Contemporary Reading Cultures

Call for Papers

I’m letting the wheel of shame dictate which of the 237 unread physical books on my tbr that I read. This is the last book that she ended up giving me and you know what, in the moment I gave it four stars, might have been a bit generous, but hey ho. And we’re gonna give her another quick spin today. We’ve had a lot of thriller and horror, so maybe a bit of a genre change up would be very much appreciated. (@bibliophel)

Reading is cool. Influencers and readers alike are sharing recommendations, opinions, and general thoughts over all different forms of social media, with the "BookTok" community on TikTok being one of the most well-known communities at the moment. Even outside of the digital space, many bookstores now prominently feature books that are popular online, some even going as far as putting "Popular on TikTok" signs on book tables or "As seen on BookTok" stickers on books. Simultaneously, online communities also appear to have significant impact on the publishing industry. Not only has the number of book sales increased with the rise of especially BookTok (Thomas), but there is also a notable influence on the way books are marketed and the kinds of books that get traditionally published, as "publishers use these social media reading cultures as predictive tools [to] harness already existing audience interest" (Maddox and Gill 2).

Contemporary reading communities appear to resemble what Henry Jenkins coined as "media fandom" in his book Textual Poachers (1992). He describes the members of "media fandom" as "largely female, largely white, largely middle class, though it welcomes into its ranks many who would not fit this description. This subculture cuts across traditional geographic and generational boundaries and is defined through its particular styles of consumption and forms of cultural preference" (1). While the media that are being used by fans to participate in fandom have changed drastically since the early 1990s, many of the descriptors offered by Jenkins still ring true in connection to contemporary book fandoms.

Using current developments in reading and book fandom as a starting point, the aim of this conference is to investigate reading cultures, fandom, and media practices at a time when social media is becoming more and more impactful. We are interested in the intersection of reading practices and reading discourses in the 21^st century and their implications for future developments in reading.

We welcome papers from scholars at all different levels on and beyond the following topics:

The role of online communities like BookTok, BookTube, and Bookstagram in shaping reading and publishing cultures in the 21st century
The rising popularity of (dark) romance and romantasy and the discourses surrounding these (sub-)genres
The mainstreaming of fan fiction and its impact on contemporary reading communities
Publishing between established conventions and self-publishing
Affect and literature and its performance on social media
Marginalized perspectives in contemporary reading cultures
The construction of "the reader" and the ethics and aesthetics of reading
The differences between physical books, digital books and audiobooks in reception as well as the surrounding discourse and the construction of "literature" as a category
The evolution of online book content from blogging to short-form visual content
Paratext and its relationship to the (over) consumption of books

Submission Guidelines and Details:

Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words and short biographies of no more than 100 words to Nicole Mellin (nicole.mellintu-dortmundde) and Katharina Röder (katharina.roedertu-dortmundde) by 15 September 2025.
The conference will take place at TU Dortmund from 29-30 January 2026; further details will be announced on the conference’s website: https://anglistik.kuwi.tu-dortmund.de/crc/.

Extended Deadline: 10 October 2025

Works Cited:

Blaise, Eloise [@bibliophel]. "Dare I say a contender for one of my favourite reads of the year? [side-eye emoji] #tbrchallenge #physicaltbr #tbr #whattoreadnext #contemporaryromance #lgtbqia #translated #bookwormstruggles #readerproblems." TikTok, 25 May 2025, https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdB3wM56/.

Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers. Television Fans and Participatory Culture (2nd ed.). Routledge, 2012.

Maddox, Jessica and Fiona Gill. "Assembling ‘Sides’ of TikTok: Examining Community, Culture, and Interface Through a BookTok Case Study." Social Media + Society, 2023, pp. 1-12.

Thomas, Nathalie. "BookTok’s influence on publishing is set to last." Financial Times, 2024. URL: https://www.ft.com/content/5cfd524b-5b1f-4af0-8f9c-ce6778d0d6a9.

Date: January 29-30, 2026
Time: tba
Location: IBZ (Emil-Figge-Straße 59, 44227 Dortmund

Preliminary Program

Thursday, 29 January

09:30 Arrival and Coffee Break

10:00 Welcome

10:30 Panel 1

Yagmur Su Kolsal: “My Good Friend Jonathan Harker”: The Case of “Dracula Daily” and Fan Engagement with Digital Serialized Fiction
Swara Shukla: Periods of “Eager Idleness”: Serialisation and the Anticipatory Reader on Wattpad
Kübra Aksay: “Playing Bookishness": Literary Culture in Ludic Spaces

12:00 Lunch

13:30 Panel 2

Marzia Dessi: #Dark Academia: Bridges and Barriers to Classics
Maxi Zarah Laumann: Strong Feelings, Weak Value? The Formation and Interpretation of Litarary Value
Nadine Ellinger: Diversity Beyond the Hashtag? Popular African Diasporic Fiction and Digital Diaspora Formation

15:00 Small Coffee Break

15:15 Panel 3

Jana Paulina Lobe: Real Readers Don’t Read Romance? Policing Women’s Reading from 19th-Century Reading Mania to BookTok
Johanna Kluger: Soulmates and Secret Matches: Sexual Autonomy in Alternate Universe Erotic Romance Fiction

18:00 conference dinner

Friday, 30 January

09:30 Arrival and coffee break

10:00 Panel 4

Alexander Starre: Reflexive Readership in Reese‘s Bookclub
Susanne Reichl: “REAL that book made me want to die actually”: Imitation, Emotion, and the Networked Intimacy of BookTok
Günter Leypoldt: Guilty Pleasures, Or Reading on the Public Square
Cyprian Piskurek: Reading From Below: British Cultural Studies and the Democratisation of Reading

12:00 Lunch

13:30 Panel 5

Carolina Falcão: Devotional Resonances: Digital Culture, Publishing Market, and Gender Performativity in Brazil‘s Evangelical Turn
Nayantara Srinivasan: Positioning the Contemporary Literary Fiction Debut
Rachel Marie Davis: Extreme Epitexts: Interpretive Cues from the Digital Environment

15:00 Goodbye

Location