Call for Papers! National Conference: Mobilizing Queer Joy and Challenging Anti-2SLGBTQ+ Hate

Conference Dates: October 10-12th, 2025

Location: MacEwan University, Edmonton, Alberta

Deadline for Proposals: July 18th

Queer joy is not a luxury—it is a radical act of survival, healing, and personal and collective transformation. As anti-2SLGBTQ+ hate becomes increasingly institutionalized across schools, healthcare, media, and public policy, this conference aims to foreground the lived experiences, creative strategies, and community wisdom that resist erasure and cultivate liberation. 

In an era marked by intensifying anti-2SLGBTQ+ rhetoric, policies, and violence, the need to affirm, protect, and celebrate queer lives is urgent. Mobilizing Queer Joy and Challenging Anti-2SLGBTQ+ Hate is the first national interdisciplinary Queer and Trans Studies conference in Canada, aiming to help support the development of a national strategy to address steeply rising anti-2SLGBTQ+ hate. We welcome submissions that explore the current sociopolitical climate for 2SLGBTQ+ communities, as well as forms of resistance such as community organizing, healing justice, mutual aid, Two-Spirit resurgence, Black queer thought, disability justice, and other liberatory approaches that are rooted in anti-oppression. We invite scholars, community organizations, artists, and educators to critically engage with the dual imperative of joyful resistance and strategic solidarity. 

The conference will include brainstorming and artmaking sessions, and results from these initiatives will be compiled and disseminated to participants, policymakers, and other stakeholders across Canada. 

Questions?

Email jj.wright@macewan.ca

Submission Types

We encourage the submission of academic papers and panels, research presentations from community organizations, workshops (particularly skill-building workshops), performances, and visual art (prints of which will be displayed during the conference and potentially featured in a post-event zine and other educational materials).

All proposals should reflect a commitment to anti-oppressive practice, accessibility, and collective care. Undergraduate students in Edmonton are also welcome to submit proposals for a dedicated undergraduate research session.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit a 300-word abstract, presentation title, and 100-word bio by July 18th. Panel presentations must include abstracts and bios for each panelist. Submission portal: https://forms.gle/eWDkZUj5r4J3RSZq6

We encourage academic researchers to consider translating their material to make it more accessible to students, frontline workers, and educators who are attending the conference. To do this, they may consider conveying the policy or community implications of their research in less traditionally academic and more accessible language. When submitting your proposal please indicate the intended audience of your session (K-12 students, teachers, post-secondary educators, policy-makers, etc.).

Academic Travel Grants

In the spirit of supporting junior scholars who are precariously financed, small travel grants ($300) are available for graduate students, postdocs, and other early career researchers. 

Accessibility

There will be no registration fee for the conference thanks to funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. 

We are committed to making this conference as accessible and inclusive as possible for all participants. If you have any accessibility needs—whether related to technology, communication, participation format, or other supports—please let us know in advance, if possible, so we can work together to ensure a welcoming and inclusive space. We welcome suggestions on how we can improve accessibility and are open to feedback at any stage of the planning process.

Check our instagram for the latest information! @re_searching_2slgbtq_health