Florida Atlantic Univeristy - Comparative Studies Student Association 

                                                            CSSA’s 2025 Intellectual Resistance Conference

Call for Papers

Florida Atlantic University’s Comparative Studies Student Association (CSSA) invites all undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students, educators, and early-career scholars early from across the Americas to join us for our 2nd annual Intellectual Resistance Conference. The idea of “intellectual resistance” was initially just a theme for our 2024 conference; however, this theme resonated with scholars across the globe, prompting our decision to make Intellectual Resistance our annual theme.

What do we mean by “intellectual resistance,” exactly? As we saw with the 2024 conference, resistance can take many forms across a variety of academic disciplines. In essence, though, we aim to cement our conference as a meeting place for diverse academics to share their work and their ideas across various fields – many that are unfortunately facing increased censorship. It is essential that we continue to have a place to meet and a space in which we can discuss theories and methods necessary to our disciplines, thereby resisting the regressive attitudes towards certain corners of academia. While, as scholars, we aim to resist hegemonic structures that would censor our research, we also want to be intentional about gathering to share that research with others whose interests also lie in furthering the horizons of intellectual progress–for it is in our intentionality to meet and discuss civilly, to speak as well as to listen, we resist the tides of ruthless ignorance sweeping our culture.

Participating in this conference allows you to join the subtle yet powerful forces resisting those oppressive efforts. Furthermore, it is not lost on us that this conference is being held in Florida, a state presently infamous for its anti-intellectual discourse and public policies. It is, therefore, more imperative here than in many other parts of the country that our resistance efforts continue to be heard and that we continue to push back against this oppressive anti-intellectual tide that threatens to silence us all.

Feel free to submit papers or abstracts addressing and interpreting intellectual resistance across a wide range of contexts and social issues such as human rights, environment, racism and discrimination, public education, housing, immigration, poverty, LGBTQIA+ rights, capitalism, and more. As the Comparative Studies Student Association, we believe knowledge and wisdom to be rife when considering the imbrication of disciplines as opposed to considering a discipline in isolation; thus, we welcome abstracts from across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The disciplines may include but are not limited to:

• Literature
• History
• Sociology
• Medical studies
• Politics
• Philosophy
• Anthropology
• Environmental studies
• Media studies
• Education
• Gender and Sexuality
• Creative work
• Dramatic readings

If you are interested in submitting a proposal for our conference, please complete this Googleform (which includes a 250-word abstract and a 150-word bio) by December 15, 2024. Our conference will occur in-person at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, on Saturday, March 29, 2025.

Please feel free to contact the conference organizers at Cssa@fau.edu for more information.