The Canadian Law and Society Association (CLSA) is pleased to announce that the 2023 CLSA Annual Meeting will be held in person from May 27-29, 2023 at York University, in conjunction with the 2023 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences (Congress). This return to an in-person Annual Meeting at Congress will once again feature an “overlap” day to be held with the Canadian Association of Law Teachers on May 29, 2023.
The CLSA Annual Meeting Conference Committee (Committee) calls for papers that engage the main theme selected by Congress for 2023: “Reckonings and Re-imaginings” (the full description of this theme can be found below), as well as proposals for presentations that relate more broadly to law and society research. Further:

1) The Committee encourages proposals for organized panels. Panels should comprise three or four related papers, as well as a suggested chair. A full panel proposal of no more than 250 words should be submitted along with a proposed session title and a list of 5 keywords. The full proposal should also be accompanied by an abstract of no more than 250 words for each paper and a 3-4 sentence biography or maximum one-page curriculum vitae for each presenter.

2) Proposals for alternative panel session formats, such as roundtables, workshops, performances, and so on are welcome. Proposals of this nature should include a maximum 250-word description of the intended content and format, a proposed session title, a list of 5 keywords, and a 3-4 sentence biography or maximum one-page maximum curriculum vitae for each participant.

3) Proposals for individual papers are also welcome. Please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words, a list of 5 keywords, and a 3-4 sentence biography or maximum one-page curriculum vitae.
All proposals should clearly indicate (1) the names of all presenters, (2) any institutional affiliations, (3) email contact information, (4) CLSA membership status (membership can be purchased here), (5) the language of the proposed panel or paper (English, French, or bilingual), and (6) any particular AV needs, room arrangements, and so on that might be needed.

All submissions should be sent in a single Word document to CLSA.Submit@gmail.com no later than NOVEMBER 23, 2022, at 11:59pm ET.

Late submissions will not be considered. The Committee will accept only one paper proposal per individual and reserves the right to request additional information and modify panels if necessary. In the interest of panel diversity, please consider the composition of any panels or alternative formats. Please note that all presenters must register for both Congress and the CLSA portion of the event and be current members of the CLSA. Please also note that participants should assume that remote participation—for presenters and audiences—will not be supported at this conference. All participants should plan to attend the conference in person.

The Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences describes the overarching theme of Congress 2023 as follows:

The third decade of the twenty-first century has brought us into unprecedented times. An unrelenting global pandemic, protests for racial justice, and escalating climate disasters have heightened our awareness of the urgent need for collective action to help us create a more equitable and sustainable world. The lessons from Black Lives Matter, Idle No More, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, have been joined by new lessons, new reckonings about what is needed to live in non-hierarchical relationships that can truly honour our human differences, while protecting the land, water and air we all need to live together.

In the theme, “Reckonings and Re-Imaginings,” we invite the Congress community to pause and reflect on the lessons we have learned, but also to begin the work of imagining and enacting the terms under which we might create a radically different world. What might it mean for us to commit to knowing and caring for each other across our differences, understanding that the world we want to live in tomorrow is dependent on the action we take together today? Can we re-imagine a new set of social relationships grounded in decoloniality, anti-racism, justice, and preservation of the earth? This invitation for both reflection and action requires a genuine investment in the project of learning and growing, a willingness to participate in active and meaningful co-engagement, and a commitment to exercising patience and care in doing the hard work of changing belief systems and the world.

In Congress 2023, we respond to this call for reflection and action by centering the experiences, knowledges and cultures of Indigenous and Black communities as valuable and critical modes of thought fundamental to the realization of racial and climate justice. In a deepened commitment to the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs), we understand the problems of food insecurity, gender disparities, racial inequities, forced migration and others as linked to an accelerating climate disaster, and Black and Indigenous futurities. What might we produce when we reckon with and re-imagine climate mitigation strategies and the UN SDGs through the lens of racial justice and Indigenous resurgence? In centering these conjoined global challenges and possibilities, we are seeking to shift the culture of Congress, to create meaningful space for diverse viewpoints and a profound reckoning with white supremacist forms of knowledge production, while making visible decolonial, anti-racism, queer, and critical disability perspectives. Hosted by one of Canada’s most diverse universities, Congress 2023 welcomes scholars and student researchers, artists, activists, and public intellectuals—including those who have not previously seen themselves or their work reflected in Congress—to engage in deep interdisciplinary scholarly and artistic engagement, and to join this crucial conversation about how we can re-imagine and change the world for the better.