Every year, the Association holds it annual conference, usually a two-day affair, as well as a graduate student workshop, usually held on the day before the annual conference. The 2025 annual meeting will be held at Georgetown Law from June 17-18th. The theme of the conference, our call for papers, and submissions guidelines can be found below:

Speech Matters

We live in a golden or an iron age, depending on one’s point of view, for laws regulating speech. The COVID-19 pandemic forced governments around the world to reckon with floods of dis- and misinformation. The global rise of the far right has brought with it a need for new legal tools to combat threats, harassment, and hate speech. And in the United States, state and local governments have attempted to suppress speech by or about unpopular subjects through means ranging from book bans to felony prosecutions. For this year’s Law, Culture, and Humanities Annual Conference, we invite papers on how the law conceptualizes, regulates, commodifies, or instrumentalizes speech (broadly defined not just as language but as expressive activity). In particular, we welcome papers that use humanistic tools for making sense of speech and expression—concepts from rhetoric, narrative theory, aesthetics, genre studies, and more—to tackle new or persistent legal puzzles.

Mode

The twenty-seventh annual conference will emphasize the LCH tradition of in-person conversation. While we encourage participants to join us in Washington, D.C., we recognize that in-person attendance may be prohibitive for some. To that end, we will also accept the 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 streaming online as well as in person.

Conference Registration

Registration for the conference is now open. You can access registration via the LCH member portal by following the link below. Registration will increase by $50 on June 10, 2025, one week before the conference begins (graduate students are exempt from this late fee).

Accepted presenters must register for the conference by May 24, 2025. Please note: those who do not register by this date will be dropped from the program to guard against last-minute shifts in panel personnel. Participants who do not appear on the program are welcome to register online any time prior to the conference.

Registration requires membership to the Association for Study of Law, Culture, & the Humanities, which can be purchased by following the link below.

Submission Deadline

Submissions are currently closed.

Accommodations

Conference attendees are responsible for making their own travel and lodging arrangements. We will share additional suggestions and conference hotel rates as they become available. We hope to have information about a local hotel, with discounted rates, in the next few weeks.

Book Exhibit

We expect to have a place to display recently published books. If you would like to display yours, please bring a copy and we will be happy to include it.

Contact Information

Please email lch@lawculturehumanities.com with any queries.

If you have submitted a complete proposal and require a letter of invitation in order to secure a visa to attend the conference, we encourage you to contact us at lch@lawculturehumanities.com.