2026 FREEDOM AND JUSTICE SUMMER CONFERENCE

Borders, State Power, and Resistance: Reclaiming Freedom and Justice

CALL FOR PAPERS

Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted. Freedom and justice must be struggled for by the oppressed of all lands and races, and the struggle must be continuous, for freedom is never a final act, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political, and religious relationships. - A. Philip Randolph

The Association for Economic Research of Indigenous Peoples (AERIP), the American Society of Hispanic Economists (ASHE), and the National Economic Association (NEA) invite paper submissions for the 10th annual Freedom and Justice Summer Conference (July 30-August 1, 2026).  This year’s theme is Borders, State Power, and Resistance: Reclaiming Freedom and Justice and the conference is being hosted by the Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, at the University of Minnesota.

The Freedom and Justice Summer Conference is an interdisciplinary social justice conference that attracts a small group of scholars dedicated to discussing pressing economic problems and their solutions for communities of color.  We are especially interested in paper submissions that address the following topics, including those that have an intersectional analysis:  

• 60 years since the Voting Rights Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
• Colonialism and resource extraction
• Cooperative Economics
• Disparities by gender and/or feminist economics in communities of color
• Economics of climate change, environmental justice, sustainability
• Economics of policing in communities of color
• Economics of racial and ethnic identity
• Geography and spatiality of race: urban planning, etc. 
• Health disparities
• Indigeneity, indigenization, cultural knowledge and practices
• Migration and immigration, including policy around citizenship, asylum, refugee status, etc.
• Racial wealth inequality
• (Re)Building communities
• Reparations
• Social movements for economic justice, independence, and equal rights
• Sovereignty and self-determination
• State power, state violence, and discrimination (e.g., ICE and immigration enforcement, the new Jim Crow, redlining)
• Technology and social justice: artificial intelligence (AI), data sovereignty
• The status of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx economists  

The main conference dates are July 30-August 1, 2026.  However, all conference participants are also invited to attend the 7th World Conference on Remedies to Racial and Ethnic Economic Inequality (August 3-5, 2026) and/or an optional day of visits and activities on Sunday, August 2 focused on places, events, and movements that define the struggle for freedom and justice for communities of color and Native peoples in Minnesota. To encourage cross-attendance of the meetings, the Freedom and Justice Summer Conference will include two panels featuring presenters who are also participating in the 7th World Conference.  One panel will prioritize local community perspectives (i.e., from the greater Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area) and the other will prioritize international perspectives.  

Submissions are due April 1, 2026. Decisions will be made by May 1, 2026. Presenters are expected to contribute to conference discussions for the full 2 days of sessions. 

All presenters and attendees must register for the conference. We encourage participants to choose a registration fee based on their graduate student status, level of institutional support, and personal finances, recognizing that some institutions provide more resources for research and conference travels than others: 

• Accessible Registration Fee ($150). This registration fee is the discounted cost to support access to the conference for all. 
• Graduate Student Registration Fee ($25).
• Supporting Registration Fee ($450). This registration fee helps us keep the conference accessible to all. 
• Sustainable Registration Fee ($300). This registration fee reflects the per-attendee cost of the program. 

Need-based registration fee adjustment may be requested.  Need-based travel assistance may be provided depending on funding availability.  The conference registration and hotel information will be on-line and available once submissions have been accepted.  Fees include meals during the conference. 

- The Freedom and Justice Conference Planning Committee