The Diaspora Strikes Back 2026 Conference Call For Papers

The Department of Childhood Studies at Rutgers University seeks proposals for a multidisciplinary conference on Transnational Desires and Childhoods of Empire as a means of continuing a critical, multidisciplinary dialogue around Black childhoods and childhoods of color. We seek to convene scholars, writers, practitioners, artists, and advocates for children interested in wrestling with the tensions around diasporas and immigrations globally especially as we have seen a rise in nationalism(s) within the US and abroad. In Decolonizing Diasporas, Yomaira Figueroa writes about the importance of decolonial thinking and writing when revisiting the histories of imperialisms that have essentialized ideas around nation, language, race, and ethnicity. Please review the conference themes and submission guidelines below before submitting a proposal. More info can be found here: https://childhood.camden.rutgers.edu/conference2026/