The deadline for submitting proposals for ASA26 is in just a few weeks on March 15th. New for 2026 – the Women’s Caucus Working Group! This year the ASA is launching a new format for the annual meeting – the working group. Per the ASA website:
Working Groups: Working Groups are double sessions consisting of a chair, no more than five papers, and up to three optional readers. All listed participants agree to exchange and read the papers in advance. Working groups are thematic like other session types but offer deeper feedback to improve the quality of the research or better prepare it for publication. Working groups are open to all Annual Meeting registrants to attend, but formal presentations of the papers are optional. All working groups are scheduled during Sessions I & II, without exception.
The WC is working to design a working group around our mission “to promote the study of women and gender within the various disciplines of African studies.” This interdisciplinary working group will reflect on the theme of how women, gender, and sexuality all figure into this year’s ASA theme of Rupture and Remake: African Possibilities in a Shifting World. This year’s theme echoes/ repeats the recent book title by Ifi Amadiume African Possibilities: A Matriarchitarian Perspective for Social Justice (2024). Scholars interested in participating in this working group should in some way engage with Amadiume’s broad argument that “African cultures and knowledge systems can be employed to counter imperialist agendas and counterproductive patriarchal and sexist development.” What possibilities do you see for the future based on your research? How can African knowledge systems decolonize the modern/ colonial gender systems (Lugones) that continue to dominate our world?
Please express your desire to submit a paper or volunteer to be a reader in this working group by sending an e-mail to jcreuther@bsu.edu no later than March 10th.
If you are planning on submitting a paper please include your name, institutional affiliation (if any), career stage, paper title, abstract of ~250 words, and a brief bio.
Selection will be determined by a host of factors including selecting a range of papers from across disciplines as well as across the range of professional stage and status. In particular, the WC encourages graduate students, independent scholars, and African based scholars to submit abstracts for papers. The ASA meeting will be held in New Orleans and all members of the working group must be there for the first day of the conference on December 3, 2026. This format requires the precirculation of papers by an agreed upon date.
The Women’s Caucus Working Group on Women, Gender, and Sexuality in African Studies
