“Care & Communities” - Shifting Tides, Anxious Borders (STAB) 2026

Binghamton University, Department of English 

Conference date: March 21, 2026

Submission deadline: January 31, 2026

“Dominator culture has tried to keep us all afraid, to make us choose safety instead of risk, sameness instead of diversity. Moving through that fear, finding out what connects us, revelling in our differences; this is the process that brings us closer, that gives us a world of shared values, of meaningful community.” 

-bell hooks, Teaching Community

Over the last 5 years, a drastic increase in political polarization and the rise of the loneliness epidemic has left community feeling less accessible than ever. While new technologies have made instant communication possible across the globe, meaningful connection defined by real interpersonal bonds and care have become ever harder to find. In this context, creating and fostering community has become increasingly urgent.

We invite scholars, artists, and activists to submit papers and creative works that explore how  communities throughout time are imagined, defined, and built, and how these communities may be shaped by care (or the lack thereof). We ask: what does it mean to care for another, and to be cared for, within a community? How do communities conceptualize care, enact care, withhold care, or weaponize care? How do communities decide who to include or exclude, and what does it mean to live outside of or without community? 

We welcome submissions on the theme of “Care & Communities” across disciplines. Topics can include, but are not limited to:

• Marginalized communities

• Cultural, linguistic, and spiritual communities

• Histories of care work and communal living

• Care as labor and affective economies

• Systems of power and oppression within communities

• Mutual aid, community care, activism, and resistance

• Learning communities, classroom communities, pedagogies of care

• Intergenerational trauma and communal healing

• Online communities and digital solidarities

• How location and space defines, limits, and fosters community

• Subcultures and identity formation within community

• Depictions and narratives of care and community within art, literature, and film

We invite scholars (including undergraduates) from all disciplines, along with artists and activists to send their abstracts of no more than 250 words (along with a paper title, short author’s bio, and 4-5 keywords) to stab.binghamton@gmail.com. Please submit the abstract using your institutional email address unless you prefer to be enlisted as an independent scholar, activist, or artist. Specify in your submission your modality; in-person presentations will be prioritized over remote submissions.

For questions, contact stab.binghamton@gmail.com.