DIRT

We are thrilled to announce the call for papers for the 2026 Anthropology Graduate Student Conference at The New School for Social Research. Scroll down to find abstract submission guidelines.

This year, the NSSR Graduate Student Anthropology conference will be focusing its attention on:

“DIRT”

Dirt is a facilitator for life and a shelter for the dead; a connector of species, as well as the materiality that permits and constricts the flows of life-worlds. It plays a dynamic role in Earth systems as a chronological marker and vital ecological metric.

All forms of dirt (soil, mud, gravel, etc) asks us to consider how it straddles and entangles various environmental spheres of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere. Sensorially, it becomes a place of warmth, a symbol of dormancy, a collective of nutrients and a relief that revives and consumes all at once.

Dirt is also a place of gathering, community, nurture, culture. It is a semiotic, a symbol of that space or place, that can play a role in disrupting political landscapes or holding steady social imaginaries.

Whether a site of tension, arrangement, maintenance, or cultivation; dirt becomes a foundational aspect when debating political ecologies, new infrastructure, migration, resource allocations and labor, technosciences within agriculture where the movement of and over dirt becomes pivotal. Continuous wars and massacres made possible by the global flow of weapons, capital, and information, have resulted in devastating ruptures in lands and lives.

This conference invites presentations that engage with dirt, figuratively and literally. We view the prompts above not only as theoretical contemplations, but timely reflections on the global problems we are facing today. We welcome submissions that think critically about dirt, while discovering and engaging with the perspectives dirt pulls into focus. We encourage participants to draw on their own disciplines and passions to demonstrate their intersection with dirt and its entanglements.

Presentation formats may take multiple forms including traditional papers and posters, as well as works drawing on different media formats, such as audio, film, photography, and performance. We encourage submissions that are trans-global and interdisciplinary.

For more information, please contact us at: anthropologyconferencetns@gmail.com