After the Archive: Archival Recovery, BIPOC Pedagogical Labor, and Lived Resistance (2026 MMLA Convention: “After the Archive”)
voco Chicago Downtown-Riverwalk (350 W. Wolf Point Plaza Building 1, Chicago, IL 60654)
Organization: The Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA)
Event: 2026 MMLA Convention: “After the Archive”
CFP: The Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA)
2026 MMLA Convention—12-14 November 2026—Chicago, IL
Convention Dates: November 12-14, 2026
Convention Location: voco Chicago Downtown-Riverwalk (350 W. Wolf Point Plaza Building 1, Chicago, IL 60654)
2026 Convention Theme: “After the Archive.”
Convention Panel: Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies Permanent Section
Theme: After the Archive: Archival Recovery, BIPOC Pedagogical Labor, and Lived Resistance
We are in a moment when the archive is no longer just paper; it is the hashtag, the body, the arts, and the classroom. Today, we work “After the Archive” to examine how Black, Indigenous, and other people of color’s lives are preserved when the state attempts to erase them. The Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies Permanent Section invites proposals for the 2026 MMLA convention that focus on BIPOC experiences within and “after the archive.” For marginalized communities, the archive has been a tool of state surveillance and historical erasure. This section aims to highlight the work of researchers, educators, writers, and activists who are reclaiming our narratives, documenting our present, and navigating the racialized labor of academia. We invite submissions that demonstrate collective efforts to tell our own stories, especially when our voices are suppressed.
We seek presentations that address:
- Decolonizing the Record: Strategies and testimonies for recovering BIPOC voices from archives of state surveillance and administrative removal.
- BIPOC Pedagogical Labor in the Academy: How BIPOC scholar-activists navigate the white performativity of institutional archives, DEI curricula, and the embodied labor involved in teaching resistance within predominantly white spaces.
- Digital Resistance as Counter-Narrative: social media’s role as a living archive for BIPOC social movements and the ethics surrounding digital vulnerability.
- Embodied Healing: using literature and personal narratives as counter-archives that emphasize marginalized healing and self-care.
- Cultural sites, independent museums, and art as archives: how cultural institutions, BIPOC-owned museums, and the arts (film, music, art, literature, etc.) uncover and tell life stories that have been censored, hidden, or silenced.
As a Permanent Section, we are dedicated to building a lasting space for BIPOC voices and decolonial scholarship within the MMLA.
Submission Guidelines:
- Proposals should be?250 words maximum.
- Include the author’s name and institutional affiliation (if any).
- IMPORTANT PRESENTATION NOTE: AV projection of slide presentations will not be supported.
Submit proposals and a short biographical statement (50 words) to Holly Burgess at holly.burgess@marquette.edu and CC holly-burgess@outlook.com by April 20, 2026.
https://mmla.memberclicks.net/permanent-sections
Holly Burgess