CACS-ACÉC 2026

We are no longer facing a single crisis but rather a state of change, instability, and uneven collapse across multiple scales.

Organizers: Brent Bellamy, Claire Meagher, Joshua Synenko, Sara Matthews

All regular sessions are free and open to the public, held in-person at Catharine Parr Traill College (Trent's "downtown" campus) and online. The Keynotes will be in the community room at the Peterborough Public Library. If you plan to attend, either in-person or online, send a request to trentcacs26@gmail.com

Friday, 6 November 2026

Time Wallis Hall 132.4 Accesible from north entrance or the second floor entrance and elevatorScott House 208 Accessible only by stairsWallis Hall 226 Accessible by the second floor entrance or via north entrance and elevatorCommunity Room — Peterborough Public Library
09:00–10:30 Session
Collectives
Session chair: Beverly Bain (in person)
  1. Constructing hunger: Digital narratives about food insecurity, responsibility, and care in Hamilton food banks and community gardens Antara Dey (online), Anneka Bosse (in person)
  2. Interwoven Worlds: Rethinking Environmental Relationships, Engagement, and Possibilities in Times of Upheaval Himani Dhanot (in person)
  3. QTBIPOC Grassroots Communities as Collective Life: (Re)Building Through Times of Upheaval Maple Xiang (in person)
  4. Scholars Strike For Liberation (SSL): A Revolutionary Virtual Platform For Freedom Beverly Bain (in person)
Indigeneity, Diaspora, Settler Colonialism Working Group Panel
Session chair: Kerry Sinanan (online)
  1. Indigeneity, Diaspora, and Settler Colonialism: Global Connections Dawnis Kennedy (online), Aarzoo Singh (online), Ghada Sasa (online), Precious Gauthier (in person)
  2. Philippine Diasporic Praxes of Self and Collective Decolonization in/within Performance Creation Dennis Gupa (online)
Publics
Session chair: Joshua Synenko
  1. (Il)legible: conspiracy theory and the internet Mikaela Lewis (in person)
  2. "Disruption, Upheaval, or Magic? AI Imaginaries and Implementations in a Conjuncture Called Silicon Valley" Markus Reisenleitner (in person)
  3. "Environmentalism is the Modality in which Digital Refusal is Lived" Anne Pasek (in person)
  4. Hard Feelings: The Effective Altruist Imagination Emma Watson (in person)
—
10:45–12:15 Session
Counter Media And Refusals
Session chair: Brandon Hollingshead (in person)
  1. Canadian Comic Book Histories as Resistant Public Pedagogy Brandon Hollingshead (in person)
  2. Public Code under Upheaval: Counter-Policy, NFB Interactive Media, and Creative Agency in Canada John Bessai (online)
  3. Soleils Atikamekw: Chloé Leriche's Critique of Whiteness Bruno Cornellier (online)
  4. Tricksters & Tragedy: Comedic Survivance Kyra Min Poole (in person)
Critical Formations of the Field
Session chair: Brent Ryan Bellamy (in person)
  1. Combating the Politics of Silence, Beyond the Walls of Academia Precious Gauthier (in person)
  2. Upheaval as Method: Unsettling the Conditions of Knowing Kathryn Last (in person)
Basket Weaving And Other Vicissitudes
Session chair: Sara Matthews (in person)
  1. Academic freedom for students – is the question ‘academic’? Eve Haque (in person)
  2. AI Intimacies and Academic Integrity: Crisis and Cheating in the Glitch Sara Matthews (in person)
  3. On Basketweaving, the Critical Humanities, and Public Finance Tapji Garba (in person)
  4. Policing the Post-Secondary Crisis Patrick Michael Teed (in person)
—
12:15–13:15 Lunch + Workshop
Disrupting the Continuum Workshop
  1. Disrupting the Continuum: Art, Pedagogy, and the Politics of Non-Racism David Puvaneyshwaran (in person), Carolyn Oei (in person)
Queer Atmospheres Workshop
  1. Queer Atmospheres Tarot: Attunement, Magic, and Socially-Engaged Arts of Relating Jay Pahre (in person)
No Small Acts Workshop
  1. Witnessing The Glory Hole: Glory Hole Gallery, Queer Art Praxis, and 2SLGBTQ+ Micro-Gallery's as Sites of Creative Resistance and Community Building Emily Peltier (in person)
—
13:30–15:00 Session
Black Critical Theory Working Group Panel: Materiality and Abstraction After Antiblackness
Session chair: Patrick Michael Teed (in person)
  1. Conflict, Consensus and Confinement: On the Ontario Science Centre's A Question of Truth Marcelle Anne Fletcher (in person)
  2. Disciplinary Formations Across Black and African Studies Maandeeq Mohamed (online)
  3. Symbolic narratives of rites of passage: unsuspending female circumcision Milka Njoroge (in person)
  4. The Lordean Ruse Kevin Ah Sen (in person)
Making Culture
Session chair: Raisa Rasheeka (in person)
  1. Digital Ethnic Media and the Construction of Cultural Trauma: The Tai Po Fire and Hong Kong Diaspora Responses in Canada James Wong (in person)
  2. The End of Endings: Streaming Television and the Politics of Permanent Upheaval Raisa Rasheeka (in person)
Aesthetic Interventions
Session chair: Brent Ryan Bellamy (in person)
  1. Mimetic Experience: The Performance of Citizenship in Tehching Hsieh’s work Aydan Hasanova (online)
  2. Monuments Without Ground: Augmented Reality and Diasporic Practices of Remembrance Vasuki Shanmuganathan (online)
  3. The Passport Project: Representing Indigeneity, diaspora, belonging, and (im)possible movement(s) in the Passport works by Abdi Osman Ellyn Walker (online)
—
15:15–16:30 Session
Queer Poetics of Upheaval: Improvising Genres of Collective Life Workshop
Session chair: Ronald Cummings
  1. Poetry Towards New Worlds Ronald Cummings
  2. Queerly Gendered Poetics and Life Genres: Cities from Below Jamie Magnusson (in person)
  3. Rehearsing Choreographies for Collective Upheavals Hadley Howes (in person)
Waste & Garbage
Session chair: Karl Manis (in person)
  1. Capture and Drift in the Orbital Imaginary Karl Manis (in person)
  2. Girlhood as Pedagogy: Mourning the Self and the Planet Through Junk Journaling in the Anthropocene Alicia Petrie (in person)
  3. Microbiopolitical Scatology: Urban Wastewater Milieus and Microbial Futures Penelope Ironstone (in person)
Material Cultures
Session chair: Meghan Jennings (in person)
  1. The Medium Is the Message: Textile Arts as a Site of Knowledge Subversion and Political Visibility Meghan Jennings (in person)
  2. Fashion Economies as Cultural Upheaval: Cloth, Colonialism, and Canadian National Narratives Mark O'Connell (online)
  3. Circulating Authenticity: Exploring Handmade Objects as Neoliberal Selfies Bebhinn Jennings (in person)
—
17:00–18:30 Keynote — — —
Wild Infrastructure: Movements Beyond Apocalypse - Deb Cowen Keynote at Peterborough Public Library
  1. Wild Infrastructure: Movements Beyond Apocalypse - Deb Cowen Keynote at Peterborough Public Library Deb Cowen
09:00–10:30 · Wallis Hall 132.4

Collectives

Session chair: Beverly Bain (in person)
  1. Constructing hunger: Digital narratives about food insecurity, responsibility, and care in Hamilton food banks and community gardens Antara Dey (online), Anneka Bosse (in person)
  2. Interwoven Worlds: Rethinking Environmental Relationships, Engagement, and Possibilities in Times of Upheaval Himani Dhanot (in person)
  3. QTBIPOC Grassroots Communities as Collective Life: (Re)Building Through Times of Upheaval Maple Xiang (in person)
  4. Scholars Strike For Liberation (SSL): A Revolutionary Virtual Platform For Freedom Beverly Bain (in person)
09:00–10:30 · Scott House 208

Indigeneity, Diaspora, Settler Colonialism Working Group Panel

Session chair: Kerry Sinanan (online)
  1. Indigeneity, Diaspora, and Settler Colonialism: Global Connections Dawnis Kennedy (online), Aarzoo Singh (online), Ghada Sasa (online), Precious Gauthier (in person)
  2. Philippine Diasporic Praxes of Self and Collective Decolonization in/within Performance Creation Dennis Gupa (online)
09:00–10:30 · Wallis Hall 226

Publics

Session chair: Joshua Synenko
  1. (Il)legible: conspiracy theory and the internet Mikaela Lewis (in person)
  2. "Disruption, Upheaval, or Magic? AI Imaginaries and Implementations in a Conjuncture Called Silicon Valley" Markus Reisenleitner (in person)
  3. "Environmentalism is the Modality in which Digital Refusal is Lived" Anne Pasek (in person)
  4. Hard Feelings: The Effective Altruist Imagination Emma Watson (in person)
10:45–12:15 · Wallis Hall 132.4

Counter Media And Refusals

Session chair: Brandon Hollingshead (in person)
  1. Canadian Comic Book Histories as Resistant Public Pedagogy Brandon Hollingshead (in person)
  2. Public Code under Upheaval: Counter-Policy, NFB Interactive Media, and Creative Agency in Canada John Bessai (online)
  3. Soleils Atikamekw: Chloé Leriche's Critique of Whiteness Bruno Cornellier (online)
  4. Tricksters & Tragedy: Comedic Survivance Kyra Min Poole (in person)
10:45–12:15 · Scott House 208

Critical Formations of the Field

Session chair: Brent Ryan Bellamy (in person)
  1. Combating the Politics of Silence, Beyond the Walls of Academia Precious Gauthier (in person)
  2. Upheaval as Method: Unsettling the Conditions of Knowing Kathryn Last (in person)
10:45–12:15 · Wallis Hall 226

Basket Weaving And Other Vicissitudes

Session chair: Sara Matthews (in person)
  1. Academic freedom for students – is the question ‘academic’? Eve Haque (in person)
  2. AI Intimacies and Academic Integrity: Crisis and Cheating in the Glitch Sara Matthews (in person)
  3. On Basketweaving, the Critical Humanities, and Public Finance Tapji Garba (in person)
  4. Policing the Post-Secondary Crisis Patrick Michael Teed (in person)
12:15–13:15 · Wallis Hall 132.4

Disrupting the Continuum Workshop

  1. Disrupting the Continuum: Art, Pedagogy, and the Politics of Non-Racism David Puvaneyshwaran (in person), Carolyn Oei (in person)
12:15–13:15 · Scott House 208

Queer Atmospheres Workshop

  1. Queer Atmospheres Tarot: Attunement, Magic, and Socially-Engaged Arts of Relating Jay Pahre (in person)
12:15–13:15 · Wallis Hall 226

No Small Acts Workshop

  1. Witnessing The Glory Hole: Glory Hole Gallery, Queer Art Praxis, and 2SLGBTQ+ Micro-Gallery's as Sites of Creative Resistance and Community Building Emily Peltier (in person)
13:30–15:00 · Wallis Hall 132.4

Black Critical Theory Working Group Panel: Materiality and Abstraction After Antiblackness

Session chair: Patrick Michael Teed (in person)
  1. Conflict, Consensus and Confinement: On the Ontario Science Centre's A Question of Truth Marcelle Anne Fletcher (in person)
  2. Disciplinary Formations Across Black and African Studies Maandeeq Mohamed (online)
  3. Symbolic narratives of rites of passage: unsuspending female circumcision Milka Njoroge (in person)
  4. The Lordean Ruse Kevin Ah Sen (in person)
13:30–15:00 · Scott House 208

Making Culture

Session chair: Raisa Rasheeka (in person)
  1. Digital Ethnic Media and the Construction of Cultural Trauma: The Tai Po Fire and Hong Kong Diaspora Responses in Canada James Wong (in person)
  2. The End of Endings: Streaming Television and the Politics of Permanent Upheaval Raisa Rasheeka (in person)
13:30–15:00 · Wallis Hall 226

Aesthetic Interventions

Session chair: Brent Ryan Bellamy (in person)
  1. Mimetic Experience: The Performance of Citizenship in Tehching Hsieh’s work Aydan Hasanova (online)
  2. Monuments Without Ground: Augmented Reality and Diasporic Practices of Remembrance Vasuki Shanmuganathan (online)
  3. The Passport Project: Representing Indigeneity, diaspora, belonging, and (im)possible movement(s) in the Passport works by Abdi Osman Ellyn Walker (online)
15:15–16:30 · Wallis Hall 132.4

Queer Poetics of Upheaval: Improvising Genres of Collective Life Workshop

Session chair: Ronald Cummings
  1. Poetry Towards New Worlds Ronald Cummings
  2. Queerly Gendered Poetics and Life Genres: Cities from Below Jamie Magnusson (in person)
  3. Rehearsing Choreographies for Collective Upheavals Hadley Howes (in person)
15:15–16:30 · Scott House 208

Waste & Garbage

Session chair: Karl Manis (in person)
  1. Capture and Drift in the Orbital Imaginary Karl Manis (in person)
  2. Girlhood as Pedagogy: Mourning the Self and the Planet Through Junk Journaling in the Anthropocene Alicia Petrie (in person)
  3. Microbiopolitical Scatology: Urban Wastewater Milieus and Microbial Futures Penelope Ironstone (in person)
15:15–16:30 · Wallis Hall 226

Material Cultures

Session chair: Meghan Jennings (in person)
  1. The Medium Is the Message: Textile Arts as a Site of Knowledge Subversion and Political Visibility Meghan Jennings (in person)
  2. Fashion Economies as Cultural Upheaval: Cloth, Colonialism, and Canadian National Narratives Mark O'Connell (online)
  3. Circulating Authenticity: Exploring Handmade Objects as Neoliberal Selfies Bebhinn Jennings (in person)
17:00–18:30 · Community Room

Wild Infrastructure: Movements Beyond Apocalypse - Deb Cowen Keynote at Peterborough Public Library

  1. Wild Infrastructure: Movements Beyond Apocalypse - Deb Cowen Keynote at Peterborough Public Library Deb Cowen

Sponsored by CACS-ACÉC, SSHRC, and Trent University