ESPRit Postgraduate Workshop on Periodical Studies (2026)
As part of the 14th International ESPRit Conference, “Periodicals and the World”, ESPRit will host its annual Postgraduate Workshop on Periodical Studies in Brussels in September 2026.
Key Information
📅 Workshop date: 9 September 2026
📍 Venue: Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), Brussels
🎓 Eligibility: Postgraduate students
📝 Application deadline: 20 February 2026
The workshop will take place on 9 September 2026, before the start of the main conference, and offers a forum for postgraduate researchers to present and discuss their work in a supportive scholarly environment. Particular emphasis will be placed on methodological questions related to periodical studies.
The workshop is open to postgraduate students working on any topic related to periodicals, across all historical periods, geographical areas, and cultural contexts. Participants are encouraged to reflect on shared challenges, research practices, and approaches within the field.
Applications
Applicants are asked to submit the following four documents:
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an academic CV outlining studies, research interests, and any distinctions and/or publications;
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a 500-word formal proposal for the workshop. Case studies should be avoided; instead, proposals should focus on specific methodological issues relevant to periodical studies. Workshop presentations generally last 10 minutes;
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a short statement explaining how the proposal relates to periodical studies (or indicating if the field is still new to the applicant);
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a one-page outline of the applicant’s ongoing research or PhD thesis, including title, supervisor, institutional affiliation, and expected (or recent) year of completion.
How to Apply
📧 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
📌 Subject line: “ESPRit Postgraduate Workshop on Periodical Studies”
📅 Deadline: 20 February 2026
The main working language of the conference is English. Proposals in other languages will be considered, provided that presentation arrangements are agreed in advance with the organisers.
Selection Committee
- Evanghelia Stead (UVSQ Paris-Saclay)
- Sophie van den Elzen (Utrecht University)
- Gábor Dobó (Kassák Museum–PIM–MNMKK, Kassák Foundation)
- Cedric Van Dijck (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
- Maaike Koffeman (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)
For further details, including the full call for papers, please visit the conference website. ESPRit looks forward to welcoming postgraduate researchers to Brussels in September 2026.
2026 ESPRit Prize
Call for Nominations
The European Society for Periodical Research (ESPRit) invites nominations for the 2026 ESPRit Prize, awarded biennially to recognise substantial contributions to the field of periodical studies.
Scope and Eligibility
We welcome nominations for publications and initiatives in any language. ESPRit is an international, multilingual community, and the prize seeks to celebrate work that enriches periodical studies by fostering dialogue across national, linguistic, cultural or disciplinary boundaries. Eligible contributions include (but are not limited to):
✔ monographs
✔ edited collections
✔ exhibitions
✔ reference works
✔ book series
✔ journals
✔ websites
✔ databases
To be eligible, the nominated work must have been completed between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2025. Anyone can nominate, and self-nominations are welcome. Nominees do not need to be ESPRit members.
The Prize
The prize will be awarded during ESPRit’s Annual General Meeting. The winner will receive €500, a one-year ESPRit membership and an invitation to present their work at the next ESPRit conference.
How to Nominate
Please submit a short proposal of up to 500 words to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 16 February 2026. The proposal should describe the nominated work, outline the reasons for its nomination and provide the contact details of three potential reviewers. Nominators are responsible for making the nominated work accessible to the jury, preferably in digital form, though print copies may be requested in some cases.
ESPRit Online Seminar Series: Periodicals and the Law — Fifth Series
ESPRit is pleased to announce the fifth series of its online seminar “Periodicals and the Law”, featuring two invited speakers who will explore legal, historical, and technological dimensions of periodical studies in a transnational perspective.
Registration form below.
1. AI and Software Legal Protection
28 November 2025, 16:00 CEST
Speaker: Dr Marinos Papadopoulos (Lawyer; Legal Advisor; Specialist in Law and Technology)
Chair: Simona Laghi
The seminar will focus on the right of communication to the public and the making available right in relation to software. It will explore relevant EU legislation and draw on established case law concerning these rights, with particular attention to key legal concepts such as the notion of the “public.” The presentation will also address the protection of software under EU law, outlining the exclusive rights granted to software rightholders and examining how the right of communication to the public is exercised in practice. Part of the seminar will be dedicated to the intersection of software and artificial intelligence, highlighting common AI components and the legal mechanisms available for their protection. Additionally, the presentation will touch upon the challenges software developers face when attempting to secure patents under European law, metaphorically described as the "needle's eye" through which they must pass.
Speaker bio:
Dr. Marinos Papadopoulos is a Lawyer, registered with the Athens Bar Association since 1996. Ever since he practices Law and participates in national and international forums related to Law and Technology. From 2016 to 2024, he was legal advisor to the National Library of Greece for Copyright, Contract Law, Transparency and Open Access in the new era of the National Library at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre. He served as legal advisor to the World Bank Group on legal issues related to the implementation of the new Judicial Map of the Greek Justice system. He has extensive experience as a specialized scientist and legal advisor in innovation projects funded by the European Commission and implemented in Greece and abroad. Works authored by him on legal issues of Law and Technology have been published in academic and scientific publications in Greece, the USA, the United Kingdom, Australia and India.
2. So far, yet so close. English Newsbooks and the Polish-Lithuanian Sejm
19 February 2026, 14:00 CEST
Speaker: Dr Anna Kalinowska (Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences; Polish History Museum)
Chair: Aled Gruffydd Jones
Dr Kalinowska’s seminar explores how seventeenth-century English newsbooks reported on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its parliamentary system. Although the periodical press in England emerged primarily to cover Westminster politics, early editors quickly broadened their focus to include foreign news.
Her talk will analyse how the Sejm was portrayed, the legal aspects of its functioning, and the ways these reports were embedded within the English domestic political context. Despite the geographical and cultural distance, newsbooks reveal a nuanced contemporary awareness of Polish-Lithuanian politics and its relevance to English readers.
Speaker bio:
The emergence of the periodical press in England was closely linked to Parliament, as the first newsbooks in the early 1640s focused on reporting events in Westminster when Parliament became a key institution in the country’s political life. When the editors expanded the scope of coverage to include foreign news, Poland-Lithuania and its Sejm became regular subjects of reports and comments for newsbook readers. In my presentation, I will discuss the most important elements of the coverage of the Polish-Lithuanian parliamentary system, with a particular focus on the legal aspects of its functioning and the manner in which news about the Sejm was contextualised within the domestic political landscape. Despite the geographical distance and the multitude of differences between the two countries, it is clear that the Polish-Lithuanian reality was well known to both the newsbook editors and their readership, and constituted a point of reference in the domestic political discourse that was so prominent at the time.
Registration
To register for the seminar with Anna Kalinowska, please visit:
👉 P&L Seminar – Anna Kalinowska – 19 February 2026
JEPS in Conversation, Episode 2
On the occasion of the launch of JEPS 10.2 Open Issue
📅 Thursday, 11 December 2025
⏰ 16:00 CET
📍 Online — Free and open to all with registration. Register HERE
The JEPS in Conversation series offers a space for editors and authors to engage directly with readers, discuss their research, and reflect on key questions shaping the field of periodical studies today.
This session brings together issue editors Helena Goodwyn and Zsuzsa Török in conversation with contributing authors Chiara Cremona, Yasemin Gencer, Anne-Marie Millim, and Hayarpi Papikyan, who will introduce their articles and discuss their research.
The seminar will be recorded and later released as an audio podcast on our website.
Featured Articles in Conversation
Chiara Cremona and Andrea Penso
“From Britain to Italy through France: A Preliminary Survey of the News about Walter Scott Published in the Italian Gazettes of the Early Nineteenth Century”
Biographical Notes: Chiara Cremona is a PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her main research interests include nineteenth-century English, Italian, and French literature, periodical studies, and reception studies. Andrea Penso is an independent researcher with expertise in transcultural journalism, literary reception, and digital text analysis. He is the author of Un libero di Pindo abitator (2020), which won the research award from the Werkgroep Italië Studies.
Yasemin Gencer
“Qualifying Inclusion: Photo-Sharing Initiatives in Turkish Periodicals of the 1920s”
Biographical Note: Yasemin is an Assistant Professor in Wayne State University’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design. She is a scholar of Islamic art and civilisation specializing in Ottoman and modern Turkish art and print culture.
Anne-Marie Millim
“‘The Last New Novel’: Valuation Strategies in Reviews of Fiction Published in the Athenaeum and the Saturday Review, 1855–59”
Biographical Note: Anne-Marie is an Assistant Professor in English Studies at the University of Luxembourg. Her research focuses on Victorian literature and early twentieth-century multilingual Luxembourgish writing. She has published widely on life-writing and the genres of the press.
Hayarpi Papikyan
“Reimagining the Borders of the Textual Nation: The Case of Armenian Literary Periodical Murch and Women’s Writing”
Biographical Note: Hayarpi specialises in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Armenian studies, the history of Armenian women, and the history and sociology of schooling and institutionalised education. She holds a doctoral degree from the Université Paris V – Sorbonne Cité and, since 2019, has been working at the American University of Armenia.
PhD Studentship Opportunity. Decadence in Translations: Translating for, and in French and British Periodicals, 1880–1914
ESPRit is pleased to share details of a new fully-funded Joint Doctoral Studentship between the Université Bourgogne Europe (UBE) and the University of Glasgow, supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks (MSCA-DN) as part of the DECADOCS programme.
The project
This PhD — Decadence in Translations: Translating for, and in French and British Periodicals, 1880–1914. Corpora, Translators, and Translational Aesthetics — will investigate the publication of translations in French and English literary periodicals from 1880 to 1914 in relation to the concept of Decadence.
The successful candidate will contribute to:
- the creation of a database of translation material across 1,000 French and British periodicals
- a prosopography and interactive map of translators (including women translators)
- the development of criteria for “decadent translation” to enrich translation studies and professional competencies.
Supervision will be jointly provided by Prof. Bénédicte Coste (UBE) and Dr Matthew Creasy (University of Glasgow). The researcher will spend 2025–2027 in Dijon and 2028–2029 in Glasgow, with additional secondments at IMEC (Abbaye d’Ardennes) and Cadenza Academic Translations (Exeter, UK).
This project is part of the DECADOCS network, involving 10 Universities across Europe. In addition to local supervision and support, the successful candidate will also benefit from an extensive programme of doctoral training and access to an interdisciplinary network of scholars and researchers exploring different aspects of Decadence from the nineteenth century to the present. This includes opportunities for presentation at conferences and the publication of scholarly outputs.
Key Dates & Information
🗓️ Application deadline: 20 October 2025
🎤 Online interviews: 17–22 November 2025
🎓 Start date: as soon as possible
📍 Location: Université Bourgogne Europe & University of Glasgow, with secondments in Caen and Exeter
How to Apply
Applicants should submit a cover letter outlining their motivation and relevant competencies, a current CV with details of BA and MA degrees, copies of diplomas and transcripts, and the contact information of two academic referees. Required documents also include evidence of English proficiency (such as a sample of academic writing from the MA), an additional writing sample, proof of identity, and a signed Declaration of Honour confirming eligibility. (see full details below).
🔗 Full project description and application details: https://decadocs.blog/research-project-5/
📧 Applications should be sent to Prof. Bénédicte Coste: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.