Day 1. Thursday 21 May 2026
| 9:00 – 9:30 | Registration open |
| 9:30 – 9:45 | Welcome by Joana Roqué Pesquer and Núria Codina Solà |
| 9:45 – 10:45 | Keynote Lecture: D-M Withers (University of Exeter) “Lurid Editions: Insights from a small-scale, experimental publishing practice” |
| 10:45 – 11:15 | Coffee break |
| 11:15 – 13:00 | Panel 1: Transnational and Translated Scales Respondent: Jack McMartin (KU Leuven) Tim Groenland, and Michaela Králová (University College Dublin) “Contemporary Translated Literature in Ireland: Scale, Circulation, and Hierarchy” Nefise Kahraman (University of Toronto) “Publishing in the Margins: Translating Turkish Literature and the Politics of Diasporic Publishing in Canada” Kin-Long Tong (University College London) “Rescaling Counterpublics: The Transnationalization of Hong Kong Independent Publishing Community” |
| 13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch break |
| 14:00 – 15:15 | Panel 2: Refiguring Smallness Respondent: Núria Codina (KU Leuven) Caroline Wintersgill (University of Stirling) “Cultural Value, New Audiences and the Small (Nation) Press: Independent Publishing in Wales” Olivia Hellewell (University of Nottingham) “No!Press: A Parallel Reality in a ‘Small’ Publishing Sphere?” |
| 15:15 – 15:45 | Coffee break |
| 15:45 – 17:30 | Panel 3: Spatial, Economic, and Scalar Assemblages Respondent: Elke Brems (KU Leuven) Joana Roqué Pesquer (KU Leuven) “#It’sNotThatRadical: Solidarity Economies and the Politics of Scale in Jaŋde Editorial” Gail Chester (Practitioner) “The Politics of Small Spaces: Being an Independent Scholar Practitioner on the Semi-periphery” Ahmad Makia (Practitioner) “Hyperpublishing” |
| 19:00h | Workshop Dinner |
Day 2. Friday 22 May 2026
| 9:00 – 10:15 | Panel 4: Digitality and Editorial Power Respondent: Caroline Benson (Middlebury College) María Herrera (University of Bielefeld) “Epistemic Violence and Cultural Capital: Feminist Digital Practices Against Identity Erasure” Camille Dasseleer (UC Louvain) “‘5 secrets to Self-Publishing Your Book’ New Editorial Practices and the Reframing of Literary Autonomy” |
| 10:15 – 10:45 | Coffee break |
| 10:45 – 12:00 | Panel 5: Media, Memory, Scale Respondent: Joana Roqué Pesquer (KU Leuven) Dipak Barkhade (Baroda University) “Himmati Mehariya: Mapping the Politics of Smallness Among Khabar Lahariya’s Dalit Women Reporters” (Online) Jeremiah Felix Nwachukwu (Rivers State University) “Translating Memory Across Scales: Digital Platforms and Postmemory of the Nigerian Civil War” (Online) |
| 12:00 – 13:00 | Lunch break |
| 13:00 – 14:15 | Panel 6: Historicizing the Small Press Respondent: Pieter Vermeulen (KU Leuven) Asha Rogers (University of Birmingham) “Scales and Methods of Print Decolonization: Birmingham’s Third World Publications Devanjan Khuntia (Alliance University) “Small Presses and the Making of An Alternative Public Sphere: Re-Scaling Religion and Subaltern Voice through Mahima Dharma in Odisha” |
| 14:15 – 14:45 | Coffee break |
| 14:45 – 16:00 | Closing Lecture |
| 16:00 – 16:30h | Final Remarks by Organizers |
– Venue: Verbeeckzaal STUK House for Dance, Image and Sound (breaks: STUK café) Naamsestraat 96, 3000 Leuven
– Lunch: vegetarian buffet available in the STUK Café. Price for non-presenters: 16€.
– Photos and/or videos may be taken during the symposium and shared via the COLLAB team’s website, newsletter, and social media. We will ask for your consent before taking photos or videos.
COLLAB 