Gazing Toward a Multiracial Future of Intersectional Justice: Reconstruction, Representation, & Reparations in Social Foundations
Proposals for this year's annual meeting are due by May 7, 11:59pm. To support you in thinking through and writing your session proposal, please view this supportive video that walks through the process and offers some advice for putting together a strong proposal.
A Call For Participation & Proposals
American Educational Studies Association
October 29 - November 2, 2025
Albuquerque, NM
We have to learn to think in radical terms. I use the term radical in its original meaning: getting down to and understanding the root cause. It means facing a system that does not lend itself to your needs and devising means by which you can change that system…
We are not in the final stages of the freedom struggle. We are really just beginning.
Ella Baker
As the American Educational Studies Association (AESA) community gathers in Albuquerque, we will be in the midst of considering the fragility of democracy, the need for critical engagement, the impact of activism, the hope in healing, and the possibility of creating an anti-racist country and world. In the summer of 1955, one year after the Supreme Court declared school racial segregation unconstitutional, Chester Travelstead, the Dean of the School of Education at the University of South Carolina remained steadfast in his belief in equality, publicly supported integration and spoke out against racial segregation in schools. For this, he was fired. Immediately, the University of New Mexico hired him as Dean of the School of Education reminding us that there are places willing to embrace visions for educational and intersectional racial justice.
The 2025 Annual Meeting theme of “Gazing Toward a Multiracial Future of Intersectional Justice: Reconstruction, Representation, & Reparations in Social Foundations” is inspired by the work of scholars and activists who challenge dominant narratives and advocate for a more just and equitable society. By centering the experiences of communities targeted for the margins, embracing radical abolitionist visions of democracy, and reconstructing work toward educational justice, we seek to envision a present and future where all individuals thrive. This year’s conference theme builds upon previous themes centering education for liberation, collaboration, connections with/in difference. We invite proposals that use storytelling to recenter, reclaim, agitate, inspire, and ignite the purpose, significance, and importance of foundations of education and advances our work in formal and informal educational settings, public pedagogy, and the contexts of education.
The story of the Three Sisters is apropos for the strength and resilience of the AESA community, where everyone contributes to the collective well-being. For centuries, corn, beans, and squash, commonly known as “the Three Sisters,” have been important companion crops in Indigenous communities in the Americas. The corn provides support for the beans, the beans fix nitrogen in the soil, and the squash vines shade the ground which prevents weeds and helps retain moisture in dry years. The inter-planting of corn, beans and squash, or ``Three Sisters'', demonstrates how each discipline plays a crucial role in helping the others grow, representing the idea that individuals can achieve more when they work together and rely on each other's strengths. As companion concepts, representation (Noblit, Flores, & Murillo, 2004), reparations (Darity & Mullen, 2022; King, 2017; Matsuda, 1987; Torres & Milun, 1990), and reconstruction (Joseph, 2022; Davis, 1972; Du Bois, 1910, 1917) are generative ideas for advancing the multiracial democratic project of intersectional justice. Collectively, they operationalize both the creation of new democratic institutions, practices, and social relations to ensure that all people are equal members of society.
We borrow a phrase from Anzia Bennett, Executive Director of Three Sisters Kitchen in Albuquerque and ask: how might our relationships serve as collateral for us to take the type of risks needed to advance more just educative possibilities? We invite proposals to consider this and other questions including:
- What are the implications for thinking about the multiple strains of social foundations disciplines as three sisters growing together?
- How does educational liberation challenge us to reconnect marginalized and minoritized communities with radical and/or overlooked aspects of social foundations within formal and informal learning spaces?
- How might we intentionally center our collective gaze toward a vision for a multiracial, intersectionally just, radical democracy?
- How do we move beyond rhetorical social justice commitments and enact new relations across humans, non-humans, and matter in the development of solutions?
- How can we recenter the experiences of communities targeted for the margins in our research and practice to decenter the white gaze?
- How can we re-tool social foundations research to advocate for reparative justice and restorative practices?
- What is the role of social foundations in advocating for policies and practices that promote intersectional educational justice?
As a community, let us courageously continue imagining different possibilities and ways to synergize our ideas towards justice.
Proposals related to educational studies that are not specific to this theme are also welcome.
All questions should be directed to Daniella Cook Sumpter and the Program Team at email: 2025aesa@gmail.com (questions only, not proposals).
Conference Proposals due Friday, March 14, 2025.
Proposal Submission Information TBA Soon Please Revisit This Page
Proposal Information
All submissions are anonymously reviewed. Please remove identifying references from your proposal (for example, your name and/or publications that refer to you as the author/editor). Individuals may appear on the conference program a maximum of three times.
Word limits are as follows:
Word limits are as follows:
- Titles should be no more than 15 words.
- Abstracts should be 150 words or less.
- Proposals for individual papers should not exceed 1,000 words (excluding references).
- Proposals for all other sessions should not exceed 1,500 words (excluding references).
Proposal types:
Presenters may submit proposals for individual papers, panel, roundtable, poster or alternative session presentations. At the time of submission, presenters will be asked to rank up to 3 possible presentation modes. Presenters will also be invited to volunteer to be a discussant or chair for a session during the conference.
Individual paper. An individual paper submission is a single paper with one or more co-authors that is complete and finalized. The Program Chair groups individual papers into sessions with other papers that have similar themes or topics. In individual paper sessions, authors present abbreviated versions of their papers. In most cases, the Program Committee will identify a chair/discussant and presenters are expected to share their paper one month in advance of the conference to facilitate discussant comments and audience discussion.
Panel. A panel is a collection of papers around a specific area of inquiry or theme, and each participant presents her/his/their own paper. Chair and discussant (could be the same person) is to be identified by the session organizer. There is a specific section to add individual paper titles along with the names of each individual paper presenters. A space is available to include a 150 word abstract for each individual paper but these abstracts are optional and will not be included in the program.
Roundtable/Working Papers. A roundtable presentation is a single paper with one or more authors that is considered “work in progress.” The Program Chair groups papers together that have similar questions, themes, topics, or methodologies. The goal of these gatherings is to share ideas that can move projects forward and develop professional networks with scholars working in similar areas.
Poster. A poster presentation is a graphic representation of a scholarly project that is well suited to a visual representation and may include drawings, photographs, charts, graphs, and other textual data.
Alternative session. Alternative sessions are those that do not fit neatly into any of the above categories. Alternative sessions can be framed as thinking groups, working groups, town halls, performances, structured poster sessions, video and multimedia presentations, or other formats. Identifying and naming a chair and discussant (could be the same person) are highly recommended at the time of proposal.
Information About All Academic and Submitting Your Proposal
The All Academic site will be available February 9, 2024 to April 24, 2024 for submissions. There will be no extensions offered for submissions past the April 24th due date. When visiting the All Academic site, you will need to set up your account by creating a username and password. The Call for Participation & Proposals is also on this page. Follow the prompts to volunteer to be a chair or discussant, as well as submit your proposal. First, click on “Submit or Edit a Proposal” and then click on “Submit a New Proposal.” The next screen will ask you to rank your preference for Proposal Type (Individual Paper, Panel, Roundtable, Poster, or Alternative Session). On the following screen, you will include your proposal Title, Abstract, Keywords, Categories (see below) and any additional information needed for the Program Committee. Accessibility requests must also be included with the submission in the designated space.
Follow this link to the AllAcademic conference submission portal:
https://convention2.allacademic.com/one/aesa/aesa24/
You will be asked to upload your proposal. Please upload a PDF document and note the word limits (listed above). If you are submitting a proposal with multiple presenters, please make sure to include the name, affiliation, email address, and telephone number of each participant when prompted by the online submission website. Your proposal should address the following components, using subheadings for each:
- Purposes, central questions or problems
- Contexts and Theoretical Framework(s) (discuss scholarly/practitioner conversations to which your work contributes)
- Primary sources or data sources
- Approaches, methods, strategies, or techniques for analysis
- Arguments/implications, or agenda, and, significance
When you upload your proposal, you will be asked to identify which categories relate to your work (for reviewer information). Please choose up to three categories that apply most closely to your proposal:
- Anthropology of Education
- Critical Black Studies
- Critical Indigenous Studies
- Critical Media Studies
- Critical Race Theory
- Critical Research Methodologies
- Cultural Studies of Education
- Culturally Responsive/Sustaining Pedagogies
- Curriculum Theory/Studies
- Decolonial/Anti-colonial theory
- Decolonizing Studies in Education
- Disability Studies
- Ethnic Studies
- Feminist and Gender Studies
- Higher Education
- History of Education
- LGBTQ+ Studies
- Philosophy of Education
- Politics/Policy in Education
- Social Contexts of Education
- Sociology of Education
- Sustainability and Education
- Teacher Education
Only the individual submitting the proposal will be notified of its acceptance or rejection. That individual will be responsible for communicating this information to all session participants.
Reviewers will use the following evaluation criteria to shape their commentary:
- Originality of thought
- Implications for the profession/field
- Clarity of purpose & connection to/critique of conference theme
Please remember that submitting a proposal in All Academic is not the same as conference registration or membership and that both are required to appear on the conference program.
PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION AND MEMBERSHIP
AAll questions should be directed to Isabel Nuñez and the Program Team at aesagreenville2024@gmail.com (questions only, not proposals).
Acknowledgements: The Program Team thanks several scholars in AESA for their help in shaping this call and offering constructive insights on elements of the conference program.
Special Announcement for Graduate Students
Up to four $500 prizes will be presented with the Taylor & Francis Past President’s Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Paper at the annual meeting. Watch the AESA Weekly Roundup for the call for submissions, which will be due shortly after the conference proposal deadline. Graduate students are encouraged to submit an application for the award based on their conference proposals.
