Submission Deadline: Sunday, November 1, 2026
The Department of Writing Studies at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities invites proposals for the 15th Biennial Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference to be held at the Coffman Memorial Union in Minneapolis, MN, August 5–7, 2027.
Feminist Rhetorics of Resistance
Our conference theme is Feminist Rhetorics of Resistance. With this theme, we invite proposals that discuss what might be considered mainstream rhetorics of resistance—protest, dissent, speaking up and out, or opposing dominant ideas or movements. At the same time, we imagine feminist rhetorics of resistance to be more capacious, attending to the forms of resistance that emerge in everyday contexts. These rhetorics are often localized, multimodal, and sustained through existing—frequently feminized—networks.
Feminist rhetorics of resistance are not new phenomena. Resistance often unfolds over long periods of time—even generations—and might look like maintaining a presence, activating old kinds of social action, or repurposing established, gendered genres of speech and writing. When done best, feminist rhetorics of resistance are in conversation with anti-oppression, anti-capitalist frameworks—and recognize White women have historically co-opted feminist rhetorics to enact White Supremacy—and still do. We hope this conference creates a space to explore feminist rhetorics of resistance that are intersectional and interconnected to ideas, theories, and practices of joy, rage, rest, love, protest, coalition, complaint, care, solidarity, and more.
Our conference theme emerges in response to what we see as feminist patterns of resistance to fascism, violence, and oppression. Locally, for example, the Twin Cities have been a site of resistance in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020 when residents resisted police brutality, racism, and state-sponsored murder—and more recently as neighbors responded to “Operation Metro Surge” in the winter of 2026, coming together to publicly protest, working as constitutional observers, organizing neighborhood patrols, showing up and finding joy in our community events, gathering and distributing food and supplies to those in hiding, participating in teach-ins, singing at memorials, and more. Our local experiences are interrelated to a transnational rise in state-sponsored profiling, terrorism, and genocide. We are eager to come together at this conference to understand what everyone has been experiencing in their local communities and how they are taking up feminist rhetorics of resistance.
We hope our conference theme will center conversations about feminist rhetorics of resistance that explore questions like:
- How have feminists taken up intersectional forms of resistance—and to what effects?
- When, where, and how has resistance been taken up through different technologies, modalities, and coalitions transnationally?
- How might we, as feminist rhetoricians, enact resistance through our research, pedagogies, administrative practices, and community-engaged partnerships?
- How might embodied practices—like rest, joy, or care—be understood as acts of resistance?
- How might “counter” practices, such as counterstory, counternarrative, countermapping, and countermemory, resist stock stories or dominant practices?
- What does the history of rhetoric look like when we center feminist resistance?
- How might rhetorical listening, reflection, and reflexivity be seen as forms of resistance?
- Where, when, and how have feminists used rhetoric to resist across time and social movements?
- How have (or how might) feminist rhetoricians enact resistance in ways that cannot be co-opted or tamed?
- How might we, as feminist teacher-scholars, resist laws and policies that curtail course content, departmental areas, and university-sponsored support?
- How have feminists worked within institutions to resist? And, how might we, as feminist teacher-scholars, learn from them to subvert our institutions’ oppressive practices?
Presentation modalities
FemRhet2027 offers a variety of presentation types. The majority of the conference will be in-person and on-site, but we are piloting options for virtual participation. Below are the modalities offered.
- An in-person, on-site concurrent session.
- An in-person, on-site concurrent session where at least one presenter is in-person, on-site and the remaining presenters are virtual.
- A virtual-only presentation on Zoom (which can include an individual presentation, a panel, a performance, a roundtable discussion, or a workshop) where both the presenter(s) and audience are using the University’s Zoom conference services platform.
Please note that we have limited capacity for virtual-only presentations (option 3); there will be eight virtual-only sessions in total.
Presentation Types
Submissions are due Sunday, November 1, 2026. Presenters are limited to proposing one submission per presentation type: panel, roundtable, workshop, performance, works-in-progress, and pedagogy poster. In other words, you can’t be on three panels; you can present in an individual presentation, a works-in-progress, and a performance.
- Up to 200-word abstract
- Up to 500-word proposal
- One presenter
- Indicate your preferred modality.
- Proposals should explain how the speaker’s presentation connects to feminist rhetorical scholarship, the conference theme, and accessible and anti-racist presentation practices. Speakers should expect 15 minutes to present their work, with the remaining time for Q&A. Individuals will be paired with like-minded scholars to present collectively as a concurrent panel for 75 minutes.
- Up to 200-word abstract
- Up to 500-word proposal
- Three or more presenters
- Indicate your preferred modality.
- Proposals should explain how the speakers’ presentations connect to feminist rhetorical scholarship, the conference theme, and accessible and anti-racist presentation practices. Speakers should expect sixty minutes to present their work, with the remaining fifteen minutes for the concurrent panel used for Q and A.
- Up to 200-word abstract
- Up to 500-word proposal
- One or more performers
- Indicate your preferred modality.
- Proposals should describe how work will be delivered in a thirty-minute time slot. We invite a wide range of performative practices, including scripted or improv performances, movement-based practices, short films, a slideshow of an artist portfolio, and more. Proposals should clearly explain their connection to feminist rhetorical scholarship, the conference theme, and accessible and anti-racist presentation practices. Performance presenters should expect to be put together with one other like-minded presenter. We will pair performances together in a 75-minute time slot, allowing the remaining 15 minutes of the time slot to be for Q and A.
- Up to 200-word abstract
- Up to 500-word proposal
- Four or more presenters
- Indicate your preferred modality.
- Proposals should explain the topic of discussion, as well as how that topic of discussion relates to feminist rhetorical scholarship, the conference theme, and accessible and anti-racist presentation practices.The proposal should include how participants will interact with each other, the audience, the technologies, and the materials in the space during the 75-minute time allotment. Be sure to include an outline of questions to propel conversations, as well as takeaways for participants.
- Up to 200-word abstract
- Up to 500-word proposal
- One or more workshop leader(s)
- Indicate your preferred modality.
- Proposals should explain the topic of the workshop, as well as how that topic relates to feminist rhetorical scholarship, the conference theme, and accessible and anti-racist presentation practices. The proposal should include how participants will interact with each other, the audience, the technologies, and the materials in the space during the 75-minute time allotment. Be sure to include an outline of proposed activities, as well as takeaways for participants.
- Up to 200-word abstract
- Up to 500-word proposal
- One or more authors
- Sessions will be held in person. Please select “in person, on-site” as your preferred modality.
- Works-in-progress (WIP) proposals should describe the nature of the artifact, the state of the artifact, and the feedback desired on the artifact. Artifacts might include drafts of articles, dissertation chapters, grant proposals, book chapters, syllabi, etc.
- Accepted authors of WIP proposals will be part of a new event entitled the “Writing Group Kick-off”—where conference organizers put interested authors into writing groups that will span for the 2027–2028 academic year. This event will be held on Saturday, August 7th, of the 2027 Conference. The Writing Group Kick-Off will be a three-hour event on Saturday, August 7th, where authors can meet their writing group members, give and receive feedback on each other’s WIP artifact, have work time to put feedback into action, and set goals for themselves and their group.
- Up to 200-word abstract
- Up to 500-word proposal
- One or more presenters
- Indicate your preferred modality.
- Proposals should connect the conference theme to teaching materials, which could include but are not limited to: course design, course assessment, course syllabi, class activities, and class assignments. Participants accepted to the pedagogy poster session present during a designated time during the conference session. They should expect the event to function as a gallery walk where in-person participants interact with their poster (and the poster presenter) as they circulate the space.
Submission Reviewing Protocol
All submissions will be reviewed by anonymous reviewers who will be given these instructions.