Call for Proposals for the 25th SCSU Women’s & Gender Studies Conference
by Women’s & Gender Studies Department, SCSU
(Re)making the World: A “How-To” Conference on Feminist, Crip, and Decolonial Worldmaking, April 17–18, 2026, at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven
In As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance (2017), Leanne Betasamosake Simpson writes:
Resurgence is not a metaphor. It is the flight out of settler colonialism, towards something we have been taught is impossible.
This conference takes Simpson’s call for radical resurgence seriously — positioning “how-to” as a feminist practice, politic, and theorizing.
The 2026 Southern Connecticut State University Women’s & Gender Studies Conference invites communities to gather for a feminist, crip, and decolonial practice of refusal, survival, and worldmaking.
In an era of rising authoritarianism, climate catastrophe, and technological dispossession, we ask
How do we refuse extractive systems of labor, knowledge, and identity?
How do we create alternative economies of care, access, justice, and decolonial business?
How do we unlearn oppressive epistemologies and forge liberatory practices?
How do we crip, queer, Indigenize, and decolonize institutions not built for us?
How do we resist algorithmic bias, surveillance capitalism, and technocratic ableism?
How do we (re)imagine feminist futures?
The 2026 conference offers a space to explore the pedagogies, practices, and possibilities embedded in the question of “how to?” across disciplines, communities, and movements. We seek proposals that move beyond critique to praxis — embracing failure as pedagogy, interdependence as resistance, and joy as a radical act.
Submission Guidelines: Individual papers, workshops, roundtables, performances, exhibitions, teach-ins, skill-shares, activist toolkits, and other creative or non-traditional formats are welcomed.
We encourage proposals from caregivers, community organizers, entrepreneurs, artist-activists, and others whose work centers lived experiences, collaborative strategies, and collective visions for justice and inclusion.
The deadline is Jan. 5, 2026 (earlier submissions encouraged). Notifications will be sent by Jan. 30.
Send proposals to wgs@southernct.edu with the subject “2026 SCSU WGS Conference Submission” and include the name of the proposer, email, phone number, affiliation (if any), and any accessibility needs. The proposal should be approximately 150-250 words and should include a 50-word bio for each presenter and a separate section with a description of the proposed format of the session.
Registration details will be available shortly. Please email or phone the Women’s & Gender Studies Department at wgs@southernct.edu or 203-392-6133.
