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Borders, Havens and Digital Spaces for Resistance: Black feminist lives in autoethnographic research

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Womanism, Activism, Higher Education Research Network

 

Do you have an interest in Autoethnographic research and social justice?

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

 

CONFERENCE 2026

 

Borders, Havens and Digital Spaces for Resistance: Black feminist lives in autoethnographic research

 

Date: Tuesday 7th July 2026

Time: 10-4pm (BST) (Face to face and online)

Venue: Bloomsbury, Birkbeck University of London, UK

What is the future of radical spaces for Black women’s activism?

Keynote speakers: Professor Geniece Crawford Mondé (Furman University, USA), Professor Ebonie Cunningham Stringer (Penn State University, USA), Dr Jan Etienne (Birkbeck University, UK)

 

About the conference

This one-day conference will celebrate the changing nature of diverse spaces for resistance in the activist lives of Black women. It will showcase the legacy of radical spaces for resistance across the African Diaspora. Where are these spaces in contemporary social life and how are such spaces impacting Black women in higher education? The conference will bring together researchers, poets, artists, community champions and activist scholars across intergenerational, transnational spaces of activism. It will share good research practice and address the value of Black women’s collaboration in autoethnographic spaces for resistance.

 

We are inviting, activist researchers and practitioners to submit abstracts and are particularly keen to encourage a broad and diverse set of papers.

Where are these spaces for resistance?

The conference will engage with autoethnographic stories from the kitchen table, the high street, places of worship, community and faith-based centres, as well as in online, social media platforms of resistance.

According to Monde and Stringer (2026)

‘The Higher Education Academy does not serve us well. In extreme cases it can lead to our demise’

‘The work of resistance is inherently a Black Feminist Project’

‘There are times for shared feminist spaces of resistance’ (Etienne, 2025). However, where are the missing spaces for Womanist voices?

 

Themes and topics include:

A. Black diasporic womanist spaces for supporting global communities

B. Creative Arts spaces of culture and Womanist prose

C. Spaces for Black feminist activism and leadership inside higher education research

D. The Digital Space: Black women’s online spaces for resistance; Black women in digital spaces for mental wellbeing; Black women managing the dynamics of cyberspace; Online Black Supplementary schools as spaces for resistance

E. Solidarity and resistance: Borders, policing, asylum, immigration, refugee status and womanist, spaces for resistance

F. Sexuality, equality and Black feminist spaces for solidarity

G: Environmental justice and Womanist spaces for resistance

H. Black feminisms in health, disability and counselling centres of excellence

I. Trade Union movements and Black workers in activist spaces for change

 

Proposed Target Audience

This conference is primarily aimed at activist researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences, including psychosocial studies, sociology and political sciences. We welcome Black women activists working in education, community, health, social work, criminology and related areas as well as those focused on constructions of motherhood; youth and community sector studies; faith, disability, Intersectionality, inclusion, social justice; sexuality; 'race', racism, ethnicities and culture.

 

Collaboration This Womanism, Activism, Higher Education Research Network (WAHERN) Womanism, Activism, Higher Education Research Network - Birkbeck, University of London

conference, is organised in collaboration with and supported by 1) the Birkbeck Institute for Gender and Sexuality (BiGS) Birkbeck Gender and Sexuality - Birkbeck, University of London; 2) The Birkbeck Institute for Social Research (BISR) Birkbeck Institute for Social Research - Birkbeck, University of London; 3) The Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities (BIH) Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities - Birkbeck, University of London and

4) The Birkbeck African Diaspora Research Initiative (BADRI)

WAHERN is a member of the Centre for Psychosocial Research - Birkbeck, University of London

 

Conference format: In person and online

Presentations will be 15 minutes long with additional time for questions.

 

Important Dates

Friday 17th April 2026: Deadline for 250-word abstracts

Monday 27th April 2026: Notification of acceptance

Monday 18th May 2026: Final date for presenters to register for conference

 

Submission Guideline

If you wish to submit an abstract, please send a title and 250-word abstract and short biography (50-word) to bisr@bbk.ac.uk by Friday 17th April 2026

 

For further information contact the conference organiser: Dr Jan Etienne – j.etienne@bbk.ac.uk

Contact name: Karen Wells

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