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

Saturday, 7 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 elevator
09:00–10:30 Session
Cultural Translation and Mobility Working Group Panel: Planetary Thinking at the Intersections of Cultural Translation and Mobility
Session chair: Sanjukta Banerjee (in person)
  1. Dreaming a Language without Separation: Queer Quantum Translation in Emilia Beatriz’s barrunto (2024) Gemma Craig-Sharples (online)
  2. Extractive Economy and Planetary Change: Migration, Translation and Polyphony in Pundalik N. Naik’s The Upheaval Saikat Pradhan (online)
  3. Parallel Sovereignties: A Comparative Visual Analysis of Indigenous Childhoods in Indian and Canadian Picturebooks Sridipa Dandapat (online)
  4. Translating Solidarity: What Happens When the Jobs Disappear but the Workers Remain? Migrant Workers, Labour Mobility, and Community Unionism after the Del Monte Oshawa Closure Christopher Sorio (in person)
Teaching Upheaval
Session chair: Anjalee Nadarajan (in person)
  1. Classroom, collegium, and community: Studying the talk of teacher education Lynn Caldwell (online)
  2. Sustaining Through Refusal: Queer and Trans Teachers and the Upheaval of Respectability Chase Thomson (in person)
  3. The Essay Versus the Instagram Caption: Teaching Writing Since 2023 Anjalee Nadarajan (in person)
Otherwise, Catastrophe
Session chair: Caliesha Harris (in person)
  1. New Worlds Through Radical Queer Ontology Kiefer Snider (in person)
  2. Sola Simulacrum: Living Through the End of the World Caliesha Harris (in person)
  3. The Heat Death of the Internal Universe Sterling MacDonald (in person)
10:45–12:15 Session
Demos
Session chair: Saghar Ghezel (in person)
  1. Digital Graveyards & Death Selfies: Relics of the 2026 Iranian Massacre Saghar Ghezel (in person)
  2. Platforming #Ozoemena: Memory and Affective Resistance on X Silas Udenze (in person)
  3. The Living Archive: Ekşi Sözlük and the Gezici Master Frame Can Kutay (online)
  4. WHERE FROM, WHERE TO? Returning to ambivalent nostalgia in the past-present-future of the Jewish diaspora Zoë Catterall (in person)
Forms of Life And Death
Session chair: Michael Epp (in person)
  1. Vocabulary for the Genocide Economy: A Compendium from Kjipuktuk Neil Balan (online)
  2. Achille Mbembe’s Computational and Racial Dispositifs Greg Bird (in person)
  3. From Ecological to Planetary Necropolitics in Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide (2004) and Gun Island (2019) Sayantani Choudhury (in person)
  4. Violent Labour, Management, and the Mundane in the Irish Republican Army Michael Epp (in person)
Soundscapes
Session chair: Lindsay Blake (in person)
  1. Soundscapes, Biosonification, Ruby Singh Max Karpinski (in person)
  2. The Sexual Agency of Women in the 1st Wave of UK Punk: Siouxsie Sioux’s Use of Nazi Imagery & Clockwork Orange Make-Up as a Means of Feminist Power and Agency Through the Lens of Hauntology Lindsay Blake (in person)
  3. The Soundscape of Withdrawal: Noise-Cancelling Technologies and the Privatisation of Listening Pouria Torkamaneh (online)
12:15–13:30 AGM AGM
13:30–15:00 Session
Methodologies Under Scrutiny
Session chair: Sheenagh Pietrobruno (in person)
  1. Generative AI and Material Culture: The Case of Canadian Costume Jewelry Sheenagh Pietrobruno (in person)
  2. The Kitchen as Site for Radical Learning and Alternative Knowledge Production Laura Kozak (online), Amanda White (in person)
  3. Upsurges Nevan Hinks (in person), Jenn Cole (in person)
(Counter)Atomization in amiskwacîwâskahikan
Session chair: Annaliese Pope (online)
  1. ArtBus: Re-localization Through Cultural Events Carolyn Jervis (in person)
  2. Tactical Compassion: Rapid Artistic Prototypes for Vulnerable Populations in an Age of Institutional Failure Dan Zimmerman (in person)
  3. "When you’re in poverty you can’t control the noise around you”: Precariously-Housed Youth and Orphic Media Annaliese Pope (online)
Polycrisis
Session chair: Aaron Kreuter (in person)
  1. A Logging Road to the Cosmos: Confronting the Polycrisis Through Ecopoetry Aaron Kreuter (in person)
  2. Culture/Civil/Class/Constant War: Video Games and the Far-Right Emma Vossen (online)
  3. Sonorities of the Dark Enlightenment Andrew Herman (in person)
15:15–16:30 Session
Extractivism
Session chair: Sara Matthews (in person)
  1. Ideational De-Risking and the Hegemony of “National” Critical Minerals: On “Major Projects” in Canada Zachary Gan (in person)
  2. Lodging Transition: Planning, Housing, and (Anti-)Social Reproduction at the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry Jordan B. Kinder (in person)
  3. The Colonizing of OOB and Pop Culture Trends Nina Adawag (online)
Rhetorics of the Right
Session chair: Brent Ryan Bellamy (in person), Jason Hannan (online)
  1. Domesticated Dynamite: Dreams of Artificial General Intelligence and Techno-feudalism Joshua Potter (online)
  2. Marketing Climate Obstructionism: Fossil Capital, Conservative Discourse Coalitions, and Social Media Advertising Robert Neubauer (online)
  3. Soaking in Common Sense: How LDS Tradwife Influencers Make Patriarchy Feel Natural, Beautiful, and Chosen Etta Potter (online)
  4. The Reactionary Mind and Mimetic Inversion: Making Sense of the Monstrous Double Jason Hannan (online)
TOPIA Planning
Session chair: Joshua Synenko
  1. Strengthening ties between CACS-ACÉC and TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies Nalini Mohabir (in person), Ronald Cummings
16:45–17:15 Conference Wrap Session Conference Wrap Session
09:00–10:30 · Wallis Hall 132.4

Cultural Translation and Mobility Working Group Panel: Planetary Thinking at the Intersections of Cultural Translation and Mobility

Session chair: Sanjukta Banerjee (in person)
  1. Dreaming a Language without Separation: Queer Quantum Translation in Emilia Beatriz’s barrunto (2024) Gemma Craig-Sharples (online)
  2. Extractive Economy and Planetary Change: Migration, Translation and Polyphony in Pundalik N. Naik’s The Upheaval Saikat Pradhan (online)
  3. Parallel Sovereignties: A Comparative Visual Analysis of Indigenous Childhoods in Indian and Canadian Picturebooks Sridipa Dandapat (online)
  4. Translating Solidarity: What Happens When the Jobs Disappear but the Workers Remain? Migrant Workers, Labour Mobility, and Community Unionism after the Del Monte Oshawa Closure Christopher Sorio (in person)
09:00–10:30 · Scott House 208

Teaching Upheaval

Session chair: Anjalee Nadarajan (in person)
  1. Classroom, collegium, and community: Studying the talk of teacher education Lynn Caldwell (online)
  2. Sustaining Through Refusal: Queer and Trans Teachers and the Upheaval of Respectability Chase Thomson (in person)
  3. The Essay Versus the Instagram Caption: Teaching Writing Since 2023 Anjalee Nadarajan (in person)
09:00–10:30 · Wallis Hall 226

Otherwise, Catastrophe

Session chair: Caliesha Harris (in person)
  1. New Worlds Through Radical Queer Ontology Kiefer Snider (in person)
  2. Sola Simulacrum: Living Through the End of the World Caliesha Harris (in person)
  3. The Heat Death of the Internal Universe Sterling MacDonald (in person)
10:45–12:15 · Wallis Hall 132.4

Demos

Session chair: Saghar Ghezel (in person)
  1. Digital Graveyards & Death Selfies: Relics of the 2026 Iranian Massacre Saghar Ghezel (in person)
  2. Platforming #Ozoemena: Memory and Affective Resistance on X Silas Udenze (in person)
  3. The Living Archive: Ekşi Sözlük and the Gezici Master Frame Can Kutay (online)
  4. WHERE FROM, WHERE TO? Returning to ambivalent nostalgia in the past-present-future of the Jewish diaspora Zoë Catterall (in person)
10:45–12:15 · Scott House 208

Forms of Life And Death

Session chair: Michael Epp (in person)
  1. Vocabulary for the Genocide Economy: A Compendium from Kjipuktuk Neil Balan (online)
  2. Achille Mbembe’s Computational and Racial Dispositifs Greg Bird (in person)
  3. From Ecological to Planetary Necropolitics in Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide (2004) and Gun Island (2019) Sayantani Choudhury (in person)
  4. Violent Labour, Management, and the Mundane in the Irish Republican Army Michael Epp (in person)
10:45–12:15 · Wallis Hall 226

Soundscapes

Session chair: Lindsay Blake (in person)
  1. Soundscapes, Biosonification, Ruby Singh Max Karpinski (in person)
  2. The Sexual Agency of Women in the 1st Wave of UK Punk: Siouxsie Sioux’s Use of Nazi Imagery & Clockwork Orange Make-Up as a Means of Feminist Power and Agency Through the Lens of Hauntology Lindsay Blake (in person)
  3. The Soundscape of Withdrawal: Noise-Cancelling Technologies and the Privatisation of Listening Pouria Torkamaneh (online)
12:15–13:30

AGM

13:30–15:00 · Wallis Hall 132.4

Methodologies Under Scrutiny

Session chair: Sheenagh Pietrobruno (in person)
  1. Generative AI and Material Culture: The Case of Canadian Costume Jewelry Sheenagh Pietrobruno (in person)
  2. The Kitchen as Site for Radical Learning and Alternative Knowledge Production Laura Kozak (online), Amanda White (in person)
  3. Upsurges Nevan Hinks (in person), Jenn Cole (in person)
13:30–15:00 · Scott House 208

(Counter)Atomization in amiskwacîwâskahikan

Session chair: Annaliese Pope (online)
  1. ArtBus: Re-localization Through Cultural Events Carolyn Jervis (in person)
  2. Tactical Compassion: Rapid Artistic Prototypes for Vulnerable Populations in an Age of Institutional Failure Dan Zimmerman (in person)
  3. "When you’re in poverty you can’t control the noise around you”: Precariously-Housed Youth and Orphic Media Annaliese Pope (online)
13:30–15:00 · Wallis Hall 226

Polycrisis

Session chair: Aaron Kreuter (in person)
  1. A Logging Road to the Cosmos: Confronting the Polycrisis Through Ecopoetry Aaron Kreuter (in person)
  2. Culture/Civil/Class/Constant War: Video Games and the Far-Right Emma Vossen (online)
  3. Sonorities of the Dark Enlightenment Andrew Herman (in person)
15:15–16:30 · Wallis Hall 132.4

Extractivism

Session chair: Sara Matthews (in person)
  1. Ideational De-Risking and the Hegemony of “National” Critical Minerals: On “Major Projects” in Canada Zachary Gan (in person)
  2. Lodging Transition: Planning, Housing, and (Anti-)Social Reproduction at the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry Jordan B. Kinder (in person)
  3. The Colonizing of OOB and Pop Culture Trends Nina Adawag (online)
15:15–16:30 · Scott House 208

Rhetorics of the Right

Session chair: Brent Ryan Bellamy (in person), Jason Hannan (online)
  1. Domesticated Dynamite: Dreams of Artificial General Intelligence and Techno-feudalism Joshua Potter (online)
  2. Marketing Climate Obstructionism: Fossil Capital, Conservative Discourse Coalitions, and Social Media Advertising Robert Neubauer (online)
  3. Soaking in Common Sense: How LDS Tradwife Influencers Make Patriarchy Feel Natural, Beautiful, and Chosen Etta Potter (online)
  4. The Reactionary Mind and Mimetic Inversion: Making Sense of the Monstrous Double Jason Hannan (online)
15:15–16:30 · Wallis Hall 226

TOPIA Planning

Session chair: Joshua Synenko
  1. Strengthening ties between CACS-ACÉC and TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies Nalini Mohabir (in person), Ronald Cummings
16:45–17:15

Conference Wrap Session

Sponsored by CACS-ACÉC, SSHRC, and Trent University