Presidential Theme for the 2027 Convention: Emancipatory Narratives
“Emancipatory narratives are committed to acts of description. They describe not only what it means to be oppressed or in bondage but the sensations that come with inhabiting liberatory space. Articulating emancipatory narratives involves the assertion of agency, even when those assertions are certain to invite resistance. Emancipatory narratives, at their best, involve what Robert O’Meally describes as becoming “careful listeners to what the others have to say, as each [speaker] pushes self and opponent to higher and higher levels of articulation” (3). In positing emancipatory narratives as a presidential theme, part of what I am insisting upon is the need for us to step back from our immediate circumstances in order to see that possibilities, be they the product of serendipity or desperation, are ever before us. Emancipation is a product of our ability to embrace and inhabit the voices of others, as they embrace and inhabit our own.”
Sessions will take place either in person or online.