The North American Anarchist Studies Network is currently seeking presentations for our sixth annual conference to be held March 20, 21, and 22 (2015) at the California Institute for Integral Studies, in San Francisco, California – the indigenous homeland of the Ohlone people.
We would appreciate submissions from a variety of scholars: radical academics, independent researchers, community activists, street philosophers, and students. We invite those engaged in intellectual work within existing institutions, such as colleges and universities, but also those engaged in the production of knowledge beyond establishment walls to share their ongoing work. From the library stacks to the streets, we encourage all those interested in the study or use of anarchism to submit a proposal.
In keeping with the open and fluid spirit of anarchism, we will not be calling for any specific topics of discussion, but rather are encouraging participants to present on a broad and diverse number of themes: from the historical, to the contemporary, to the utopian. This includes topics of current interest and importance such as the “war on terror,” police violence, torture, racism, decoloniality, gentrification, technology, labor, as well as biography, historiography, and other forms of research; works that tend to intersectionality and grapples with race, indigeneity, ethnicity, gender, sexuality; and scholarship that cross cuts with other disciplines and fields including but not limited to: philosophy, political theory, psychology, musicology, literary studies, anthropology, sociology, ethnic studies, critical indigenous studies, queer and trans studies, women and gender studies, disability studies, science studies, and beyond. Submissions for panels, individual papers, workshops, and alternative format presentations will be
gladly accepted.
We seek to include voices of academics alongside those of activists and organizers. We also encourage scholars in the hard sciences and other fields who may see anarchism as influencing or relevant to their work to please become involved. We also seek the participation of organizations or collectives more comfortable the community than in the lecture hall.
We are particularly interested in including marginalized voices and perspectives and encourage the breaking down of barriers between disciplines as well as between the academic and non-academic or even anti-academic. Please spread this call far and wide: it is up to each of us to make this as diverse and complex a discussion as possible.
We hope this gathering to be a place for the dedicated and intensive examination of long standing discussions and debates occurring amongst branches of the anti-authoritarian movement as well as between various groups of anarchist scholars, and ask for all such interventions and interactions to be conducted in the pursuit of communication, understanding, and respectful exchange.
NAASN is an organic organization that has ties with the Anarchist Studies Network in the U.K. as well as with collectives, archives, and scholars across Europe, the United States, Canada, and Latin America.
Previous conferences have been held in Hartford, Toronto, San Juan, New Orleans, and Vancouver. We attempt to maintain connection with scholars working in a large number of languages, including English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese and always are looking to expand out transnational affiliation and capabilities, which are only limited by the skills offered by participants. We constitute an informal and volunteer network, with no due paying members. We ask for no registration fee and seek to accommodate all possible participants regardless of their previous experience with academic conferences or scholarly endeavors.
For inspiration, examples, and event updates, we invite you to visit our website at www.naasn.org. There, you can find past presentations, visual materials, and ephemera from our first five annual events. We also suggest that you join our email listserv in order to remain updated and involved in on group discussion. Conference proposal submissions and further questions should be addressed to NAASN2015@riseup.net. Please respond by February 14, 2015.
Path to the Possible 