American Indian Studies Association 2026 Conference

Where: UNM SUB, ABQ NM

2026 Theme: Constellations of Indigenous Belonging and Kinship

Call for Proposals are Open! Deadline: September 15, 2025 - https://forms.gle/mZ2UNhdJjL3h3pqL9. 

Graduate pre-Conference: Wednesday February 4, 2026 

Conference: Thursday February 5 - Friday February 6, 2026

The American Indian Studies Association (AISA) continues to honor the visionary scholars, community leaders, and knowledge holders who founded and continue to grow the field of American Indian Studies (AIS).

The 2026 conference invites reflection on and celebration of the Constellations of Indigenous Belonging and Kinship—those intricate, interwoven relationships that sustain Indigenous communities across generations, geographies, and experiences.

This year's theme centers on kinship's intellectual, cultural, and political significance as both an analytic and a lived practice. 

Belonging and kinship ground Indigenous Sovereignty, Peoples, and Governance, offering frameworks of accountability, relationality, and care that challenge settler-colonial structures. 

We invite proposals that explore how belonging and kinship connect to land, language, gender and sexuality, policy, environmental and social justice, activism, treaty rights, education, and representation in media and the arts. 

We welcome submissions from academics, faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, community members, and activists.

We especially welcome submissions grounded in Indigenous epistemologies and those created collaboratively with and alongside Indigenous communities.

This year’s gathering will also honor the experiences and wisdom of long-time intellectuals, students, and community members who have shaped AIS as a discipline and practice. 

We encourage proposals that engage critical theories, methodologies, pedagogies, and practices of Indigenous Studies. 

Let us gather to reflect, build, and imagine together—across our diverse positionalities and nations—as we map out Constellations of Indigenous Belongings and Kinships.

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