CCML Conference

NOTE: This page is currently under construction. All content subject to change. 

Annual Convening

Every year, the Center for Critical Multimodal Literacies brings together researchers, educators, artists, and other community members to learn, collaborate, and share their research and other critical work related to multimodality in education and beyond. We welcome all scholars, practitioners, artists, and others working at the many intersections of critical theories/methodologies and multimodality, literacy, the arts, education, social justice, anti-oppression, and equity.

The 2027 Convening

Our inaugural event will be held from May 25th - 27th, 2027 on the San Diego State University Campus in San Diego, California, USA.

Important Dates

Proposals Due: Dec 1, 2026
Presenter Notifications: Feb 1, 2027
Registration: Feb 1 - Apr 1, 2027
Convening - Welcome & Opening Night Gala: May 25, 2027
Convening - Sessions & Activities: May 26 - 27, 2027

Call for Proposals

The Center for Critical Multimodal Literacies at San Diego State University invites you to share your work and collaborate with other researchers/scholars, educators, artists, and other community members at the inaugural CCML annual convening to be held May 25th-27th, 2027 in San Diego, California. The priority deadline for proposal submission is December 1, 2026.

As we continue to live in chaotic and tumultuous societal realities, we as scholars, researchers, educators, community builders, and artists, continue to take steps forward in pursuit of social justice and equity. At the CCML, we believe critical multimodal literacies are an essential part of that work. Critical multimodal literacies (CML) brings together two major strands of research and pedagogy: 1) multimodality, which recognizes that people make meaning through many modes (e.g., text, images, sound, gesture, space) and their interactions (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006; New London Group, 1996), and 2) critical literacy, which recognizes how all texts and meaning-making practices are bound up with power and how literacy can be used to interrogate and transform inequitable social realities (Freire, 1983; Janks, 2000; Luke, 2012; Morrell, 2008). CML research and pedagogy ask both how people construct meaning across modes and whose ways of making meaning are valued, marginalized, or erased (Cappello et al., 2019; Jewitt, 2008; Vasquez et al., 2019). CML offers ways to read the world critically and to "write" it differently, including research methods and frameworks for studying issues related to educational equity and transformation. It also offers ways for educators to honor the diverse linguistic, cultural, artistic, and embodied ways of knowing that learners bring to their literacy interactions.

This year’s conference theme is Wearing Your Theory. The question at the heart of this theme is: how do we continue to move forward, keep doing the necessary critical work, and do so in ways that don’t break us or deplete us? We believe the answer is, in part, by wearing our theory. The theme invites proposals exploring relationships between clothing and cognition – what Adam and Galinsky (2012) call "enclothed cognition” or the ways in which our clothing can influence the ways we think, feel, and behave; embodiment and education (hooks, 1994; Leander & Boldt, 2013; Player, 2022); identity and performance (Butler, 1988; Muñoz, 1999); and more. We are also interested in critical work that explores textile and fiber arts and related subjects as they relate to teaching, learning, education research, and artistic expression in education. The theme is also an invitation to participate in the event by wearing (showcasing, embodying, performing) your theoretical lenses and perspectives in numerous ways. Ultimately, we contend that we are always wearing our theory in various ways as we move through the world and engage in our work, and this year’s theme will allow us to do so with intention and transparency while critically examining the many hows and whys underlying those choices.

Proposals from all disciplines are welcome from all parts of the US and the world. While we welcome traditional proposals related to academic research, we also encourage anyone with an interest or stake in multimodal literacies to join in. After all, this is a convening: an event in which everyone will present, listen, and create. As a presenter and participant, you’ll be fully immersed in this collective experience. With multiple maker-spaces, creative activities, opportunities to participate in active research, and time to engage in informal conversations, we hope everyone will leave this convening with new ideas, new connections, and at least one new, tangible artifact of our time together. 

In your proposal, you will also have the opportunity to contribute a piece to a multimodal gallery show integrated within the event. Titled “Inattentive Type,” the on-site exhibit will showcase incomplete and in-progress artworks, scholarly projects, poetry, writing, and more from conference participants. A celebration of neurodivergence and liminality in both scholarly and artistic work, the exhibit will “queer” the concept of a gallery show while providing a space where attendees can meaningfully interact with each other’s work, not as polished products, but as a set of messy, indeterminate, ongoing meaning-making processes.

We are excited to hear about your work and to come together, not only as researchers and scholars, but as teachers, clinicians, artists, activists, practitioners, nonprofit leaders, etc. to create and experience a space where research actually looks and feels different. 

Submit your proposal using the button below, and feel free to email us at [email protected] with any questions.

See you in sunny San Diego! 

Submit a Proposal (link coming soon)

Download a PDF of this call for proposals, including references (link coming soon)

 

Register

At the CCML annual convening, there are no attendees who are not also presenters and participants, so registering to attend means showing up for a truly collaborative experience. Your registration grants you access to all aspects of the convening, including the opening night gala, all sessions, and meals (see conference schedule for details). While registration fees are the primary funding source for our convening, we believe the cost of registration should not serve as a barrier to access and participation, so we offer a reduced rate option for students and others for whom the regular rate is a financial barrier. When you register, please select the rate you can afford - all who register will have the same level of access to the event. 

• Regular rate: $350
• Reduced rate: $100

Please Note: Registration fees are per-person and are nonrefundable. If your proposal was accepted, but the reduced registration rate remains a financial barrier to your participation, please email our conference team at [email protected] by Feb 14, 2027 to discuss potential scholarship options (availability subject to current Center funding levels).

Register to Attend (opens Feb 1, 2027)

Funding & Sponsors

We are grateful to the following organizations for helping make this year's event possible: 

Sponsor details TBA. If you are interested in sponsoring this year's event, please see the information for sponsors section of this page.