Call for Papers
Theme: Resilience
Indiana University, April 3-4, 2026
Global crises, environmental imbalances, and structural inequalities have shaken the foundation of our understanding of stability and sustainability. However, the act of resilience, whether appearing in personal stories or community efforts, reminds us how individuals, institutions, and ecosystems respond, adapt, and transform in the face of adversity. The concept of resilience, both as an analytical tool and a lived practice, attends to the notion of reshaping the conditions of our material surroundings and how to imagine new worlds beyond our current conditions.
This year, the History Graduate Student Association is proud to invite graduate students from across the universities to submit their work. We welcome submissions from graduate students of all disciplines, including, but not limited to, History, Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology, Geography, Art History & Literature, Religious Studies, Cultural Studies, American Studies, Gender Studies, and Queer Studies. The Paul Lucas Graduate Conference seeks to expand our understanding of resilience. Instead of seeing it as a response to oppression or adversity, we endeavour to include the broader practices of resilience through emotional and embodied survival, individual and collective transformation, and, above all, hope.
The conference will be held in-person on campus at the Indiana Memorial Union on Friday, April 4, and Saturday, April 5, 2026, with a special keynote address on the first day. We will include a Zoom option for presenters who need it. We are excited to hold, for the second time, a dedicated workshop session for History ABD students on the second day of the conference