Communities of Care Symposium 2025
Celebrate. Create Solidarity. Share Knowledge. Join us on April 24 and 25 for the Communities of Care Symposium 2025. The event will bring together community members, students, faculty, and others to share their work on care and caring communities. Keynote speakers are Dr. Julie Avril Minich (Stanford University), and Dr. Jina Kim (Smith College).
We invite people who are interested in discussing care, disability, and communities from all backgrounds, including but not limited to, scholarship, activism, art. While we are grounded in critical disability studies, we are interested in the broader range of approaches to care and disability.
The Communities of Care symposium features presentations by community members, artists, activists, and scholars. The symposium brings together people who are interested in discussing care, disability, and communities from all backgrounds, including but not limited to, scholarship, activism, art. While the Communities of Care project is grounded in critical disability studies, we are interested in the broader range of approaches to care and disability.
The symposium has three themes: Celebrate; Create Solidarity; Share Knowledge.
- Celebrate: Share our successes in caring for one another, building networks of care and resilience, and creating joy in sharing time with one another.
- Create Solidarity: How can we support one another in our movements and goals? How can disparate work on care structures that impact particular people be supported by people doing work in other spaces?
- Share Knowledge: What do we know about care? Where does this knowledge come from? What do we still need to learn? What are opportunities for co-creating and sharing knowledge that take into account the diversity of standpoints and experiences of care?
Days, Times, Location
April 24 & 25, 2024
Thursday and Friday
9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Hyatt Regency Buffalo
2 Fountain Plaza, Buffalo, NY
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Contact
General Inquiry Email:
communitiesofcare@buffalo.edu
Symposium Program
Thursday Program Agenda
04/24/25
9:00-9:30 Arrival/Registration Coffee, tea and baked goods will be available to conference attendees. Vegan and gluten-free options will be available.
9:30-9:45 Welcome (Grand B)
Michael Rembis (University at Buffalo)
10:00-11:30 Concurrent Session 1 (Regency Ballroom)
Workshop
—Boxing for Birthing bodies: Exploring the Terrain of Reproductive Injustice in and through the Body: Easton James Davis and SeQuoia Kemp
Panel 1A (Grand C)
The Carer Relationship: The Importance of Participation, Self-Determination, and Quality of Life: Cheryl B. Lucas (University at Buffalo)
Learning from service providers and refugee communities: Moving toward more equitable future: Megan Bailey, Jessica Hernandez, Wooksoo Kim, Pamela Bos Kefi, & Cheryl Lucas (University at Buffalo)
Moderator: Jo Freudenheim (University at Buffalo)
11:30-12:45 Seated lunch (Regency Ballroom)
1:00-2:30 Concurrent Session 2
Panel 2A (Grand B)
Inclusive Communities in Art Education: Alexandra Allen (Buffalo State University)
Mad Feminist Theory and Pedagogy in Social Justice Curricula: Insights from the Global Gender and Sexuality Studies Classroom: Jessica Mason (University at Buffalo)
Apologies for the delay and thank you so much for the information! Here is a title for my presentation: Classrooms, COVID, and Disabled Futures: A Caring Pedagogy for Uncertain Times: Sam King-Shaw (University at Buffalo)
Moderator: Victoria Wolcott (University at Buffalo)
Panel 2B (Grand C)
[She] Was What Life Was’: Re-imagining Care in ‘No One Is Talking About This’ (2021): Meggie Boyle (University of Cambridge)
Moderator: Tabby Violet (University at Buffalo)
2:30-3:30: Break
3:30-5:00 Keynote (Grand B)
Immigrant Debt: Daisy Hernández and the Cripping of the American Dream: Julie Avril Minich (University of Texas, Austin)
5:00-5:30 Book signing (Grand B)
Radical Health: Unwellness, Care, and Latinx Expressive Culture: Julie Avril Minich (University of Texas, Austin)
Friday Program Agenda
04/25/25
9:30 Arrival Coffee, tea and baked goods will be available to conference attendees. Vegan and gluten-free options will be available.
10:00 - 11:30 Concurrent Session 3 Panel 3A (Grand C)
“A Dazzling Race of Fire”: Mutual Aid & Care at the Craig Colony for Epileptics: Kathryn Waring (McMaster University)
Protection as Care: Black History’s Presence in Elementary Classrooms: Dawnavyn James (University at Buffalo)
Collaborations of Care: On Essex Hemphill’s “Brotherhood”: Dr. Ajitpaul Mangat (Niagara University)
Moderator: Michael Rembis (University at Buffalo)
Panel 3B (Grand B)
Beyond Accommodations, Toward Care and Community in the University: Sammy Jo Johnson and Heather Wong (York University, presenting virtually)
Mad Futurism: Speculative Explorations of Radical Mental Healthcare: Jumi Bello (University of Nevada-Las Vegas, presenting virtually)
Dreaming of warmth amidst sterile cold: Vivian Agnes Moderator: Drew McEwan (University at Buffalo)
11:30 - 12:45 Seated lunch (Regency Ballroom)
1:00 - 2:30 Concurrent Session 4 (Regency Ballroom)
Workshop
Writing to Live: Merle, Audre, and Pat: Mich Ling (Rutgers, WGSS) and Dr. Maggie Mang (Cal Poly, ISLA)
Panel 4A (Grand C)
Queer Mothering and Politics of Care: Daphanie N. Bibbs, M.Ed
Gospel Music as Care Work and Memory Work among African American Pentecostal Christians: Frederick Klaits (University at Buffalo)
Creating a collective. A story of solidarity and care: Rachel Brophy and Safra Najeemudeen (Early Years Liberation Collective, presenting virtually)
Moderator: Lou Tam (University at Buffalo)
2:30-3:30: Break
3:30-5:00 Keynote (Grand B)
Care at the End of the World: Healthcare Infrastructure and Wild Disability Justice Life-Writing: Jina B. Kim (Smith College)
5:00-5:30 Book signing (Grand B)
Care at the End of the World: Dreaming of Infrastructure in Crip-of-Color Writing: Jina B. Kim (Smith College)
Keynote Speakers
Julie A. Minich (Stanford University)
Julie A. Minich, PhD
Julie A. Minich holds a PhD in Spanish and Portuguese from Stanford University and a BA in Comparative Literature from Smith College. She is the author of Accessible Citizenships: Disability, Nation, and the Cultural Politics of Greater Mexico (Temple University Press, 2014), winner of the 2013-2014 MLA Prize in United States Latina and Latina and Chicana and Chicano Literary and Cultural Studies. Drawing from Chicana/o studies and disability studies, this book works against the common assumption that disability serves primarily as a metaphor for social decay or political crisis, engaging with literary and filmic texts from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border in which disability functions to extend knowledge of what it means to belong to a political community. Additionally, Dr. Minich’s articles have appeared in journals such as GLQ, Comparative Literature, the Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, Modern Fiction Studies, MELUS, and the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies.
Jina B. Kim (Smith College)
Jina B. Kim, PhD
Jina B. Kim is a writer, scholar, and educator of feminist disability studies and queer-of-color critique. She is Assistant Professor of English and the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Smith College. Her book, Care at the End of the World: Dreaming of Infrastructure in Crip of Color Writing (Duke University Press, forthcoming), demonstrates why we need radical disability politics and aesthetics for navigating contemporary crises of care. Her work has appeared in Signs, Social Text, GLQ, American Quarterly, Disability Studies Quarterly, South Atlantic Quarterly, and The Asian American Literary Review.
Symposium Sponsors
- Mellon Foundation
- UB Global Gender Studies
- UB Center for Disability Studies
- UB School of Public Health and Health Professions
November 27, 2024: Deadline to submit proposals.
December 20, 2024: Notification of the status of your proposal
January 31, 2025: Deadline to submit access requests.
April 1 2025: Deadline for attendee advance registration (required).
April 24 and 25, 2025: CoC Symposium (Thursday/Friday)
Accessibility Statement
The Communities of Care 2025 Symposium is an inclusive and welcoming event. If you have questions about accessibility or would like to request an accommodation, please include your requirements with your registration form or email: communitiesofcare@buffalo.edu.
The Genesee Building - Hyatt Regency Hotel is a 15-story tall hotel red brick building in Buffalo, New York that was built as the Hyatt Regency Hotel in 1922 by architects E.B. Green and William S. Wicks. Photo courtesy of Hyatt Regency Buffalo.
Hotel Reservations
For symposium attendees, the Hyatt Regency Buffalo has reserved rooms at a discounted block rate. Our room block rates are available 3 days pre- and post-conference.
Reserve your hotel room using the Hyatt Regency Buffalo booking form,
Event Registration
Advance registration required. Advance registration closed on April 1 2025.