2023 Annual Conference | CFP Deadline Extended to January 15th!

York University, Toronto — MAY 29-31, 2023

The Sexuality Studies Association (SSA) welcomes proposals for our 11^th annual meeting to be held in person at York University in Toronto from May 29-31, 2023. The conference will be hosted in coordination with the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences and will feature a variety of programming including paper presentations, a keynote lecture by Dr. Andil Gosine, plenaries led by Dr. Gary Kinsman and others to be announced, as well as our Annual General Meeting.

The official theme for Congress 2023 is “Reckonings and Re-imaginings.” The Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences has committed to “centering the experiences, knowledges and cultures of Indigenous and Black communities as valuable and critical modes of thought fundamental to the realization of racial and climate justice.” This commitment is in large part thanks to the Black Canadian Studies Association and other associations who joined their efforts – the SSA included – to apply pressure on the Federation in recent years to respond to anti-Black racism and white settler logic within their own communities of thinkers. While the SSA welcomes proposals geared toward any topic within the field, we encourage Sexuality Studies scholars to consider the Federation’s goal to “shift the culture of Congress, to create meaningful space for diverse viewpoints and a profound reckoning with white supremacist forms of knowledge production, while making visible decolonial, anti-racism, queer, and critical disability perspectives.” As a field of knowledge production, Sexuality Studies is no stranger to analyses of power. Thus, we invite submissions that theorize what’s needed to sustain such reckonings and the equitable re-imaginings we hope they spur, as well what’s needed to hold the institutions we depend on – as well as each other – to account, within our antiracist and decolonial commitments.

The Programming Committee invites proposals for presentations in English or French from any disciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary approach. Paper proposals in the form of 300–350-word abstracts can be submitted at https://www.conftool.net/ssa2023  (the SSA’s online conference site). The extended deadline for submission is January 15, 2023. Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by the end of February 2023. To foster lively exchanges and build an engaged community, we strongly encourage all presenters to participate in person. While accommodations will be made where possible to make the conference accessible to those who cannot—it is not, however, a hybrid conference. Further consultation with our membership over the winter will determine whether additional measures we will be put in place to ensure collective safety and flourishing at this in-person event.

Applicants are not required to be members of the association at time of submission. If selected for presentation as part of the conference, 2022-23 membership dues must be paid along with Congress and conference fees. To become a member of the SSA you can register through our website here. Congress and conference registration opens in January.

At this time, the SSA is also inviting nominations for our two annual awards. To be considered for the SSA’s Emerging Scholar Award please review the eligibility guidelines available on our website. Applicants will need to indicate their interest on the proposal submission form and must provide a full-length conference paper to the Awards Committee by April 30, 2023. To nominate someone for SSA’s Academic Leadership in Sexuality Studies Award, please review the eligibility guidelines available on our website and send your submissions to the Awards Committee (sexualitystudiesassociation@gmail.com) by March 31, 2023.

If you have any questions or are interested in joining the Programming Committee, please contact our Program Coordinator, Dr. Gary Lee Pelletier at garyleepelletier@gmail.com