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2024 ACLA Conference Annual Meeting - March 14th - March 17th - Montreal

Annual Meeting

 

The ACLA's 2024 annual meeting will take place at the Palais des congrès de Montréal in Montreal, March 14-17, 2024. To view maps of seminar and event locations, please click here for Palais rooms and click here for InterContinental Hotel rooms. To view the conference program PDF, click here. To view the most up-to-date schedule information, click the "conference schedule" button below.

 


Land Acknowledgement

This year, the American Comparative Literature Association convenes in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal on the traditional, ancestral, and territory of the Kanien’kehà:ka. Historically, the unceded Kanien’kehà:ka lands have served as a crucial site for gatherings and exchanges among diverse First Nations, encompassing the Kanien’kehá:ka of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Huron/Wendat, Abenaki, and Anishinaabeg. The French arrived in Montréal in the 1600s as a missionary settlement and gradually gained political and economic power in the region with its fur-trade. More than a century of tension and conflicts erupted between the settlers and the Haudenosaunee (people of the longhouse), resulting in casualties for both parties. On 4 August 1701, the signing of a peace agreement known as the Great Peace of Montréal between the First Nations of Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and the French concluded the war of several decades. To promote awareness of racial and indigenous justice, ACLA and this conference facilitate and support the critique of colonial settlement and the legacies of slavery and colonialism. Historically, Comparative Literature as a discipline has contributed to the normalization of settler-colonialism and its epistemic violence against indigenous communities. By acknowledging the sovereignty of the Haudenosaunee over the lands in Montréal, our aim is to foster a platform for critical reflection that encourages anti-colonial discourse and action. This land acknowledgment was drafted by the ACLA executive committee and the local organizing committee. As guests on these lands we follow the guidance of the Indigenous Directions Leadership Group (2017) of Concordia University for this Territorial Acknowledgment. The IDLC provides resources on decolonizing university spaces and curricula. 
The entire Territorial Acknowledgment can be found at www.concordia.ca/indigenous/resources/territorial-acknowledgement.html
Additionally, the Canadian Association of University Teachers has produced a guide for acknowledging First Nations and their lands throughout Canada. https://www.caut.ca/content/guide-acknowledging-first-peoples-traditional-territory


Transit & Site Information

Registration and Check-In:

To streamline the check-in process, please take a moment to print your own name tags, conveniently accessible in your user account. You can pick up a lanyard and information folder at registration upon arrival in Montreal. The registration table is located on the fifth floor of the Palais des congrès de Montréal, accessible via escalator or elevator from Viger Hall on the main floor (near the tourist information booth). Registration is located across from the escalators, outside of room 517BC.

To find your name tag, log in to your ACLA user account. You'll automatically be taken to your account dashboard (if you're not, click here). Scroll down to "Conference Details," then take a moment to check that your name is spelled correctly. Click the button to print your name tag, and you'll receive a PDF to print at your convenience.

Don't forget to print your name tags before arriving! We will not be printing them on-site. 

AV and WiFi:

In keeping with our strategy of holding down member fees and conference costs, we will offer robust Wi-Fi but no AV facilities in seminar rooms this year. Participants are encouraged to pursue the alternative solutions of last year, including handouts, doc storage sites, shared links, and presentations shared from personal devices. Seminar rooms will have strong & secure WiFi, limited to ACLA attendees.

Hotel Accommodations and Room Blocks:

Please click here to view more information on hotel accommodations.

Parking:

There are several parking lots on site and near the Palais des congrès, including:

Indoor Parking Palais des congrès

  • 1025 Rue Chenneville, accessible by Avenue Viger
  • $25 daily rate
  • 400 spots

Quartier international de Montréal Indoor Parking (operated by Indigo)

  • 249 Rue Saint-Antoine Ouest
  • $29 daily rate
  • 1,200 spots

If you plan to drive, you can find road conditions and additional information on the Quebec 511 website.

Taxis & Ridesharing:

Taxis are available throughout the downtown area, and can be requested online. Ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft can be requested through mobile applications, and taxi sharing services are also available. Bicycle rental services are available, with docking stations next to the Palais. The address for the conference site is Palais des congrès de Montréal, 1001 Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle, Montréal, QC H2Z 1M2, Canada.

Public Transportation:

The Société de transport de Montréal website provides schedules and route maps of trains and buses. The Palais is a few minutes’ walk from the Place-d’Armes stop on Line 2/Orange, with an entrance with elevator access available at Accès St-Urbain, 960, rue St-Urbain, H2Z 1K4. You can purchase 1-trip tickets and OPUS cards in the metro from fare vending machines or at the ticket booth from a station officer. Please note you must keep your proof of payment for the duration of your trip.

Transportation to/from the Palais des congrès and Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL):

The 747-O bus is a 10-minute walk from the conference site, and goes directly to the airport. You can pay bus fare with 1-trip tickets, OPUS cards, or with exact change on the bus. Current fare information is available here.

Accessibility:

All entrances to the Palais des congrès de Montréal are equipped with access ramps and automatic doors, and every room is equipped with listening systems for the hearing impaired. Reserved parking spaces for permit holders are available at the Viger parking lot, accessible by Rue Chenneville. Complimentary wheelchairs for use in the conference site can be reserved on the Palais website. Please see the Montreal-Trudeau International Airport website for information regarding airport accessibility.

A quiet room is available in room 447 from 8:00am - 5:45pm on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for any attendees needing a break from seminars and other events. We ask that you keep the quiet room quiet—if you need to have a conversation or meeting, please use one of the gathering spaces located around the foyers of the fifth floor of the Palais.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the restrooms just outside of room 520C will be designated as all-gender restrooms and can be used by any attendee.

Book Exhibit:

The Book Exhibit is located on the fifth floor of the Palais des congrès de Montréal, in the foyer outside of rooms 510 and 511. Exhibitors offer books for purchase each day of the conference. This year’s exhibitors are:

  • Bloomsbury Academic
  • Brill
  • CalArts
  • Edinburgh University Press
  • McGill-Queen’s University Press
  • Modern Language Association
  • Palgrave Macmillan
  • The Scholar’s Choice
  • University of Chicago Press
  • University of Minnesota Press

The Book Exhibit will be open on the following days and times:
    Day 1: Thursday, March 14, 3:00pm - 5:45pm
    Day 2: Friday, March 15th, 8:00am - 5:45pm
    Day 3: Saturday, March 16th, 8:00am - 5:45pm
    Day 4: Sunday, March 17th, 8:00am - 12:30pm

In Case of Emergency:

For any safety concerns during the conference, dial 911 for emergencies or locate an ACLA or Palais staff member for non-emergencies. For minor medical concerns, first aid services are available upon request.

COVID-19:

We ask that all attendees follow local restrictions and guidelines regarding COVID-19. Please remain at home or in your hotel room if you don’t feel well, particularly if you experience symptoms such as fever, shortness of breath, cough, and/or nausea and vomiting. Thank you for your care in keeping the ACLA community safe.

Refreshment Areas:

Coffee and tea service will be available during seminar hours on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in the foyer outside of rooms 510 and 511, by the Book Exhibit.

Informal Meetings:

If you’d like to continue conversations started in seminars or gather a new group for an informal discussion, the Palais has a number of spaces at your disposal. You’ll find small pods suitable for groups of a few people in the foyer outside of room 517, near the ACLA registration desk, as well as seating near the book exhibit in the foyer by room 510.


As a participant, you agree to:

  • Be current in ACLA membership and registered for the Annual Meeting by extended deadline March 6, 2024.
  • Reply promptly to all requests for information from the seminar organizer and the ACLA Secretariat.
  • Attend all sessions of your seminar.
  • Notify the Secretariat immediately if you are unable to attend the conference.
  • Add info@acla.org to your list of "safe senders" in your email account, ensuring that email communications will be delivered.

Updates

This page will be updated regularly with information about the 2024 Annual Meeting. Please check back on this page for updates as they become available. If you have any questions, please contact info@acla.org, or visit the following links: