2026 Conference Theme and Call for Proposals

Plain language abstract also available

“I am interested in shock, and surprise, and improvisation, as methods by which to understand political and social life.” – Billy-Ray Belcourt
 
Improvisation is not an accident of collapse.
It is a method of creating under constraint.
The riff. The break. The pivot. The “yes and.”
 
Improvisation is more than an act of survival. 
It is mutual aid conjured in dissent.
Glitter thrown on ICE agents.
Frankie Knuckles spinning vinyl at The Warehouse.
It is sweat-drenched bodies. Intricate footwork.
La Raza. Ebony. Jet. Underground zines. Mixtapes igniting new freedom dreams. 
 
Improvisation lives in the ruins of what has been broken and still dares to imagine what might be built next. In its most radical form, it is essential to reparative justice and worldbuilding. Both instant and enduring: improvisation is a fleeting gesture that can open the door to permanent transformations. Those who improvise know that violence is ongoing, that collapse is real. Yet they dare to believe that creativity, play, and collaboration are lifelines. 
 
A change is gonna come. But what do we do in the meantime? This conference implores us to dwell in the meantime.
 
2026 marks 250 years since the founding of the United States–a nation built upon the entangled systems of settler colonialism and chattel slavery. This turbulent anniversary calls for new provocations: What is the work of American Studies in our current meantime? If we take improvisation seriously—as method, politics, and horizon—what new forms of freedom must be improvised now?
 
Higher education is under attack. Departments dismantled. Funding slashed. Tenure eroded. Students and contingent faculty persecuted, fired, deported, or disappeared. Academic freedom, as we once understood it, is no longer. We ask: What is a “comfort zone” in a time of global peril? Are our scholarly tools still useful, or must we do wholly different work? What unlikely alliances might be required to survive this crisis? These questions demand an honest reckoning as we imagine a future—an “other side.” We must get messy. It is in the messiness of collaboration, in the décalage of translation, that imperfect possibilities arise.
 
Chicago, our gathering place, is improvisation in action. A city built on the ancestral homelands of the Neshnabék: the Potawatomi, Odawa, and Ojibwe Nations; the Illinois Confederation: the Peoria and Kaskaskia Nations; and the Myaamia, Wea, Ho-Chunk, Sauk, and Meskwaki Nations, shaped by centuries of dispossession and violated treaties. A palimpsest continually remapped by waves of Black, Latino/a/x, and Asian migration. It is a global city: Bridgeview. Bronzeville. Humboldt Park. Pilsen. Chinatown. Albany Park. A cultural hub whose poetics hum in Gwendolyn Brooks’ “Boy Breaking Glass.” The pensive lenses of Carlos Javier Ortiz and Diana Solís. The whimsy of a Shirien Damra illustration. The genius of immigrant artist-educators who birthed Chicago-style improv comedy. The experimental practices of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. From jazz to house, drill to reggaeton. From Fred Hampton and the Young Lords through the Rainbow Coalition to the Arab American Action Network. Chicago is a living repertoire of improvisatory practices that link art, activism, and knowledge production. A city scarred by segregation and violence, yet alive with queer and trans brilliance and disability justice work. Wreckage and glitter, wound and possibility. The city deeply informs—and maybe even changes—how we gather and what we can learn from one another and from our local communities.
 
This call for proposals is a blue note; riff on it freely. We want to reimagine what an academic conference can be: immersive, collaborative, and deeply engaged with the community. We invite scholars, artists, activists, archivists, and community builders to dream big with us. While we welcome paper presentations and roundtables, we want to experiment with alternative session formats: performance art, workshops, laboratories, immersive screenings, tours, and more. We especially welcome proposals that center the Midwest in conversations about the global South or American Studies from the periphery. We also seek professional development and community organizing panels that use improvisation as an approach. 

Plain Language Abstract

The 2026 ASA Annual Meeting focuses on improvisation as a method of creating, thinking, and organizing under constraint. We understand improvisation as a generative collective practice that can be used in moments of instability, crisis, or institutional failure. We invite proposals that examine improvisation in scholarship, art, activism, teaching, and community work, especially in relation to justice, repair, and world-building. The year 2026 marks 250 years since the founding of the United States. Proposals may engage with this fraught anniversary as it occurs amid conditions including ongoing state violence, attacks on higher education, and labor precarity. These conditions also raise questions about the future of American Studies and the academy as a whole. Chicago is central to the conference. We welcome proposals that engage the city’s histories and futures as well as proposals that situate the Midwest in global or transnational contexts. Traditional formats (e.g. paper panels and roundtables) are welcome; however, we especially encourage alternative and experimental formats, including workshops, performances, community-engaged sessions, laboratories, immersive screenings, tours, and professional development or grassroots organizing trainings.

Session Types

Please note the NEW session types for 2026! All sessions run for 90 minutes.

Paper Sessions 

Traditional sessions for presentation and discussion of individual research papers. Presenters write papers, and distribute them to the chair, commentator, and other panelists by the deadline. 

Organized Paper Panels: 

• Include 3–4 papers with a designated chair and commentator. 
• Each paper must have an abstract. 
• Almost all paper sessions will be scheduled for rooms without video equipment.  
• Sessions proposing fewer than three papers are unlikely to be accepted.  

Constructed Paper Sessions  

Presenters submit their own individual papers, and accepted papers are then compiled into sessions built by the Program Committee. A limited number of individual papers will be accepted to the program, which not only need to pass the test of excellence but also must fit with other individual papers to form a session with internal coherence. 

Requirements for individual paper submissions:  

• Individual paper submissions must designate two topical categories for their papers at time of submission. 
• In order to facilitate the Program Committee’s work of constructing sessions from accepted individual paper submissions, individual papers submitted without a category or submitted to a category that does not align with the paper’s topic will be disqualified from consideration.  

Book Sessions 

A unified category for sessions focusing on one or more books, including book roundtables, Author Meets Readers, and Author Meets Critics sessions. 

• Book sessions generally have 5 or more participants and include one or more featured titles per session as well as respondents and/or discussants.
• Books sessions usually focus on recent publications.  

Film Sessions 

Screenings of films or media works followed by discussion. May include filmmakers and/or scholars as discussants. 

Retrospective / “Field-Changing” Sessions 

Sessions honoring a major scholar, publication, or body of work that has significantly influenced the field. Retrospectives could also include sessions that look back on significant events on their anniversary or other milestone. Format may vary, including paper sessions, roundtables, etc.   

Roundtable Discussions 

Conversation-based sessions focused on dialogue rather than formal presentation, with the chair facilitating discussion. Larger numbers of participants are welcome. 

• No presentations, papers, slides, or PPTs are allowed and no video equipment is provided.
• Room setup may be in a round or half-round.
• Opening remarks limited to 15 minutes total.

Performance Sessions 

Live performances such as music, dance, spoken word, drag, improv, or other creative expressions. 

• Specify content, duration, and setup needs in your proposal abstract.
• May be scheduled in a Performance Room, ballroom, or off-site venue.
• Video equipment may be provided. 

Professional Development Workshops 

Participatory workshops focused on mentoring, skill-sharing, or professional networking for the audience.  

• Session formats may include mentoring, collaboration, or peer exchange.
• Sessions should thoughtfully consider the impact of PD sessions for those attending, and descriptions must specify 2–3 concrete outcomes for participants. 

Any members can propose professional development sessions, but ASA caucuses and committees are particularly encouraged to sponsor these sessions. In addition to two scholarly sessions, caucuses and committees may sponsor up to two professional development sessions. Participation in a professional development session is distinct from scholarly sessions and do not count toward a member’s scholarly session(s). 

Off-Site Sessions 

Events located outside the main conference venue (e.g., community centers, museums, cultural sites). 

• Provide full logistical details, if known: day and time, location, community partner(s) if applicable, accessibility, and capacity.  

Lightning Talks 

Structured, rapid-fire sessions of brief presentations (5–7 minutes each). 

• Each presenter responds to a shared theme or prompt.  
• Moderated by a session chair with strict timekeeping.  

Debate / Dialogue Sessions 

Structured discussions centered on opposing or divergent viewpoints.

• Two or more participants articulate different positions on a shared question, followed by audience dialogue.
• May be curated by the Program Committee or proposed by submitters. 

Collaboration Hub  

The American Studies Association invites members to post and browse working proposals for papers and session at the annual meeting in order to collaborate with interested colleagues. You can use the Collaboration Hub to help facilitate: 

• Sessions forming in need of, or open to, accepting additional panelists 
• Individual papers in need of a paper session  
• Ideas for a session to gather contributors 

You and your collaborators are responsible for designating submitter duties, finding a chair, etc.  

Submitting Proposals 

The ASA uses All Academic as our proposal submission and conference management site. A link to the 2026 submission site will be made available by February 2.

Logging In to All Academic  

Members may submit proposals to All Academic by using their ASA username and password.  

• After logging into the ASA website, members will see an option to “submit a new proposal.”  
• Please note that prior to logging into All Academic, those submitting proposals must join or renew their ASA membership if they haven't already.  
• Members who do not have current membership will receive an alert and will be redirected to renew their membership and update their profile prior to entering the proposal submission site. Once dues have been paid and your profile verified, you can login to the submission site to begin creating your proposal. Please note that all participants on a proposed session must be members in order to submit a proposal.  
• To add or update your institutional affiliation for the program, please log in your ASA membership account. Click on edit my profile, select my addresses, and edit institution.  
• If you have questions about your membership status and log-in credentials, please contact Johns Hopkins University Press, which manages ASA’s membership. You can reach a customer service representative at ASAsupport@jh.edu or by calling (800)548-1784 (1-410-516-6987 International). 

Submission Requirements  

For all sessions, you are required to submit the following as you would wish it to appear in the program:  

• Session title (maximum of 15 words) 
• Session abstract (maximum of 200 words) 
• Session keywords (2 required)  
• A 75-word (or less) biographical statement for each participant 
• Chair name, title, and institution  

For paper sessions:  

• Individual paper or presentation titles from each session participant (maximum of 15 words per title) 
• Paper abstract from each session participant (maximum of 200 words per abstract) 
• Session keywords (2 required)  

For professional development sessions:

• A clear statement of how the session will contribute to the professional development of the session audience
• 2-3 concrete outcomes for audience members  

For book sessions:

• Title, author, publisher, publication date, and publishers’ URL for all books to be discussed in the session  

For off-site sessions:  

• Format (roundtable, paper, performance, etc.)  
• If known, day/time, location/site, community partner(s), accessibility, capacity 
• Indicate if you need help finding a site or community partner(s)