2025 Conference

LAWCHA 2025 Conference
Call for Papers
“Making Work Matter:
Solidarity and Action across Space and Time”

Grad Student Workshop, June 11-12, 2025

LAWCHA Conference, June 12-14, 2025

University of Chicago

As recent events have shown, workers around the globe are facing many diverse challenges. Whether it’s contingent faculty, non-union employees, migrant workers in the U.S. or across the globe who are trafficked or severely exploited, workers being displaced by technology and AI, or those participating in the new “gig economy” of part-time and insecure labor without benefits, the world of work is changing at a rapid pace.  The 2025 LAWCHA Program Committee welcomes proposals on the broad theme of “Making Work Matter: Solidarity and Action across Space and Time” that connects the challenges of work today with struggles and stories of the past.  We are especially interested in the intersection of histories and present-day examples of how people are working toward practical and on-the-ground organizing, as well as solidarity and activism across categories of difference.

While proposals on any labor related topic may be submitted, the program committee encourages the submission of comparative, global, and transnational panels;  sessions on “front line” or “essential “workers; workers and technology; immigration and migration; gender, sexuality and work; forced labor in different eras; public health, medical care, and care work; marginalized workers including Black, Brown, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islander, LGBTQ, and people with disabilities; working-class and labor movements for justice and democracy. We encourage presentations on the United States, across the Americas and beyond, in all time periods; on teaching and public history; race, ethnicity, gender, disability, colonialism, citizenship status, and sexuality; working class communities and social movements. Proposals on other labor and working-class topics are also welcome.

We will consider traditional panels with 3 papers; lightning sessions of 5-6 very short presentations; roundtables of 5-6 people discussing a larger theme; workshops; performance-oriented sessions featuring artistic work, including films; proposals for a poster session; and moderated conversations between activists, artists, archivists, and historians. All sessions (except for posters) must designate a comment/chair or moderator/chair separate from presenters.

We welcome proposals from scholars and activists in all fields and at all stages, and especially urge contingent faculty, community college faculty, and independent scholars to submit panel proposals and papers.

We encourage the submission of complete panels rather than individual papers. Single paper authors are encouraged to seek out others prior to submission. We ask that organizers aim for diversity in gender, race, ethnicity, and/or employment status of presenters when pulling together submissions.

LAWCHA 2025 Program Co-Chairs:

Lilia Fernandez, University of Illinois at Chicago

Emily E. LB. Twarog, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Conference email: LAWCHA2025@gmail.com

SUBMISSION DETAILS

SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL ONLINE AT – https://go.illinois.edu/LAWCHA2025

Submission Portal Opens: July 31, 2024
Submission deadline: November 15, 2024

Click on here for instructions on how to submit your proposal.

Late submissions will not be considered.

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Ideal session proposals will actively promote and include diverse sets of participants, addressing gender, racial and ethnic, religious, disability-based, and/or LGBTQ diversities. The Program Committee encourages session proposers to consider the benefits of including historians and practitioners in various career paths and of various ranks (i.e., senior scholars, public historians, graduate students, independent historians, etc.) within their organizations/institutions. Most sessions should include a range of scholars representing different age, generational, and career cohorts.

Submission checklist:

Contact Information –

Name of each participant
Institution/Organization/Affiliation
Occupation
Email
Cell Phone

Types of Submission – All sessions (except for posters) must designate a comment/chair or moderator/chair separate from presenters.

Paper panel

3 papers, a commentator, and chair/moderation
Paper abstract (200-300 words)

Lightning sessions on research, public facing programs, pedagogy

5-6 very short presentations on a theme with a moderator
Summary of theme (200-300 words)
Abstract of each presenters project (200-300 words)

Roundtable on a big topic or theme

5-6 people discussing a larger theme with a moderator
Summary of larger theme (200-400 words)
A statement on the contribution of each participant (200-400 words)

Performance session

Any session that features artistic exploration –  film projects, plays, dance or musical performance, etc.
A description of the project and your vision for presenting it (200-400 words)

Moderated conversation

A discussion among 5-6 historians and practitioners (activists, artists, archivist, k-12 teachers).
Summary of larger theme (200-400 words)
A statement on the contribution of each participant (200-400 words)

Poster session

A vision presentation of a research project or a public facing project by an individual or group
Poster abstract (200-300 words)