Call for Papers

Convocatoria en español

Mass Violence, Genocide, and Their Lasting Impact on Indigenous Peoples:
The Americas and Australia/Pacific Region

November 23-25, 2026
Universidad Nacional de Río Negro
Bariloche, Argentina on Mapuche-Tehuelche ancestral land

International Conference

Organized by USC Center for Advanced Genocide Research

Co-organized and hosted by

Instituto de Investigaciones en Diversidad Cultural y Procesos de Cambio
IIDYCPA-CONICET-UNRN

Proposal submission deadline: 15 March 2026

The organizers of the international conference “Mass Violence, Genocide, and Their Lasting Impact on Indigenous Peoples: The Americas and Australia/Pacific Region” invite scholars and knowledge holders to submit proposals for papers, panels, and alternative forms of presentation related to the themes of the conference.

The conference is the second part of a series organized by the USC Center for Advanced Genocide Research. The academic organizers are Melisa Cabrapán Duarte (Mapuche, National University of Comahue and CONICET), Lorena Cañuqueo (Mapuche, National University of Río Negro), Walter Delrio (National University of Río Negro and CONICET), Dorota Glowacka (University of Kings College, Halifax, Canada), Wolf Gruner (USC Center for Advanced Genocide Research), Pilar Pérez (National University of Río Negro and CONICET), Andrea Pichilef (Mapuche, National University of La Pampa and IIDYCPA-CONICET-UNRN), Lorena Sekwan Fontaine (Cree-Anishinabe, University of Manitoba), and Martha Stroud (USC Center for Advanced Genocide Research).

The conference will provide a forum for leading and emerging scholars and knowledge holders from around the world to present groundbreaking research on the topics of genocide against Indigenous peoples (especially in Latin America, North America, and Australia/Pacific Region), the long-lasting impacts of mass violence on those communities, and their resistance, agency, and initiatives to effect change. The objective of the conference is to foster an international, interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogue on these subjects, across a variety of historical, cultural, and geographic contexts.

By convening international experts, preferably from Indigenous communities and First Nations, the conference will stimulate discovery and debate about the common dynamics, patterns, and features of colonial/postcolonial violence and its aftermath, as well as the specificities and unique factors that shaped the manifestations and effects of and reactions to that violence in each community. It also aims to shed light on lesser-known and under-researched instances and aspects of genocidal violence against Indigenous peoples. Contributions taking comparative approaches between violence against different Indigenous nations, tribes and communities, and between Indigenous and non-Indigenous cases are also encouraged.

The conference will focus on cases of genocidal violence and its aftermath in contexts as diverse as genocide and mass violence against the Mapuche in Argentina; Maya in Guatemala; Native Americans in the United States; Indigenous peoples in Canada; Aboriginal peoples in Australia; Maori in New Zealand, and others.

The organizers invite proposals on a range of subjects, including (but not limited to):

1) Challenges to the traditional concept and the official United Nations definition of genocide, in light of the recognition of colonial genocides, and distinctions between genocide, war, mass violence, and colonial expansion and land expropriation.
2) Displacement, replacement, marginalization, and destruction of Indigenous languages and/or their current revitalization.
3) Dimensions and impacts of cultural genocide, including cultural and religious practices; boarding and residential schools for Indigenous children; people’s agency in educational processes; other measures of forced assimilation of children into non-Indigenous communities (such as the “sixties scoop” in Canada and Australia’s Stolen Generations).
4) Forced relocations of communities and people; the forced transfer of remains of ancestors, sacred cultural objects and artifacts to museums, research institutions and universities, and others.
5) Intersections between colonial violence, gender, and race.
6) Long-lasting, trans-generational impacts of colonial violence, such as personal and collective trauma and manifestations of systemic and institutional racism against Indigenous peoples (restricted access to healthcare, education, and other resources; mass incarceration and high suicide rates; environmental racism, ecocide, and extractivism; gender-based violence, including the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, 2SLGBTQQIA, and others).
7) Impacts of colonialism on Indigenous health and wellbeing; Indigenous conceptions of disability.
8) Legal dimensions of past and contemporary Indigenous land claims and treaties between Indigenous nations and colonial states.
9) Forms of individual and collective resistance against mass violence and its lasting impact, including petitions, public protest and art.
10) Indigenous-centered pedagogies, healing practices, cultural expressions, storytelling, verbal and visual art, and testimony as ways of combating or addressing the legacies of colonial violence and systemic racism.
11) Return of land and other resources and the repatriation and rematriation of remains of ancestors, sacred/cultural objects and artifacts from museums, research institutions, private collections, and universities.
12) Issues around cultural, political, and economic Indigenous resurgence, self-empowerment, and sovereignty.
13) Restitution, reparations, recognition, and repair.

Organizers welcome proposal submissions and panels/papers/presentations in English or Spanish. There will be simultaneous translation at the conference into both languages. If you are interested in submitting a paper or presentation in a language other than English or Spanish, please email us at cagr@usc.edu.

Proposals can be for fully constituted panels, individual papers, and posters. The organizers also encourage proposals for alternative forms and methods of presentation, such as artistic presentations, such as films, songs, musical recitals, poetry, dance, verbal and visual art, or other creative works related to the themes of the conference.

A panel proposal should consist of three papers and a respondent, or four papers and a moderator. It also should include a panel title, a brief description of the full session (up to 150 words), title and abstract for each paper (up to 300 words each), and short biographical notes for each presenter (up to 150 words each).

An individual paper proposal should include a title, an abstract (up to 300 words), and a short biographical note (up to 150 words). Those papers will be coordinated into panels by conference organizers.

An alternative form of presentation proposal should include a title, an abstract (up to 300 words), and a short biographical note for each participant (up to 150 words each).

Please note: In the biographical notes, where relevant, please include what Indigenous people(s) the presenter(s) belong(s) to.

The mandate of the conference stems from the recommendations of the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The organizers particularly encourage and support the participation of Indigenous scholars, knowledge holders, and other members of Indigenous communities that have been affected by colonial violence.

In addition to keynote presentations and scholarly panels, the conference schedule will include cultural programming, such as art, film screenings, music and dance performances.

The conference will be live-streamed, so that scholars and community members around the world can watch and participate. Recordings of the conference will be available to watch online afterwards. (See the YouTube channel of the Center for Advanced Genocide Research for the recordings of the first conference in 2022 here.)

Submission deadline: 15 March 2026

To support presentations at the conference, funding for travel and accommodation is available upon request for selected scholars, knowledge holders, and members of affected Indigenous communities who might not otherwise be able to attend (including junior scholars and scholars without university affiliation or from universities with inadequate resources).

Proposals should be submitted to cagr@usc.edu. All applicants will be informed of the decision regarding their participation in the conference by 15 May 2026.

For further information, please contact: cagr@usc.edu.

To learn about the first conference in this series, which took place in 2022, click here.

Please circulate this Call for Papers widely. Download the Call for Papers in English here. Descarga la convocatoria en español aquí.

Organizers are currently identifying strategic partners to contribute to funding, supporting, and promoting the 2026 conference. Interested parties are invited to contact the USC Center for Advanced Genocide Research at cagr@usc.edu.