Deadline: August 1, 2025
April 23–26, 2026
Key Dates:
Abstract submission deadline:August 1, 2025
Author notification: August 15, 2025
We invite papers that present or engage with iconoclastic, revisionist, and innovative approaches to Nabokov studies. Contributions that challenge traditional interpretations or offer new critical frameworks are especially encouraged.
Keynote Speakers
Opening Keynote: John Banville
An acclaimed Irish novelist and author of over 30 books, including the Booker Prize winning novel The Sea (2005. Banville’s many honors include the Franz Kafka Prize (2011), the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature (2013), and Spain’s Prince of Asturias Award for Literature (2014).
Closing Keynote: Leona Toker
Professor Emerita of English Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the author of several influential works, including Nabokov: The Mystery of Literary Structures (1989), Eloquent Reticence: Withholding Information in Fictional Narrative (1993), Return from the Archipelago: Narratives of Gulag Survivors (2000), Towards the Ethics of Form in Fiction (2010), and Gulag Literature and the Literature of Nazi Camps (2019). She also serves as Editor of Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas.
Abstract Submission Guidelines
Proposals should include: Paper title; An abstract of approximately 500 words; A short biographical note.
Please include “Proposal: Destabilizing Nabokov” in the subject line of your email.
Abstracts should be submitted electronically to Prof. Yuri Leving: yleving@princeton.edu
Publication
Selected papers from the conference will be published in a collected volume following the event.
Financial Aid
Accommodation and meals for participants will be covered during the conference.
Limited need-based travel assistance will be available for low-income scholars and students through the International Vladimir Nabokov Society. Additional information on travel grants will be provided after proposals are reviewed and accepted by the conference committee.
Conference Sponsors: Princeton University and the International Vladimir Nabokov Society