in Global China: A View from the Entertainment Press, 2000s–2010s”
  • Christopher Ouma, “Black Possibility: Small Magazines and Pan-African Imagination”

Organising Committee

  • Chiara Cremona (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
  • BenoĂ®t Crucifix (KBR/KU Leuven)
  • ClĂ©ment Dessy (UniversitĂ© libre de Bruxelles)
  • Dirk Vanden Berghe (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
  • Sofie Vandepitte (KBR/KU Leuven/Ghent University)
  • Cedric Van Dijck (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
  • Birgit Van Puymbroeck (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
  • James Vliexs (UniversitĂ© libre de Bruxelles/Paris-Nanterre)

 Scientific Committee

  • Maaheen Ahmed (Ghent University)
  • Francesca Billiani (University of Manchester)
  • BĂ©atrice Joyeux-Prunel (UniversitĂ© de GĂ©nève)
  • Michelle Prain Brice (Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez)
  • Marysa Demoor (Ghent University)
  • Brecht Deseure (KBR/UniversitĂ© libre de Bruxelles)
  • Priti Joshi (University of Puget Sound)
  • Florence Le Cam (UniversitĂ© libre de Bruxelles)
  • MĂ©lodie Simard-Houde (UniversitĂ© du QuĂ©bec Ă  Trois-Rivières)
  • Andrew Thacker (Nottingham Trent University)
  • Beatrijs Vanacker (KU Leuven)
  • Marianne Van Remoortel (Ghent University)
  • Barbara Winckler (Universität MĂĽnster/Orient-Institut Beirut)
  • Ka Ki Wong (Hong Kong Shue Yan University)

Conference materials