Conference Theme: Sanctuary: Sites of Survival and Spontaneity
February 11-13, 2026
Deadline for submission: October 15, 2025
The African, African American, and Diaspora Studies Center at James Madison University invites proposals for its annual interdisciplinary conference, to be held from Wednesday, February 11 to Friday, February 13, 2026. The conference brings together scholars, archivists, and practitioners from a wide variety of overlapping and intersecting fields. This year’s theme is Sanctuary: Sites of Survival and Spontaneity.
The word “sanctuary” contains an invocation of the sacred—that which is set apart, inviolable—yet we live in a moment where the sanctity of sanctuaries is especially tenuous. Because sanctuaries are actual, existing spaces, they are inherently violable, vulnerable to the application of force in ways that abstract beliefs are not. In emphasizing both the vulnerability and the potentiality of the “site,” we seek to explore the ways space and place coalesce in practices of worldbuilding, as well as how survival and spontaneity are intertwined in such sites. Aspiring to widen the concept’s purview, we welcome creative and unexpected re-definitions of “the site,” including sites of movement and mobility.
This year’s conference will be hybrid; we invite in-person and virtual presentations on any topic relevant to AAAD studies, even if not directly pertinent to the conference theme. We welcome proposals from scholars from all disciplines at any point in their scholarly careers. Proposals for individual presentations or pre-constituted panels could address, but are not limited to, topics such as these:
Sites of politics
Feminist worldmaking
Memory and commemoration
Educational districting
Pedagogical sites
Virtual space
Land justice
Nomadism
Displacement
Archival sites
Space and climate
Sites of health and health care
Engineered spaces
Development
Reparation/s
Intelligence and space
Urban environments
Sites of sexuality
Cartographies of resistance
Sacred Space
Arts of sanctuary
Please send 300-word presentation proposals, or 1000-word panel proposals, to aaadstudies@jmu.edu by October 15, 2025. In addition to your title and abstract, proposals should include each presenter’s name, institutional affiliation, email address, a brief bio, and what modality you intend to present in. Panel proposals must include at least three panelists. Further information and updates about the conference may be found at sites.lib.jmu.edu/aaadjmu. International respondents traveling to the United States in need of Visa documentation are encouraged to submit their abstracts as early as possible, ideally before September 15. International respondents will be notified on an ongoing basis. US respondents will be notified within a month after the deadline.