2023 Twenty-Fifth Annual Conference
June 22 – June 23
Call for Papers
The 2023 LCH conference considers topics broadly related to law and legal studies. In addition, our theme this year is:
ABSENCE, THE PRESENT AND THE PAST
The last few years have been marked by palpable absence: the absence of face-to-face encounters, shared meals, shared lives; the absence of in-person study, of spontaneous meetings in hallways and coffee shops — a seemingly interminable stretch of missed experiences and encounters. As we come back together and restart our offline lives, we carry the absences and missed opportunities of the recent pandemic with us. Absence signals both a void and a clearing: a call for us to be present once more to ourselves and each other. In some instances, we know what we have missed; at other times, we find ourselves surprised and undone by what we have not realized has been missing all this time. To dwell on this absence is not only to live in a state of lament or regret; it is also to imagine the possibilities that arise when we attend closely to what has been missing.
In this spirit of absence as loss and potential, we invite papers from across the disciplines that consider law in relation to absence. How might we conceive of law in the absence of justice, or imagine jurisprudence in the absence of precedent? What juridical potential arises in a moment of crisis and deprivation? What does law miss in entering these moments—and how might law’s missed encounters bring into relief the gaps in the interstices of contemporary culture? What does law miss—and what does it engage—when it serves as a source of social meaning and remediation?
Attendance Options
Our twenty-fifth annual conference will emphasize the LCH tradition of in-person conversation. While we encourage participants to join us in Toronto, we recognize that in-person attendance may be prohibitive for some. To that end, we will also accept submission of virtual panels. Since we will not be providing technical support for virtual participants, panel chairs will be responsible for providing Zoom links that will be listed in the program. All plenary sessions will be available in streaming online as well as in person.
Call For Papers
The deadline for proposals has been extended to Monday, March 27, 2023 at 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time.
Submission instructions: We encourage submission of fully constituted panels, as well as panels that reimagine or experiment with models for academic presentation, such as roundtables, author meets reader sessions, collaborative presentations, multi-panel streams, etc. Individual proposals should include a title and an abstract of no more than 250 words, along with 2 keywords from the list below. Please note that online presenters should organize a full panel (we will not be accepting individual papers for online presentation this year) and that, though we traditionally accept most papers, we may need to limit the number of online panels we accept, depending on demand.
Panels, whether virtual or in-person, should include three papers (or, exceptionally, four papers). Please specify a title and designate a chair for your panel. The panel chair may also be a panel presenter. It is not necessary to write an abstract or proposal for the panel itself. To indicate your pre-constituted panel, roundtable, or stream, please ensure that individual registrants provide the name of the panel and the chair in their individual submissions on the registration site. All panel, roundtable, or stream participants must make an individual submission on the registration site. When submitting a proposal, we also ask that registrants identify two keywords to help us align sessions with each other.
Proposal submission is free.
Keywords
- Anarchy
- Architecture
- Arts
- Comparative
- Courts
- Crime
- Disobedience
- Economy
- Environment
- Ethics
- Exclusion
- Film
- Gender
- History
- Identity
- Inclusion
- International
- Justice
- Indigenous Studies
- Language
- Legal Theory
- Literature
- Performance
- Poetry
- Political Theory
- Protest
- Psychoanalysis
- Punishment
- Race
- Reconciliation
- Revolution
- Rights
- Refusal
- Religion
- Restorative Justice
- Science/Technology
- Science Fiction
- Settler Colonialism
- Television
- Transformative Justice
- Urban Studies
- Visual Studies
Graduate Workshop
The LCH Graduate Workshop will be held at University of Toronto on Wednesday, June 21, 2023 (the day before the annual meeting begins). Any questions may be directed to lch@lawculturehumanities.com.
The workshop is designed for graduate students who are undertaking research that cuts across law, cultural studies, literature, philosophy, legal studies, anthropology, political science, and history, among others. The workshop is designed to afford graduate students the opportunity to experience the LCH community in a smaller venue with more sustained contact with one another and some faculty. The workshop also provides graduate students with an opportunity to discuss their research projects in a small group setting in anticipation of such things as job talks and publication.
Conference Fees
The fees for in-person participation in the Conference are:
| Graduate students and post-doctoral scholars | $35 |
| Income less than $75,000 | $125 |
| Income between $75,000-$99,999 | $155 |
| Income between $100,000-$124,999 | $210 |
| Income $125,000 and over | $260 |
The fees to participate remotely are:
| Graduate students and post-doctoral scholars | Free |
| Income less than $75,000 | $50 |
| Income between $75,000-$99,999 | $75 |
| Income between $100,000-$124,999 | $100 |
| Income $125,000 and over | $150 |
Conference Registration
- Membership in LCH is required to register for the conference and must be purchased before registration.
- A 50% refund will be issued in the event that a participant has to cancel their registration.
- As part of the registration process, you will be asked to confirm you have read our COVID policy and will honor it to the best of your ability.
Registration process
Make sure to become a member before you register!