CFP: 16th Annual African, African American, and Diaspora Studies (AAAD) Interdisciplinary Conference
A conference hosted by James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA

Conference Theme: Sanctuary: Sites of Survival and Spontaneity 

February 11-13, 2026
Deadline: 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.eduby 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.