Call for Proposals
Save the date: 5th Biennial GSISC 2026 on June 17 & 18 (Virtual)
Existence is Our Resistance
How do the very acts of being, knowing, and communicating outside of normative frameworks create new forms of information, alternative archives, and innovative approaches? How do diverse gender and sexual identities illuminate biases in existing information practices and inspire more just and equitable futures?
Librarians, archivists, and information workers are on the frontlines of the assault on free speech, academic freedom, dissent, DEI, and the intellectual and creative foundations of social equity. As we convene in 2026 for the fifth Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies Colloquium (GSISC), we seek to explore and celebrate the myriad ways in which lived realities, information practices, and intellectual contributions of queer, trans, non-binary, and other gender and sexually diverse individuals inherently challenge, disrupt, and transform the information landscape in this challenging time.
The GSISC planning committee invites you to join us June 17 and 18 for a virtual gathering to foster community and connection as we confront forces that seek to erase our existence, honor the legacies of the movements before us, and work to collectively imagine liberatory futures into being: we are everywhere. We welcome proposals that address a range of topics on how we nurture resistance in our profession, with consideration for its locus among the intersections of gender, queerness, race, and sexuality.
Questions and considerations might include, but are not limited to:
Existence as Resistance
Queer Realities
- Affect in the body
- Entering the LIS profession in 2026
- Where can we work: navigating the assault on intellectual freedom and free speech
Self-care/Collective-care
- Coming out whole on the other side: surviving the present wave of authoritarianism
- Protecting our peace: stepping up and stepping back as strategic defenses
- Loving the work when the work doesn't love you back
Resistance as Existence
Misinformation, Disinformation, Censorship, and Freedom of Expression
- Identifying silences, gaps, and lies in dominant information landscapes
- Activating/archiving alternative information resources
- Working outside of/against the establishment: providing information in defiance of institutional compliance
- Teaching and mentorship in LIS graduate education in this liminal time
Know Your Rights
- The right to resist: addressing rights information as an information literacy issue
- Protest and the right to privacy on college campuses
- Labor organizing and collective action, within and without unions
Please direct any questions or concerns to GSISC2026@gmail.com. Please note that we are a fully volunteer run conference. While we staff our inbox, sometimes we may take a few days to get back to you.
Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies Colloquium (GSISC) logo by Bernadette Floresca.
Important dates
Deadline for proposals – February 27, 2026
Notification of acceptance – March 31, 2026
Registration opens* – April 13, 2026
Colloquium dates – June 17 and 18, 2026, Noon - 4pm (EST) each day
*Rates: Please note there will be a modest registration fee for this event,
Note: Further logistics will be unfolding.
The Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies Colloquium emerged from the Litwin Books and Library Juice Press Series on Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies, and was founded by the series founding editor, Emily Drabinski. The first GSISC colloquium was held in 2014, inspired in part by the Feminist and Queer Information Studies Reader (2013). Its aim was to respond to the challenges posed by critical perspectives on gender and sexuality in our field. This gathering seeks to create an inclusive space for difficult, fruitful conversations that foreground gender, sexuality, and the body, with consideration for libraries and cultural heritage institutions as sites of both liberation and oppression. The colloquium intends to foster dialogue among librarians, archivists, and information workers on our profession and its locus among the intersections of gender, queerness, race, sexuality, and the freedom to exist and thrive in our bodies.
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Thera Webb (she/her)
Women@MIT Project Archivist
Department of Distinctive Collections, MIT Libraries
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