The International David Foster Wallace Society

This Is Water Symposium, Summer 2025

The 20th Anniversary of David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” Kenyon Commencement Speech is coming up this May! If you can’t make our roundtable at the ALA conference in Boston this May, we’d love to see you in the virtual realm for a four-day Zoom symposium themed around Wallace’s monumental speech. While it may be disappointing not to see each other in person, this is an opportunity to do things we can’t do at an in-person conference, and a chance to reconnect with our friends from around the globe. 

Please join us from Thursday, June 7th to Sunday, June 10. Each day, we’ll have speakers, presentations, Q&A with special guests, and much more! A more detailed schedule will be released soon. But if you want to be involved, have a paper you’d like to present, an idea about something you’d like to see at the event, or other suggestions or questions, send an abstract and a short bio, and any scheduling needs to [email protected] by May 15. 

This is a sliding-scale, donation-based event. Virtual attendees will be asked to pay what they can to raise funds for our in-person conference #DFW26, set for Austin, TX. CFP for the 2026 Conference is coming soon. We hope to see you down the road!

 

INTERNATIONAL DAVID FOSTER WALLACE CONFERENCE IN AUSTIN

June 6-8, 2024

University of Texas, Austin

UPDATE 5/9/24

Registration is now closed. Thank you to everyone who has registered so far!

We are excited to welcome Joy Williams and Jim Gauer to the conference. You can read Joy Williams’ review of Gauer’s Novel Explosives here.

 

UPDATE 4/28/24

Friday, June 7, 2024 – Join us at the Harry Ransom Center’s Prothro Theater for an evening with acclaimed writer Joy Williams. 6-8pm.

Williams is the author of five novels. Her first, State of Grace (1973), was nominated for a National Book Award for Fiction. The Quick and the Dead (2000), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Her first collection of short stories was Taking Care, published in 1982. A second collection, Escapes, followed in 1990. A 2001 essay collection, Ill Nature: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. Honored Guest, a collection of short stories, was published in 2004. A 30th anniversary reprint of The Changeling was published in 2008.

She has received many awards and honors, including the 2021 Kirkus Prize for Fiction, the Harold and Mildred Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the 2021 Library of Congress Award for American Fiction.

Joy Williams will be reading with Jim Gauer, author of Novel Explosives. A book signing and reception will follow.

Note: this event is free and open to the public.

 

UPDATE: 3/26/24

The 2024 International David Foster Wallace Conference in Austin will begin on the afternoon Thursday, June 6, at the Harry Ransom Center. 

Join us for a conversation with featured speaker Amy Wallace-Havens, Thursday, June 6, 4-6pm.

Note: this event is free and open to the public.

Panels and papers will be presented Friday June 7 and Saturday June 8, 9am-4pm at Parlin Hall on the University of Texas campus.

Registration is now CLOSED.

Here is our room block at the DoubleTree on 15th Street: https://www.hilton.com/en/attend-my-event/ausfldt-dfw-053968ab-1c47-4fa4-975c-a674ed74f7e5/

You are welcome to stay at any hotel or Airbnb, etc. in Austin, but reach out to us ([email protected]) for further recommendations on accommodations. 

More events announced soon!

Thank you to the staff and administration of the Harry Ransom Center and the Department of English at the University of Texas.

 

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CALL FOR PAPERS

#DFW24

The field of David Foster Wallace studies is now approaching two decades of scholarly and academic development. Stephen J. Burn’s guide to Infinite Jest appeared in 2003 and the first conference dedicated to Wallace Studies was organized by David Hering in Liverpool in 2009. In the ensuing years, hundreds of devoted scholars and readers have enriched and benefited from the field of work. Our annual conference is the showcase of this work—and the valuable opportunity to meet others in the field. For the 2024 conference in Austin, home of the Harry Ransom Center and Wallace’s archive, we invite papers commenting on any aspect of Wallace’s work, thought, influence, or context.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

The International David Foster Wallace Society is committed to promoting and fostering a greater inclusion of women scholars, scholars of color, and otherwise historically underrepresented scholars in the fields under discussion at this conference, and we welcome proposals that specifically engage these issues.

We encourage submissions from established scholars as well as postdoctoral researchers, currently unaffiliated scholars, contingent faculty, faculty in settings other than higher education, and graduate and undergraduate students. Full panel proposals and roundtable proposals are welcome as well. We encourage panels that span a variety of faculty ranks and institutions.

Submit a paper abstract of 300 words (for a max. 20-minute presentation) and brief biographical info to [email protected] by February 26 March 17, 2024.

Include in your submission: your name, affiliation (if any), and email address. Please specify any special AV or scheduling needs when submitting your proposal.

Further details about the conference, including keynotes and accommodations, will be posted at https://dfwsociety.org/DFW24.