2023 Society for Socialist Studies Conference

Following a successful call for sessions, the Society for Socialist Studies is pleased to circulate this open call for papers for the 2023 Annual Conference, "Re-Imagining the Left." 

The programme committee is thrilled with the roundtables and panels already planned for the conference, including sessions on academic marxism, leftist social movements and party politics, resisting far-right populism and critical theory, book launches and author roundtables, a roundtable in memory of Frank Cunningham and celebration of his intellectual legacy, as well as a plenary session of members of the Society of Socialist Studies and the Critical Political Science related group (American Political Science Association) about challenges and possibilities for the left. 

Considering the broad nature of this year's conference theme, we welcome papers exploring socialism, leftism, emancipatory politics, feminism, anti-capitalism, anti-racist, and anti-colonial struggle. Other themes that have been proposed in past years where the Society ultimately did not hold a conference, but welcome papers that address these issues, include the following:

• Carceral capitalism and ‘the law’;
• Resisting right-wing populism and neo-fascism;
• Re-igniting a vital relationship with workers, workers movements, and the unemployed and unpaid workers;
• Border imperialism, migration, and racial capitalism;
• Combating anti-blackness and anti-Indigeneity;
• Decolonizing/unsettling Marx and the socialist ‘classics’;
• Queer and trans anti-capitalism;
• Disrupting the ecological crises;
• Responding to neoliberal urbanization;
• Advancing feminist socialisms.

The committee is further seeking papers that would fit within a number of stellar open panels. The details of which are below. Beyond the open panels, we are also seeking papers interested in presenting on panels titled Settler Colonialism and Social Form, and Rethinking Neoliberalism and the Third Way: Origins, Developments, and Afterlives. 

The deadline for submitting a paper proposal is February 28, 2023. Successful individuals will be contacted prior to the March 31st early bird deadline for Congress registration. Please direct any questions to 2023sssconference@gmail.com (Programme Chair: Megan Aiken, University of Alberta / Saint Mary's University).