CFP: Intersections | Cross-Sections Graduate Student Conference 2026

We are pleased to announce that submissions are open for Intersections | Cross-Sections (ISCS), an annual graduate student conference hosted by the Joint Graduate Program in Communication & Culture at York University and Toronto Metropolitan University. This iteration of ISCS will be held at the Toronto Metropolitan University campus on March 13, 2026. ISCS welcomes scholarly work in both traditional and artistic formats, as the conference is committed to fostering connection across disciplinary and methodological boundaries.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Currents of Change: Media, Activism, and Cultural Transitions.” We intend for this theme to have the broadest possible interpretation; while we certainly welcome submissions that concern popular media platforms and mass-movements, we also encourage submissions that delve into how any given form of media may play a role in enacting change at levels cosmic, microscopic, and everywhere in between. Further, submissions are free to trace the currents of change as they manifest in our pasts, presents, and potential futures.

Currents travel through worlds natural and manufactured—electric currents move through your body as surely as your phone—forming connective systems through constant movement and change. In this way, currents resonate with theories that address our need for positive communication across cultures and species amidst the many crises of the Anthropocene. We may think through the currents of reciprocal relation not only through frameworks developed within the colonial academy, such as Latour’s (1996) actor-network theory or Haraway’s (1998) situated knowledges, but also through the living Indigenous ontologies that far predate such frameworks and to which they owe much of their insights (Watts, 2013). At this conference, we hope to collaboratively explore the currents of change through a diverse range of topics and perspectives united by a desire to communicate in ways that are just and reciprocal.

Possible areas of exploration include, but are not limited to:

• Media Activism and Social Change 
• Transnational or Local Currents of Cultural Transformation 
• Digital Resistance and Online Communities 
• Environmental Media and Planetary Imaginaries 
• Affective, Sensory, or Material Flows in Media Practice 
• Intersections of Art, Technology, and Protest 
• Changes in Practices of Everyday Relations

We invite students and creators from diverse backgrounds to share their research and creative projects. If you are interested in participating in IS|CS 2026, please fill out this  (google form) Google form (external link)  and attach a project description of no more than 350 words, including a title and brief biography. The deadline to submit your application is January 16th, 2026.

IS|CS values diverse perspectives and aims to provide an equitable, inclusive, and welcoming space for all participants to engage in cross-disciplinary discussion and creative exhibition. If you have any questions about the conference theme, format, or accessibility, please contact us at iscsconference26 @ gmail.com.  

References

Haraway, D. (1988). Situated Knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575–599.
Latour, B. (1996). On actor-network theory: A few clarifications. Soziale Welt, 47(4), 369–381.
Watts, V. (2013). Indigenous place-thought and agency amongst humans and non-humans. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 2(1), 20–34.