The 2025 CMRSA Conference Programming Committee is thrilled to announce the theme for our 8th biennial Critical Mixed Race Studies Association Conference: Critical Healing: Honoring Resilience and Disrupting Power through Diverse Critical Mixed Race Perspectives. The conference will be held from Thursday, February 19, through Saturday, February 21, 2026 at UCLA, and sessions will be offered in person. We are excited to explore creative ways to honor our resilience as an international organization. This announcement provides context for the chosen theme and information to guide the development and submission of conference session proposals. This conference will provide a space to gather, connect, share information, and build community in light of changes in laws, policies, norms, and values driven by actions of local, state, and national governing bodies. We will come together as a community and remember our strength, connection, and solidarity; while renewing our commitment to live, think, and act critically. We will strive to consistently name systems of power and disrupt them by building new systems and processes that are more equitable and sustainable.
In framing the overarching theme of the conference, the programming committee drew on the wise words of author Resma Menakem, written in his ground-breaking book, My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies. He noted that “Genuine healing is a temporarily disruptive process…Just as the human body creates inflammation to heal, wise social activism creates the social and cultural disruptions needed to help a culture heal and grow up” (2017:258). The theme of healing has become a focal point for many marginalized communities in the last several years that have yielded more expansive definitions of this experience. Critical healing must address the trauma to individuals and communities, both nationally and globally, caused by the intertwined systems of white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, heterosexism, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, colorism, and other manifestations of oppression. As Menakem notes, trauma and healing are connected by and through time. Given the themes noted here, we recognize that healing is not just about us and today; it includes our ancestors and history, and can be strengthened by actions that are intersectional, intergenerational, and collaborative in nature.
Proposals
The programming committee welcomes proposed sessions that address the themes and contexts guiding the 2026 conference program. Proposed sessions can draw on diverse frames of knowledge, including research, practice, community work, and the arts. Proposals can include presentations, panels, performances, workshops, posters, visual and multimedia artworks, creative writing, and film showings that address the conference theme in a broad sense. Although proposals must include written text, presentation formats (typically framed as a “paper”) may vary and be diverse, including non-academic formats that are inclusive for all participants.
While not an exhaustive list, sessions that address one or more of the following topics are encouraged:
- Individual, community, or systemic healing based on Multiracial experiences
- Theory or practice that illustrate the disruption of single or multiple forms of power and oppression within the United States or other countries
- Methods or practices that enhance the building of national and/or global
- Multiracial solidarity and community
- Theory, research, or practice that enhance our understanding and use of intersectional and/or intergenerational strategies
- Strategies for creating and sustaining critical methods and practices within evolving social and political contexts
We invite academics, artists, clinicians, practitioners, students, community advocacy groups, community members and prospective members to attend our conference and to submit proposals that align with CMRS values. In community, we aim to uplift one another and identify how to thrive as a growing international community with a strong sense of belonging and purpose. We also commit to courageously engaging in ongoing, critical dialogues about how to improve as an organization.
Timeline and Due Dates
Proposals Due: Wednesday, October 1st at 11:59pm PST.
Proposals Review Due: Tuesday, October 14th at 11:59pm PST.
Acceptances and Notifications sent out on Saturday, November 1st .
Presenters must register for the conference by Monday, December 1st .
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