SUBMISSIONS ARE NO LONGER BEING RECEIVED. PLEASE CONTACT FISTGradCon2023@gmail.com IF YOU HAVE ANY INQUIRIES.
The graduate students of the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation are excited to announce a call for submissions for our 2023 conference titled, “Transforming Our Social World: Radical Practices of World Building & Destruction”. The conference will be held as an in person/online hybrid from March 23-24, 2023.
We are inviting activists, collectives, community members, scholars, artists, writers, and graduate students to submit presentation proposals for projects that call for transformative social change and abolition politics.
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This conference was inspired by our Institute’s recent name change, our personal projects, and the work of countless thinkers and activists working towards social transformation that benefits everyone, especially those living with multiple oppressions. We are particularly inspired by abolitionists and community organizers like Da’Shaun Harrison. Their book Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness (2021) calls on us to push past reform and build an entirely new world:
When thinking about abolition we also turn to Morgan Bassichis, Alexander Lee, and Dean Spade (2015). Abolition is about breaking down, or destroying, what oppresses us. But it is also just as much concerned with building things that nourish us. It is a transformative practice that is founded on collective struggle, care, and interdependence.
We invite submissions that call for the generative destruction of all systems of power (abolition) so that we can build systems that value all bodyminds and leave no one behind (transformation). We seek presentations that acknowledge the inevitability of harm and activate our capacity to feel it and heal it. We want to cultivate a space for collective participation where we can bring to life a world that centers consent, collective self-determination, belonging, accountability, connection, care, and harm reduction.
We are hoping to host a multimedia conference where presenters can use any form of knowledge-making, such as, but not limited to: stories (written and oral), songs, poetry, poster presentations, paintings or other artforms, podcasts, PowerPoints, research papers, TikToks or any other methods. Group presentations or activities are welcomed and encouraged. We are welcoming submissions in English, French, and American Sign Language. Kindly submit your application with the following content in one .pdf copy (single spacing, 12pt. font) to FISTGradCon2023@gmail.com by December 31st, 2022.