[acc-cca-l] Call for Submissions: 2026 CMF Graduate Conference (UCalgary)

[Samantha Thrift]

[△EXTERNAL]


Please share with your graduate programs for wider circulation (and apologies for any cross-posting).

Dear all,

On behalf of the graduate organizing committee, the Department of Communication, Media and Film at the University of Calgary invites submissions for its 2026 Graduate Conference (April 30th-May 1st, 2026).

Deadline for submissions: Friday, February 27, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. MST.

Conference Theme: Shifting Ground

The Department of Communication, Media and Film (CMF) Graduate Conference organizing committee invites submissions for its annual multidisciplinary graduate conference held at the University of Calgary (Calgary, AB).
Rapid change, resistance, and disruption shape how knowledge is produced, circulated, and understood. Whether encountered at the level of theory, practice, within institutions, or in everyday life, scholars and citizens alike face obstacles that demand adaptation. Shifting Ground invites participants to reflect on how academic research and media responds and reflects when familiar infrastructures fall into disarray. To (re)see current, past, or future problems in a new light, scholars employ a wide range of methodologies and innovations, inviting connection to the collective memory.
The CMF Annual Graduate Conference welcomes papers and media submissions that explore adaptation, recalibration, and reorientation across communication, media, film, journalism, social science, and the humanities. We encourage submissions that examine how meaning is negotiated under pressure, how progress can be reimagined, and how new possibilities emerge by shining a light where it’s most needed.
Our conference aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue that unites rather than divides, while supporting critical, reflexive, and imaginative scholarship. We are committed to decolonizing knowledge creation and sharing, and to grounding our work in a feminist ethic of care, accessibility, and inclusivity.
 We welcome:

  *   Traditional paper presentations
  *   Visual and media-based submissions
  *   Research-creation projects
  *   Community-based research

Location: This in-person conference will be held at Mohkinstsis (Calgary), within the traditional territories of the Treaty 7 Nations – the Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai of the Blackfoot Confederacy, the Tsuut’ina, and the Stoney Nakoda Nations (including Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstoney First Nations– and the Métis Nation within Alberta (Nose Hill Métis District 5 and Elbow Métis District 6).
Dates: April 30 and May 1, 2026
Cost: The conference is free to attend. Participants are responsible for travel, accommodation, transportation, breakfast, and evening meals.
Included: Coffee/tea/water and lunch on both days
Open to:

  *   All active graduate students
  *   Undergraduate honours students considering graduate school
  *   Graduate students who have graduated within the past year

Deadline for submissions: Friday, February 27, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. MST.
Submissions (your project’s title and 250-word maximum abstract explaining the project’s connection to the conference theme) will be accepted through the CMF Conference Submission Portal<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdsMi1PNtOtm6pl8Qrb311dJTycYw2pNQSNpmILp8uRglMCKQ/viewform?usp=preview>.
If you would like to receive conference updates, including a link to the conference website when it is live and a reminder one week before the submission deadline, please sign up here: Mailing List<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf0bEHtj-KBAHos5br6Nh_RoSyVm4PaFSxXT12mydIDdjcGVQ/viewform?usp=preview>
Questions?  Please contact at: CMFgradconf at ucalgary.ca<mailto:CMFgradconf at ucalgary.ca>

Thank you!
Sam
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