CrimSL 2025 Graduate Student Conference: The Politics of Resistance and Belonging

The Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies at the University of Toronto is pleased to invite graduate students to the 2025 Annual Graduate Student Conference! This year's theme is The Politics of Resistance and Belonging.

This free, one-day conference will take place in person at the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies, Canadiana Gallery building, University of Toronto, 14 Queens Park Cres. W.

The event will feature more than 30 interdisciplinary presentations from students across Canada and around the world as well as a keynote speech from Professor Angelica Pesarini, Assistant Professor in Race and Cultural Studies/Race and Diaspora and Italian Studies at the University of Toronto.

The purpose of the conference is to shed light on the nature of resistance, how it relates to belonging and other terms like solidarity, resilience and rebellion, engage in conversations about coercive powers of exclusion, use of violent measures, and consider the tensions and conflicting messages that exist when people engage in resistance and are subjected to criminalization. 

The conference is meant to provide attendees with new analytical insights on the contradictions inherent and implied, in resisting and belonging, as understood from criminological, legal, and sociolegal, anthropological and geographical perspectives, for example. The theme is also centered on the disparate impact that colonial histories, legal, pseudo-legal, and informal practices have on racial, ethnic, and political groups, and which ultimately create ‘us versus them’ dichotomies.

This is an exciting opportunity for PhD and advanced MA students to present their research within this theme for feedback among supportive peers.

Conference schedule

About keynote speaker Professor Angelica Pesarini

Angelica Pesarini is an Assistant Professor in Race and Cultural Studies/Race and Diaspora and Italian Studies at the University of Toronto. Her work on the legacies of Italian colonialism seeks to expand the field of Black Italia, with a focus on the dynamics of race, gender, identity, and citizenship. She is interested in the racialization of political discourse on immigration and is among the co-founders of The Black Mediterranean Collective, which published "The Black Mediterranean: Bodies, Borders, and Citizenship" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).
 
She has written numerous essays, articles, book chapters and delivered numerous talks and public lectures internationally. She is the author of a short story published in Future. Il domani narrato dalle voci di oggi (Future: Tomorrow Narrated by Today’s Voices, 2019), an anthology written by eleven Italian women of African descent. Professor Pesarini is also engaged in collective practices of decolonial translation and she also co-translated into Italian Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study by Fred Moten and Stefano Harney, and Blues Legacies and Black Feminism by Angela Y. Davis.
 
She is currently writing a book on the lived experience of Black "mixed-race" Italian women during the (post)colonial fascist period in East Africa, focusing on the use of oral sources as counter-narratives. As a scholar-activist, Professor Pesarini is engaged in the Italian anti-racist movement and is investigating the impacts of BLM in Italy.

Call for submissions (closed)

The call for proposals for the 2025 CrimSL Graduate Student Conference closed January 19, 2025. Please direct any questions to gradconf.crimsl@utoronto.ca.

Topics

Topics include, but are not limited to: 

• How does ‘resistance,’ broadly construed, both uphold and undermine a democratic or undemocratic society? 
• How does ‘belonging,’ broadly construed, relate to a democratic or undemocratic society? Can it exist beyond borders? 
• How does the use of ‘resistance,’ broadly construed, relate to terms like resilience and rebellion? 
• Does ‘resistance,’ broadly construed, require solidarity? 
• Does ‘resistance,’ broadly construed, necessarily involve the practice of othering 
• What is the relationship between resistance, belonging, othering and colonialism? How is belonging or othering informed by colonialism? 
• How does the use of violence on the part of the resisters or those who attempt to subdue them come into play? 
• What are the implications of the criminalization of resistance from a local, national and international perspective? 
• What is the nature of repression in resistance and belonging?

Timeline

• Registration opens: December 12, 2024
• Submission deadline: January 19, 2025 at 11:59 pm  
• Notification of selection: January 31, 2025
• Conference date: April 25, 2025 

Register to attend

There is no fee to attend or present. Register now to attend!

Questions?

Please direct all questions to gradconf.crimsl@utoronto.ca.