CONFERENCE OVERVIEW
The National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) leads the field of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Established in 1977, NWSA has more than 2,000 members worldwide. Our Annual Conference regularly draws more than 1,800 attendees and is the only annual meeting in the continental United States of America and its territories that is exclusively dedicated to showcasing the latest feminist scholarship of its size.
The 2025 conference will open on Thursday, November 13th with our core pre-conferences. The Program Administration and Development (PAD) and Women’s Centers (WCC) Pre-Conference meetings offer networking and professional development opportunities for Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program directors/chairs and women’s center administrators respectively. The Women of Color Leadership Project (WoCLP) is designed to support women of color in their professional goals
ABOUT THE THEME:ANHONOURSONG: FEMINIST STRUGGLES,
FEMINIST
VICTORIES
“I revisit the past to arrive at the present.” Iris Morales, Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords, 1969-1976 (2016)
“Our struggle is also a struggle of memory against forgetting ” —bell hooks, Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black (1999)
Since Donald Trump’s election as 47th President of the U.S. empire, many of us have understandably asked, “What do we do now?” As we pose and respond to this question and similar ones, we should make space for our anxieties, frustrations, and fears. We should allow our sadness, disappointment, and rage to breathe.
We must also make space for remembering. We must remember 1970, when our colleagues at San Diego State inaugurated the first Women’s Studies Program. We must remember Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera founding Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, Florence Howe founding The Feminist Press, and Toni Cade Bambara publishing The Black Woman that same year. We must remember Fatema Mernissi publishing Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society five years later. We must remember Barbara Smith, Audre Lorde, Cherríe Moraga, Hattie Gossett, Helena Byard, Susan Yung, Ana Oliveira, Rosío Alvarez, Alma Gomez, and Leota Lone Dog founding Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press five years after that. We must remember 1990, when the first Disability Pride March was held and when the American Disabilities Act passed as a result of fierce advocacy by Yoshiko Dart and others. We must remember the Kanienʼkehá:ka of Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawà:ke resisting the planned expansion of a golf course on their sacred land and burial grounds that same year. We must remember Amina Wadud leading the first Friday Prayer 20 years ago in 2005
This is the spirit in which we will gather in November. Our annual conference will be an honour song, a space where we will remember these and other feminist struggles and feminist victories. In addition to asking “what do we do now,” NWSA encourages us to ask, what might become possible when we remember who we are and who we’ve been? What can we (re)learn by remembering the places and spaces from where we come, the places and spaces who made us who we are? What might become possible when we remember the people and communities who taught us how to resist?
Since feminist and womanist resistance is anchored in solidarity, we must also acknowledge the land on which we will gather and the people who call it home. Borikén—a place many of us refer to as Puerto Rico—is the occupied and unceded territory of the Boricua Indigenous people, guardians of the waters and lands they have called their motherland for thousands of years. As Sandra Guzmán notes, the Taíno People “have been fighting for their right to self-determination since 1493.” So, as we come together to listen, talk, laugh, cry, dance, and sing, we must also work together to routinely name, interrogate, and resist settler colonialism in Borikén and throughout the world.
We must also acknowledge the brilliant, radical Puerto Rican ancestors and elders who continue to make our work possible, such as Mariana Bracetti Cuevas, Julia de Burgos, Sylvia del Villard, Luisa Capetillo, Lolita Lebrón, Juana Colón, and Rivera. We must acknowledge our contemporaries like Pluma Barbara Moreno, Natalia Ibrahim Abufarah Dávila, Yansi de Abacoa, Libre X Sankara, Ruth N Figueroa Couvertier, Aurora Levins Morales, Sandra Rodriguez Cotto, and the countless others who continue to share their resistive and generative wisdom and strength. After most of us return home, the work of Colectiva Feminista en Construcción, Amigxs del M.A.R., La Sombrilla Cuir, Mi Patria, Diversxs, Colectivo Moriviví, Waves Ahead, Para la Naturaleza, Taller Salud, Coordinadora Paz para las Mujeres, our colleagues at the University of Puerto Rico, and others will continue So as we seek to be nourished by our annual conference, may we also uplift and nourish our comrades in Borikén who seek justice for survivors of domestic violence, homophobia, sexual assault, racism, political repression, environmental injustice, poverty, food and housing insecurity, and others who are vulnerable to subjugation and oppression year round and often without recognition, support, or encouragement
In doing so, may our shared commitment to breathing into memory give way to a louder, stronger feminist honour song.
PROPOSALS AND SUB-THEMES
While we especially encourage proposals that enable us to remember and honor our feminist struggles and feminist victories, we welcome proposals that are attentive to the many facets of our multidirectional field.
We invite proposals that are conversant with the conference sub-themes that are thematically consistent with our special sessions: one plenary celebrating Puerto Rican feminisms and another celebrating the life, work, and legacy of Toni Cade Bambara, as well as presidential sessions honoring the 55th anniversary of San Diego State inaugurating the first Women’s Studies Program and Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera founding Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, the 50th anniversary of Fatema Mernissi’s Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society, the 45th and 55th anniversaries of The Feminist Press and Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, respectively, the 35th anniversary of the first Disability Pride March and Yoshiko Dart’s advocacy for the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the 20th anniversary of the first Friday prayer led by Amina Wadud
THE STATE OF THE FIELD
Proposals submitted for this sub-theme might address questions similar to the following: How might attention to the past inform the ways we’re responding to ongoing attacks on the field? What aspects of our work should shift in relation to the political, social, and economic conditions we’re living in today? How do we hold academia accountable for the ways it perpetuates sexism, racism, homophobia, and other forms of subjugation and oppression, as we simultaneously work within it?
SETTLER COLONIALISM AND SOVEREIGNTY
Proposals submitted for this sub-theme might address questions similar to the following: Why is settler colonialism a feminist and/or womanist issue? In what ways does our contemporary work build on or depart from foundational texts that interrogate settler colonialism? What questions arise when we decenter the West and the U.S. in our decolonial analyses and praxes?
PROPOSALS AND SUB-THEMES
BODY THEORIES AND POLITICS
Proposals submitted for this sub-theme might address questions similar to the following: In what ways does our contemporary work build on or depart from foundational texts that interrogate the body? How do we strengthen our commitments to interrogating and resisting ableism, ageism, transphobia, fatphobia, and other forms of oppression that are inextricably linked to the body? How can we strengthen our analyses of these issues intersectionality and transnationally?
WRITING AND PUBLISHING
Proposals submitted for this sub-theme might address questions similar to the following: How do we understand and do feminist and womanist writing and publishing within, on the margins of, and outside academia? How are we teaching feminist and womanist writing? How are our theories and politics informed by foundational texts that defined feminist and womanist writing and publishing?
SOLIDARITY AND RESISTANCE
Proposals submitted for this sub-theme might address questions similar to the following: How do we understand and do feminist and womanist solidarity and resistance? What lessons from our possibility models resonate or feel misaligned with our lived contexts today? What do feminist and womanist accountability demand of us in creating and being in community?
As always, we encourage proposals submitted by independent scholars, artists, activists, and others who may not be affiliated with academic institutions.
PROGRAMADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT (PAD)PRE-CONFERENCE
The PAD Pre-Conference organizers invite proposals on a broad range of topics related to Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program administration and development. We encourage submissions that engage with the conference theme, An Honour Song: Feminist Struggles, Feminist Victories, as well as those that offer innovations in program administration and development. Sessions that encourage anti-racist and anti-imperialist approaches to programming, administration, and curriculum, are especially welcome. Proposals that are not specifically related to program administration and development should be submitted to the general conference.
We encourage proposals for workshops, roundtables, complete panels, or any variety of other packaged formats. Proposals for interactive sessions or sessions with hands-on components are especially welcomed, and tend to draw the biggest audiences. Authors of individual papers and those with ideas for panels should collaborate with PAD members/colleagues to generate interest and create complete panels before submitting (individual papers will not be accepted for the Pre-Conference). We encourage the creation of diverse panels that attend to inclusivity and equity in representation of individuals, ranks, programs, and institutions. Please ensure you identify your proposal with the category “Program Administrator Development Pre-Conference” on the session submission form.
We are also seeking submissions for a PAD Sponsored Session that will be submitted to the general conference (by the same deadline). Please contact the PAD Co-Chairs directly (email below) if you have a suggestion or are interested in participating in the sponsored session.
PROGRAMADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT (PAD)PRE-CONFERENCE
For the PAD Pre-Conference, the following topics are perennially popular; individuals/pairs are needed to organize the following:
Women of Color Leadership Roundtable
Directing Programs at Community Colleges
Advice for New Chairs (Cross-Institutional Affiliations)
Directing Programs at Small Liberal Arts Colleges
Navigating state and federal anti-DEI efforts
The following are suggested topics that emerged from the 2024 PAD Business Meetings:
To Merge or Not to Merge: WGS Department Consolidations
Succession Planning – Finding and Mentoring New Leaders/WGS Directors
Responding to Racist, Anti-Immigrant Attacks on Campuses and Against WGS Programs
WGS Department Statements on Current/Political Events
WGS Research and its “Legitimacy” with Respect to Retention, Tenure, and Promotion
Fruitful Collaborations: Reaching Out and Partnering with Different Schools and Departments on Campus
Supporting Faculty of Color at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs)
Interrogating Whiteness and White Privilege in our Programs
Making Invisible Service Visible
Self-Care for WGSS Directors and Faculty: Creating Networks
Supporting Junior Faculty
Navigating the Academy as Associate Professor (Perennial) Chairs
Program Reviews: Choosing Reviewers, Strategizing Goals, Honoraria
Supporting Digital Technologies in WGS
Celebrations of WGS Successes
Graduate Programs in WGS
Please
WOMENS CENTERS COMMITTEE (WCC)
PRE-CONFERENCE
The Women’s Centers Committee (WCC) advances the vital role that women’s and gender equity centers play on college campuses and in the field of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGSS). Women’s and Gender Equity Centers (WGECs) support the scholarship and best practices as critical sites of feminist praxis, knowledge production, and student support—developing research, providing and curating resources, building campus and community partnerships, advocating for equity and inclusion, and designing projects that support intersectional gender justice.
The Women’s Centers Committee invites proposals for its WCC PreConference to be held Thursday, November 13, 2025. Practitioners from across the country typically attend the day-long Women’s Centers PreConference each year to strategize, network, brainstorm, exchange ideas, and share knowledge. The Pre-Conference provides an opportunity for professional development as well as a supportive environment in which to explore the successes and challenges of our shared work.
The theme of the pre-conference mirrors the Annual Conference, An Honour Song: Feminist Struggles, Feminist Victories, as it speaks to the historic moment in which we live and the feminist world(s) that we want to create. We invite proposals for papers, panels, roundtables, workshops, posters, and facilitated discussions that examine the ways campus-based women’s and gender equity centers successfully:
resist the resurgence of emboldened right-wing nationalist, ableist, xenophobic, racist, misogynist, imperialistic, homophobic forces; consider the geographies of injustice and justice, and how spatial politics have informed the praxis of protest in the wake of sites of genocide; and consider how spaces of exception become sites of resistance, and how exclusion fosters new possibilities for collaboration.
WOMENS CENTERS COMMITTEE (WCC) PRE-CONFERENCE
Proposal Guidelines:
We especially welcome proposals that foster group interaction, such as roundtables, skill-building workshops, interactive workshops, educational presentations, and moderated discussions that highlight current challenges and propose innovative solutions. We also encourage paper and panel proposals that discuss assessment and research related to the conference theme.
We highly encourage proposals that: embrace difference related to age, citizenship, class, disability, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, sex, sexual identity, and other markers of difference; maintain a critical lens on feminist work in the current state of our field, nourish activist spaces on college campuses, and explore how our own identities and experiences influence our work; and challenge both real and imagined limitations of present mainstream ideas of “equality,” “equity,” “diversity,” and “inclusion” to imagine a future formed by radical justice-oriented visionaries, creators, and makers.
We look forward to receiving your proposal submissions! Please ensure you identify your proposal with the category “Women’s Centers Pre-Conference” on the Submission form.
Many women’s center staff teach in and/or collaborate with WGSS programs and departments, and the inclusion within the larger conference of presentations, panels, workshops, and roundtables that directly address the synergy of our work with the intellectual goals of the larger academic community is of critical importance. As such, we highly encourage pre-conference attendees to submit proposals to the general conference We welcome these proposals to be included in the WEGC Practitioners Track – you will be able to select this option upon submission!
Please contact WCC Co-Chairs Dana Bisignani (bisignde@ucmail.uc.edu) and Letitia Price
WOMEN OF COLOR LEADERSHIP PROJECT
The WoCLP is an annual (one day) pre-conference initiative designed to increase the number of women and non-binary people of color students, staff, and faculty members within the field of women’s studies and women’s centers and, consequently, to have an impact on the levels of participation and power by women and non-binary people of color in the field of women’s studies and women’s centers, in NWSA, PAD and WCC. Women and non-binary people of color in women’s studies, ethnic studies, or related fields may apply if they aspire to leadership within women’s studies or NWSA. Applicants may include advanced graduate students, faculty, and current program administrators who wish to be more involved in program or Association leadership. Applications for the 2025 WoCLP pre-conference will open on March 1, 2025.
Parti
oCLP
Chairs Dr. Sheri Lewis and Dr. Aria Halliday (Detroit, MI USA)
AUTHORS MEETS CRITICS
Authors Meet Critics (AMC) sessions are designed to bring authors of new, cutting-edge books that make important contributions to the field of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies together with chosen discussants who provide a variety of viewpoints on the text.
A maximum of five such sessions may be included in the program and NWSA members are invited to nominate books published between 2023 and 2025. Both single-authored books and edited collections will be considered. Only NWSA members may submit nominations, including self-nominations. Nominations by presses will not be accepted.
Members of NWSA’s Governing Council Executive Committee will review the nominations and make selection decisions. Any individual who proposes a session will be notified about the committee’s decision and will serve as the session organizer and facilitator, if the proposed session is accepted.
Should our reviewers decline to include your proposal in our AMC selections, you may be invited to present in alternate formats at the discretion of the Association President and Executive Director.
learning, research and service in academic and other settings
Our commitments are to: illuminate the ways in which Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies are vital to education; to demonstrate the contributions of feminist scholarship that is anti-racist, comparative, decolonial, global, intersectional and interdisciplinary to understandings of the arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences; and to promote synergistic relationships between scholarship, teaching and civic engagement in understandings of culture and society.
AS A GENTLE REMINDER, THE ASSOCIATION LIMITS PRESENTERS TO TWO (2) PRESENTATION SESSIONS IN ORDER TO:BUILD A BALANCED CONFERENCE SCHEDULE, HONOR THE NEED FOR WELLNESS IN WHAT CAN BE A VERY CAPITALIST SPACE OF EXPECTED (CONSTANT)PRODUCTION, AND TO ALLOW FOR MORE DIVERSE PRESENTER PARTICIPATION.
PAPERS
Individual Paper proposals are submitted individually (solo authors) and arranged into sessions by the Proposal Review Committee. In paper sessions, authors present 10-12-minute papers followed by audience discussion. A typical structure for a session with four papers allows approximately 5 minutes to introduce the session, 10 minutes for each presenter, and 30 minutes for discussion.
POSTERS
Poster proposals present research or analysis on a topic by combining graphics and text on a poster board. We schedule poster sessions together in a gallery-style time block in order to make space for presenters to interact on a one-on-one basis with the attendees viewing the poster. A well-planned poster communicates its message in a visually and textually powerful way, allowing the attendees to grasp the information quickly and accessibly with the author(s).
We understand that many of our applicants are traveling across the United States of America and across humanmade borders; we understand traveling with a poster board is no easy feat for some. Therefore, we do not impose specific guidelines re: design and poster size, we want you to have as much flexibility as you need.
AUTHOR MEETS
CRITICS (AMC)
Authors Meet Critics sessions are designed to bring authors of recent, cutting-edge books, deemed to be important contributions to the field of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies (WGSS), together with discussants chosen to provide a variety of viewpoints.
A maximum of five such sessions may be included in the program and NWSA members are invited to nominate books published between 2023 and 2025. Both single-authored books and edited collections that are the result of collaborative engagement among the contributors will be considered. Only NWSA members may submit nominations, including self-nominations; nominations by presses will not be accepted.
INTERACTIVE SESSIONS
NWSA’s members often create and introduce incredibly interactive and exciting sessions that lean outside the ‘standard’ academic conference proposal model. We ask that should your session involve movement, sound activities, or what may be considered a ‘non-traditional’ activity, that you select this category. This designation allows our Proposal Review Committee to meaningfully evaluate the proposed general conference session.
PANELS
Panels provide an opportunity for examining specific problems or topics from a variety of perspectives given that they include 3-4 participants. Panels may present alternative solutions, interpretations, or contrasting points of view on a specified subject or in relation to a common theme Panel members are expected to prepare papers addressing central questions described in the proposal.The National Women’s Studies Association and the Proposal Review Committee especially encourage complete panel submissions
SESSION SUBMISSION FORMATS
SPONSORED SESSIONS
ROUNDTABLES
Constituency Group Sponsored Sessions may be submitted by all NWSA Constituency Groups on topics of particular interest to group members and NWSA members as a whole One Sponsored Session per group will be offered space in the Conference Program if submissions are received by the proposal deadline and proposals meet the review criteria. Constituency Group Sponsored Sessions may be panels, roundtables or workshops
Roundtables typically include a moderator and 4-6 presenters who make brief, informal remarks about a specific idea or project. They allow for extensive discussion and audience participation.
WORKSHOPS
Workshops provide an opportunity to exchange information or work on a common problem, project, or shared interest Workshops are typically experientially oriented, grounded in a Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies anchored
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Different session formats carry different submission requirements. We recommend reviewing the general parameters below and assembling your proposal using our available templates.
ABSTRACTS
Abstracts explain to conference attendees the proposal’s topic, foci, and/or goals in a clear, succinct manner in the program. Abstracts may be revised or edited for the program.
PROPOSAL RATIONALES
Proposal rationales and abstracts serve as the basis for evaluation by the Proposal Review Committee and should include some or all of the following, as appropriate:
Objective or purpose of the paper, panel, workshop, etc.
Perspective and/or theoretical framework and/or references to relevant texts, research, or on-going debates in women’s and gender studies or related fields
Results and/or conclusions and point of view
Relevance to the conference theme or subtheme
Discussion of how the session will be structured
WORKS CITED
Works cited should list the scholarship to which the rationale refers; this is an integral component of the proposal that anchors our work in the field of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
AUDIO/VISUAL RATIONALE
NWSA often receives far more requests for AV resources than we can provide. In our commitments to expanding our alignment with accessibility, we are working with our conference site to maximize the audio/visual capacities of our meeting spaces. Therefore, we ask that your program submissions include an audiovisual rationale to assist in the logistics planning of developing the conference program. The Proposal Review Committee will communicate updated audio-visual information, as we are able, in July 2025.
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
IMPORTANT GUIDELINES
All proposal rationales MUST be explicit about how the proposed work is grounded in specific texts, authors, or research relevant to contemporary Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality studies, Queer studies, Ethnic studies, and/or other related fields. Abstracts and proposal rationales may not exceed word limits as they will be included in the digital program.
Incomplete proposals will not be considered
All panel proposals must include complete contact information for all presenters; incomplete panels with fewer than three participants will not be considered for review.
In rare cases, a one-person workshop may be considered, but the proposal should indicate why the presenter is uniquely suited to address the topic independently. Remove any identifying information that would compromise NWSA's commitment to an anonymous review process.
Please note: All General Conference Sessions are 75 minutes long
SUBMISSION TEMPLATES
In an effort to streamline your submission process, NWSA created templates for each submission type.
Our templates align directly with the steps within our submission site to assist you in this process!
We encourage you to use the appropriate template to develop your proposal and relevant materials. You can find all templates via our Annual Conference site.
All Annual Conference presenters must have active NWSA individual membership and be registered for the conference by September 1st, 2025.
ACCEPTED PRESENTERS WHO DO NOT MEET BOTH REQUIREMENTS BY SEPTEMBER 1ST RISK REMOVAL FROM THE PROGRAM SCHEDULE.
Membership and conference registration are two separate processes and require separate fees. We recommend updating your individual membership first, then registering for the conference to receive the reduced rate for current members. Your membership must be active at the time of the conference (Nov 13-16,2025).
TO INQUIRE ABOUT YOUR MEMBERSHIP STATUS, EMAIL NATIONALOFFICE@NWSA.ORG.
Session organizers are responsible for conveying information about these requirements to fellow presenters and/or prospective session participants.
The National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) 2025 Annual Conference will convene at the Puerto Rico Convention Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico from November 13th – 16th, 2025.
The NWSA negotiated a group rate at the Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel and Casino across from the Puerto Rico Convention Center. Room block access begins in February via the NWSA Annual Conference page.
All Annual Conference Programming will take place at the Convention Center.
Image from the September 28, 2017 NYC protest against the United States of America’s government response to the devastation of Hurricane Maria. Photo by Erik McGregor/Pacific Press
IMPORTANT DEADLINES AT A GLANCE
FEBRUARY 1st, 2025
APRIL 1st, 2025
MAY 1st - SEPTEMBER 1st, 2025
MAY 15th, 2025
JUNE 1st, 2025
JUNE 2025
SEPTEMBER 1st, 2025
Submission Portal Opens
Submission Portal Closes
Early Bird Registration Period (reduced registration rates)
Accept and decline notifications will be sent via email for all submissions.
Ann K. Schonberger Registration Waiver and Travel Grant applications are due.
The preliminary conference schedule published online.
SEPTEMBER 1st, 2025
All presenters must be 2025 NWSA individual members and pre-registered by this date in order to appear in the conference program. Names of participants who have not joined or registered will be removed from the program book.
Conference attendees with accessibility requests should indicate their needs via our online form by this date.
Presenters who did not communicate accessibility/accommodations needs via their proposal submission form must submit requests via this form as well.
SEPTEMBER 30th, 2025 Deadline for all Pre-Conference Registrations
NOVEMBER 3rd, 2025
Online Registration Closes; from this point on only On-Site Registration and pricing are available.
HELPFUL NWSA RESOURCES
We invite you to explore more robust details about our 2025 Annual Conference by exploring our online resources below. Should you have any clarifying questions, please reach out to the National Office at NationalOffice@nwsa.org.
ANNUAL CONFERENCE DETAILS MEMBERSHIP RESOURCES
2025 Annual Conference
Conference FAQs
Presenter Requirements
Accessibility Requests and Resources
Annual Pre-Conference Details
Submit Your Proposal Templates
Become a Member
Membership FAQs
Membership Opportunities
The NWSA Community Hub
Past and Future Conferences
Archive
