Join us for our 96th Annual Meeting:

March 5-8, 2026

WASHINGTON, DC

Washington Marriott at Metro Center

Transformation & Repair: Worldmaking in Contexts

of Struggle and Constraint

Worldmaking is a capacious concept. Far from imagining Empire, sociological treatments of worldmaking are expansive, anchoring the building of new systems, new scaffolds of belonging, and new ways of being in everyday work and collective practices. Through worldmaking processes, new interpretations can gain footing that make alternate conditions of existence possible. It is a collective activity rooted in place and space, that enriches our collective life, wards against human vulnerability and despair, disrupts the flow of power, and pushes back against ‘big’ structures. The 96th annual Eastern Sociological Society meetings, to be held in Washington DC, a city that belongs to the people, will consider worldmaking as it emerges in contexts of struggle and constraint, as a complex of everyday doings that have the capacity to stem the tides of subjugation and anti-democratic mobilizations, upend harmful systems, challenge the cultural logics of domination, and make possible transformation and repair.

 

Washington Marriott at Metro Center, Washington D.C.

March 5-8, 2026

https://www.essnet.org/

​Abstract submission deadline: October 15, 2025

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Mini-Conferences are an integral and enriching part of every ESS meeting. As such, we welcome Mini-Conference proposals at this time. 

 Mini-Conference proposals should include:

• Full title of Mini-Conference

• Brief (less than 1 sentence) summary description of your mini-conference (this will be used to describe your “mini-conference track” in the submission system)

• Organizer names and contact information          

• Brief description of questions and topics to guide the

  Mini-Conference

• Brief (<200-word) call for papers describing the content of the mini-conference, which we will advertise on our website and through our listserv

• Rationale for the Mini-Conference:

  • anticipated level of interest and participation (especially based on previous mini-conferences organized on the same topic, if applicable; connection to the overall theme of the conference);

  • requested number of days for mini-conference (minimum: 0.5 days; maximum: 3.5 days). If your mini-conference is selected, we will allocate it a provisional number of days, which will only be finalized once abstracts come in. The number of days allocated to your mini-conference may increase or decrease, depending on the number of abstracts it receives.

• Any special considerations regarding space or time (we will do our best to accommodate these)

Don’t hesitate to reach out to Tania Jenkins, Mini-Conference Liaison, if you have any questions.

Please submit proposals by no later than June 30, 2025 to: tania.jenkins@unc.edu.