Applicant Information

Please complete and submit the form below by March 3, 2023, 11:59pm (PST). All fields marked with a red star are required.

40 years of MALCS, Centuries of Activism: La Lucha Sigue for Racial, Reproductive and Decolonial Justice

MALCS 2023 Summer Institute at UC Davis Call for Proposals

As we work to thrive while disproportionately experiencing violence, economic inequities and health crises in our communities, we also continue to create and exist as scholars and activists. Thriving whilst and within violent systems of misogyny, racial capitalism, and white supremacy, we suggest we take this moment to reflect on the four decades of transformative work done by MALCS'istas as activists, scholars, and community members. We also invite our community to reflect on the legacies, enseñanzas, and strategies for movement building around racial, reproductive, and decolonial justice. How do we celebrate, bring forward, and learn from the ancestral activism and scholarship from MALCS'istas? How do we draw upon the legacies to continue our fights against white supremacy, reproductive oppression, and colonialism?

We invite you to join us in Davis, CA to highlight the importance of collective activism and scholarship, movement building, lucha, community building, bringing forward ancestral knowledge, as we move though our work toward justice. Davis and the wider Sacramento area has an incredible history of creativity and a culture of resistance. We will gather on the ancestral homelands of the Patwin people. Today, there are three federally recognized Patwin tribes: Cachil DeHe Band of Wintun Indians of the Colusa Indian Community, Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation, and Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation. The Patwin people have remained committed to the stewardship of this land over many centuries. It has been cherished and protected, as elders have instructed the young through generations. We are honored and grateful that the 40th anniversary of MALCS is held on their traditional lands.

We welcome panels, roundtables, workshops, films, and/or individual paper proposals, and expansive interpretations of this year’s theme, 40 years of MALCS, Centuries of Activism: La Lucha Sigue for Racial, Reproductive and Decolonial Justice. We invite you to consider our actions, work, and scholarship on these contested physical and intellectual territories from these broad perspectives:

• MALCS Mission: please see here for the full mission of MALCS https://malcs.org/about/ 
• Embodiment: (e.g., theories in the flesh that honor the knowledge held in our bodies and that we can fashion toward communal healing; somatic movement(s) that honor our bodies and our communities; manifestations of creative practices, art, scholarship, actions, and thinking that can transform us and our society)
• Ancestral Knowledge: (e.g., honoring legacies passed down by ancestors that allow for our continual transformation; reshaping knowledge of our lineages that move us toward healing; using ancestral knowledge within activist, academic, and personal spaces)
• Intergenerational Knowledge: (e.g., honoring the wisdom/knowledge passed down by MALCS/Founders of the association along with the shared knowledge created by new generation of MALCSistas, promoting dialogue across generations for lifelong learning and activism)
• Language Reckonings: (e.g., acknowledging that language is often limiting and can lead to intentional and unintentional exclusions; language within a Western construct can be itself a violence and is unable to hold what we are trying to create)
• Humanizing Pedagogies: (e.g., reconstructing teaching and learning experiences that center our full humanity; creating learning environments where students can show up as their whole selves; cultivating opportunities for developing students’ critical consciousness; integrating intersectional perspectives in teaching and learning to promote reflection, awareness, and action) 
• Collective Resistance: (e.g., leveraging community organizing to engage in legislative and policy work; forging new paths to transform and resist the violences we exist within; engaging in collective action to impact institutional change)
• Community-driven leadership: (e.g., acknowledging the activism and how our communities have activated community cultural wealth to mobilize resources to provide better opportunities for their families; address inequities and deficit actions against our communities; find ways to respond to oppression and advocate for social change)
• Reproductive Oppression: (e.g., the control and exploitation of women, girls, and individuals through our bodies, sexuality, labor, and reproduction)
• Reproductive Justice: (e.g., complete physical, mental, spiritual, political, social, environmental and economic well-being of women and girls, based on the full achievement and protection of human rights;  ability of any girl/woman/person to determine her/their own reproductive destiny; which it directly linked to the conditions in her/their community (opportunities to work at living wages, opportunities for affordable quality education, responsible and accessible public services such as good health care, quality schools, and accessible and affordable child care, freedom from personal and state violence, and environmentally safe communities) and these conditions are not just a matter of individual choice and access.

In accordance with the mission of MALCS, we encourage submissions by Chicana, Latina, and Native American / Indígena women and gender non-confirming academics and activists. We also encourage the submission of proposals by mujeres and gender non-confirming folk that also self-identify as Afro Latinx, Asian Latinx, Transgender, and Gender Non-Conforming. Submissions should reflect both the MALCS mission and the 2023 conference theme.

If you have any questions please send an email to: malcssi2023@malcs.org 

Ready to submit? Here’s what to do:

• Become a member of MALCS at https://malcs.wildapricot.org/join-us . If you are submitting on behalf of a larger group, make sure everyone is a member. Proposals received from non-members will not be considered.
• Login to your MALCS account at https://malcs.wildapricot.org/join-us to check and update your membership status or to reset a password under “forgot your password.”
• Click on the 2023 Call For Proposals Submission link. You will need to provide confirmation of membership in order to submit a proposal. Upon submission of your membership and abstract, you will receive a confirmation email.
• That’s it! Celebrate this accomplishment, note key dates, and wait to hear from us via email. 

Here’s a few things you need to know:

• Proposers will be notified of acceptance on or before March 31, 2023.
• Questions about the submission process can be sent to malcsinstitute@ucdavis.edu.
• If you are a student and unable to become a member at this time, please email MALCS Membership Coordinator at membership@malcs.org to make arrangements.
• You must use your MALCS membership login to submit a proposal
  • If you make a login mistake, the system will tell you it could not login. Please clear your web browser history and proceed with login. If you forgot your login, click login and go to “forgot password.”
  • Membership is not automatically populated into the system when you apply for membership. It is manually approved by our Membership coordinator (membership@malcs.org). Please allow at least a 48 hour period for activation of membership following your full payment on PayPal. After 48 hours, you can successfully submit your proposal. 

Format of Proposed Presentation

Presentations may be proposed in several formats: single papers, collaborative/team research, thematic panels, workshops, roundtables, and films. Please select the appropriate category for your proposal and submit an abstract of no more than 200-word count. At the end of each form there is a Comment box. Use the Comment box for information that does not fit within the limits of the form like special requests or a co-authored presentation. Sessions are 60 minutes long.  Panels consist of 3-4 presenters, each presenter should expect to have 10-15 minutes to deliver their paper and to ensure time for Q&A.

Required information for submissions: Paper/Panel title, abstract(s), name(s) and email(s) of presenters, and AV requirement.  Presenters must provide the appropriate laptop and cords for connectivity. 

Panel Organizers, please have the following information from your panelists:
-Confirm that all panel participants can present during the institute dates, July 12-15th, 2023. 
-Have the complete names, institutions (school/community organization), and email for each panelist.  Email is very important, as this is the method we will be using to communicate with you and your panelists.
-Depending on the type of submission, you will also need the title of the presentation and abstract for each panelist. Providing incomplete information upon submission will mean 1) Incomplete information in the program and 2) Additional work for the MALCS staff.  While we understand that the paper title and presenters might change from the time of submission to the time of the conference, we do ask that you be as complete as possible in the submission process. Do not submit duplicate submissions to correct or update a past submission.
-If your proposal is accepted, all expenses (membership dues, registration fees, etc.) are your responsibility. MALCS does not pay honorarium or any other type of compensation to presenters.

Key Dates: 

March 3, 2023 Proposal Submission Deadline (extension)
March 31, 2023 Proposal Submission Result Announcement
April 22, 2023 Presenters Confirm Participation
May 15, 2023 Preliminary Program Announcement
June 23, 2023 Program Finalized & Printed
July 12-15, 2023 MALCS at UC Davis!