2025 Graduate Student Conference in Education

The 21st Annual York University Graduate Student Conference in Education

February 19, 2025, at The Tranzac Club in Toronto

con-current(s)

“Sometimes I need both to be strong and to be held. My own mysterious strength of quantum genetics, of cape and revolution, of spin and stripe. What if it is the world being the world that makes the sky the sky? What if the sky rushed in all directions to meet us here, connect us to everywhere? What if the ocean has my back? Could I trust that?” (Gumbs, 2021, p. 32)

This method versus that one; those traditions over another; their word against theirs — constantly asked to choose between one or the other, staying in the tension of the in-between is a challenge. But what is constant if not the push-and-pull of currents, which are constantly moving? What might it mean to be with — learn with — these currents? What is it to be swept away by the force of a theory, an observation, or even a pedagogue? When have we been rocked by the waves of knowledge that upend established notions of ‘what works’ and ‘what matters’ in education? How does it feel to be pulled under, surprised by the undertow that was there all along, running below the surface?

This year’s conference theme extends an invitation to linger with the con-current(s) of tensions and possibilities encountered in our own scholarship and in our pedagogical relationships. Whether these are methodological, ethical, historical, epistemological — compared with the familiar ‘concurrent sessions’ found at a typical conference (which split attention and attendance into separate spaces, apart from the whole) — we are designing a space where what is experienced as con-current(s) may be the varied practices we animate across our scholarship. And what might that con-current(s) tell us about the questions we ask in our inquiry? 

With con-current(s), the first half of the hyphenation, “con”, means ours is a place for being “with” one another, and our ideas, to explore the possibility of holding estranged, or seemingly dichotomous ideas, in the same hand. The latter half, “current(s)”, expresses our intention for this conference to be a place for recognizing what is already “existing and happening at the same time” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2024). Our ‘happening’ alongside one another requires us to engage with what tensions we meet, and through that, make new waves. 

Extending the 2022 conference and its theme, re: alongside the 2024 conference’s desires for thinking other worlds, anyways, we situate con-current(s) as a way to think and re:imagine otherwise worlds that are with us, here and now, from then and there. As Ellyn Lyle, Jodi Latremouille, and David Jardine (2021) write: “We often hear that we are living in extraordinary times. This gives us pause as we wonder, has there ever been a time that was not extraordinary? … now is the time. Just as now has always been the time” (p. 3, emphasis in original). 

Mirroring the dynamic push-and-pull of currents, our desire is for these dialogues to shape what we imagine, even as we are pulled toward the depths in the face of despairing events and contradictions. As we do this, we approach the in-between as a place of possibility, not stuckness. This may allow us to find, as Bronwyn Davies and Susanne Gannon (2006) suggest, an ability to tolerate the disruption of binaries and move our questions towards those needed to carry out careful, ethical research and pedagogy. As they write, “It is the both/and of these stories that we turn to discover that we are both working in an oppressive regime that silences us and we are the wild women who will laugh at it, and name its absurdity and violence” (Davies & Gannon, 2006, p. 86). In such a “both-and proposition” writes adrienne maree brown, “Doing the work reveals more of the work to be done in us” (p. 81). We invite graduate scholars to join us in this work, so that we might reveal, analyze, and create con-current(s), together. 

Read more below to learn about our plans and how to participate.

Conference Structure

The YGSE Conference hosted in February 2025 will generate a space for graduate students studying topics in education to gather and think together about their ideas, ongoing work, questions, and experiences. First, at an in-person colloquium, participants will encounter a keynote panel by upper-year doctoral students, facilitated workshops, and artistic provocations focused on generating dialogue. This day is an opportunity to share ideas and work in progress in conversation with peers. Pending the volume of submissions, the following day (February 20) may feature a series of panels/paper presentations and discussions online through Zoom.

More about the in-person event: A colloquium centres group discussion and analysis of specific topics and questions, prioritizing dialogue rather than multiple paper presentations. Hosted at The Tranzac Club in Toronto, the (day 1) in-person colloquium is a chance to spend time with each other and with our ideas. We will all share the same space for the duration of the day, and encounter the works offered altogether. The Tranzac Club is an event space for hosting musical, literary, and cultural events. We are hosting the in-person event off-campus in order to invite a range of participants from and beyond York University.  Further, we imagine the location will bring us together in an unfamiliar space so that we might interrupt our daily routines and stimulate new dialogue. Finally, we are excited at the prospect of inviting musical, movement, and other kinds of performances into the space. We are keen to provide a venue for arts-based educational scholarship to be shared and witnessed.

The Tranzac Club is located at  292 Brunswick Ave (in The Annex, Bloor Street West and Brunswick Ave.), and is fully accessible.

Register to Attend at https://forms.gle/BCRm1XawSsqM4qhE6 

We want the conference space to be filled with more than just our presenters. We invite scholars studying across the field of education to join us at the in-person colloquium Wednesday, February 19th at The Tranzac Club and/or online on Thursday, February 20th on Zoom. Register today! Space is limited for the in-person day. Fill in a short registration form to indicate your attendance: https://forms.gle/Pb8CkdpvJz2Z6Lth9 

The YGSE con-current(s) conference is free to register and attend. At the in-person colloquium,  refreshments and a hot lunch will be provided. The day will end with a cash-bar reception at The Southern Cross. Deadline to register: February 10, 2025.

Call for Submissions 

Submissions Open: October 7

Submissions Close: November 11

We invite papers, performances, artwork, and workshops that will invite scholars studying across the field of education to think together. We invite you to consider the following questions as you prepare your proposal: 

  • What is ‘happening’ concurrently in your scholarship (e.g. mixed methods and interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks; the both/and you encounter and navigate, etc.)
  • How does the language our scholarship takes (our questions, methodologies, knowledge mobilization efforts) reveal concurrent meanings — when does our ‘data’ mean more than one thing at once; what are its contrasting yet converging meanings…

We further invite you to situate your work in the spaces in-between, guided by any of the following questions: 

  • What con-current(s) as tensions do you encounter in your work? What do these encounters do? Where might they lead?
  • Where do you see, or see possibility for, ‘new waves’ in your scholarship? Where could, or do, these waves draw us to? What holds us back from entering these new waters?
  • How have interdisciplinary approaches opened you to possibility in your scholarship or teaching?
  • What might it mean to see or make con-current(s) through our methodologies, our pedagogies, our interventions?

Types of submissions: 

We are seeking submissions for the following:

PhD Keynote Panel: The PhD Keynote panel(s) offer upper-year or near-completion doctoral students in education the chance to present their work and celebrate their achievements. At least one panel will specifically feature three doctoral students from the Faculty of Education at York University. The panel will be facilitated by a discussant. Additional panels may be programmed depending on submissions received. Complete papers will need to be submitted to the discussant at least two weeks before the event. 

→ Submission requirements: 250 Word Abstract + Reference list

Workshop/Collaborative Activity/Facilitated Discussions: Workshops and collaborative activities designed to provoke discussion of central topics of concern, perhaps by co-producing an artefact, listening to something together, etc. Must indicate whether designed for engagement in-person or online.

→ Submission requirements: 250 Word Abstract + Reference list and/or equivalent work of art or examples of previous workshops/facilitation experience

Artistic Intervention, Display, or Performance: Presentation or re-presentation of arts-based educational scholarship or works of research-creation. May also include co-production of arts-based works with conference attendees.

→ Submission requirements: 250 Word Abstract + Preview of Artwork + Reference list and/or relevant examples

Paper Presentation: Short papers that essay, intervene, explore, or animate ongoing scholarship in the realm of education (broadly conceived); depending on volume of submissions, papers may be organized into panels for presentation online (potential day 2 on Zoom).

→ Submission requirements: 250 Word Abstract + Reference list and/or equivalent work.

Works in Progress: An opportunity to propose questions or provocations related to ongoing challenges you may be encountering in your scholarship and have peers respond. You may also wish to submit a section of a paper already in the works or submitted to an upcoming, large-scale academic conference. We welcome the opportunity to witness new scholars practice/prepare to share work; please indicate this in your submission (ours is a space for practice, in the company of fellow graduate students)

→ Submission requirements: 250 Word Abstract + Reference List 

Submit your proposal today! Please note all submissions will be made through the YUWrite journal portal and will be anonymously peer-reviewed by graduate students at York University in the Faculty of Education. Begin your proposal submission at: https://forms.gle/BCRm1XawSsqM4qhE6

For more information, please contact: gradconf@edu.yorku.ca 

References

brown, a. m. (2021). Holding change: The way of emergent strategy facilitation and 

mediation. AK Press.

Cambridge Dictionary. (2024, September 20). Concurrent. Cambridge Dictionary. 

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/concurrent 

Davies, B., & Gannon, S. (2006). Doing collective biography: Investigating the 

production of subjectivity. Open University Press.

Gumbs, A. P. (2021). Undrowned: Black feminist lessons from marine mammals. 

Soundings, 78(78), 20-37. DOI: 10.3898/SOUN.78.01.2021 

Lyle, E., Latremouille, J., & Jardine, D. (2021). Now has always been the time. Journal 

of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 18(2), 1-5.