‘This is Dyoublong’
‘he mostly sees double’ (‘Aeolus’)
- Joshua Cohen (Pulitzer prize winning author of Witz, Book of Numbers, The Netanyahus)
- Mary Costello
- Dr Valérie Bénéjam
- Dr Julie Weng
Our theme is doubling/doubles.
We will be delighted to receive proposals about any aspect of James Joyce’s work, his life and legacy, but are keen to read proposals that explore the theme above, or Irish-Polish and Irish-East-European coincidences.
If he could get to the heart of Dublin, Joyce ventured, then he could get to the heart of all cities of the world. This suggests that all cities are potentially doubles of each other. Dublin could find its essence doubled elsewhere: Trieste, Zurich, Paris, Lublin. Or Krakow.
In the 19th century Poland may have seemed like a double of Ireland: a Catholic country in which powerful nationalist feelings and histories expressed a longing for freedom from the rule of dominant neighbours. Krakow, like Dublin, was a lapsed capital city. Indeed, the name of ‘Stanislaus’, the patron saint of Krakow, was popular amongst Irish nationalists, including Joyce’s father and his brother. When Joyce was living in Trieste, Krakow was part of the same Austro-Hungarian Empire. The disintegration of this empire seemed to be reflected in the revolutionary forms now associated with modernism and the avant-garde. How might doubles contribute to the disruption and the shaping of these revolutionary forms?
As a concept, ‘doubles’ effortlessly spawns further considerations as:
mirrors and cracked mirrors, nature and art, reflection and mimesis; inversion and reversal; growth, accumulation, and reproduction (‘doubling their mumper all the time’); the aesthetic technique of extension: repetition, echo, rhyme, copying, repetition; the double entendre; adaptation and translation (‘transluding from the otherman’); the spirit and the letter; duals and dialectic, thesis-antithesis, master and slave; twins and döppelgangers, Siamese twins and double acts, uneasy identifications, uncanny recognitions: Philip Sober and Philip Drunk, Jim and Stannie, Mutt and Jeff, sosie sesthers, Nuvoletta-Nuvoluccia; double vision, double crossing, leading a double life, double or quits.
Presentations and papers, however, need not be restricted to such topics, and speakers at ‘This is Dyoublong’ are invited to explore further new encounters within Joyce’s works and beyond. As well as being a scholarly occasion, the symposium will offer a programme of cultural events designed to show the city at its vibrant and diverse best.
PROPOSALS
The deadline for paper or panel proposals is 2 February 2026. Proposals should be sent (as attachments: doc, docx, or pdf) to the academic committee at ijjfkrakow2026@gmail.com.
To propose an individual 20 minute paper (approx. 2,600 words), please submit a 250-word abstract that includes
- speaker’s name
- academic affiliation (if applicable)
- paper title
To propose a panel, the chair should submit a 500-word abstract for the panel as a whole that includes
- names, academic affiliations, and email addresses of all participants;
- the title of the panel
- titles of each individual paper;
- the name and affiliation of the panel chair and respondent (if any).
Please also include any access or scheduling requirements in your submission.
Please note that participants are limited to one paper and one non-paper panel appearance (e.g. as panel chair or respondent). Proposed panels may have a maximum of four speakers, in which case papers should be 15 minutes (approx. 1,950 words). The panel chair may also give a paper, in which instance it is customary for the panel chair to be scheduled last.
INTERNATIONAL JAMES JOYCE FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIPS
The International James Joyce Foundation is sponsoring up to ten scholarships for graduate students and early career researchers to attend ‘This is Dyoublong’: The XXXth International James Joyce Symposium. Scholarships can be used to cover early bird registration and travel and accommodation costs (the value of recipients’ awards will be determined by the scholarship committee up to a maximum of €1,000).
Applicants should submit a copy of their paper abstract, a brief cv, and an indication of likely costs as email attachments and also arrange for a letter of recommendation to be sent separately with the applicant’s name listed clearly in the subject line.
Scholarship applications should be submitted to the academic committee at ijjfkrakow2026@gmail.com by 16 February 2026. Applicants should indicate in the subject line that they are applying for the scholarship. Applicants submitting abstracts as part of a panel proposal should send a separate email to the academic committee with all the requested materials attached. To ensure that a wide range of graduate students and early career researchers benefit from the scholarship programme, previous recipients of the award are ineligible to apply.
REGISTRATION, ACCESSIBILITY, AND INCLUSION
While non-members of the International James Joyce Foundation are welcome to submit proposals, please note that all symposium attendees, whether presenting or not, must be members in good standing of the International James Joyce Foundation. Those without current membership will not be admitted. Click here to join the Foundation or renew your membership.
As part of the registration process, attendees will be asked to agree to a code of conduct and to abide by the safety recommendations and a complaints process put forward by the Board of Trustees (forthcoming) to ensure the conference is a safe and inclusive space. The Academic Committee will schedule panels and events in a representative, fair, and inclusive manner. A clear access and inclusion statement, including accessibility details for the spaces in which official symposium events are to take place, will be provided on the symposium website and programme.
Katarzyna Bazarnik, Bożena Kucała, and Katarzyna Biela
conference secretaries: Justyna Kiełkowicz and Katarzyna Piecuch
Finn Fordham (Royal Holloway University of London)
Joseph Brooker (Birkbeck University of London)
Katarzyna Bazarnik (Jagiellonian University, Kraków)