News & Events
Present Tense / Future Possibilities Conference
Present Tense / Future Possibilities: The 4th Annual WGSS Interdisciplinary Conference
The USF Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies will host the Present Tense / Future Possibilities Conference on February 13, 2026, at the USF Tampa campus. Students, staff, and faculty from the USF community, along with students, staff, and faculty in Florida-based WGSS programs and those doing related, relevant work in the State of Florida are invited to attend.
Registration for the conference is free. Please register by 2/9/26.
In a moment that feels as if it is defined by fear, vulnerability, and chaos, we celebrate
ways in which artists, academics, and community members work against these dark themes
to imagine, create, and live worlds that offer more.
Aimed at exploring, developing, and implementing feminist, queer, crip and other politics
of refusal, this conference explores what Lauren Berlant described as their commitment
“to the political project of imagining how to detach from lives that don’t work and
from worlds that negate the subjects that produce them” and to create possibilities
“to live beyond survival, toward flourishing not later but in the ongoing now.”
This conference centers conversations that wrestle with the realities of the moment
while creating more livable presents and futures. We ask: What does it mean to live
in this present with a politics rooted in futurity? How do movements centered in the
intersections of antiracist, queer, and feminist politics imagine, build, and sustain
alternative worlds? This space engages with these questions and welcomes intellectual
explorations, artistic expressions, and embodied practices that challenge normative
temporalities and oppressive structures while acknowledging and celebrating the mess,
resistance, and labor of this politics of transformation.
The deadline for proposals has passed. Notifications about proposal acceptance will
be sent by email by early January.
Conference Details
- Date: February 13, 2026
- All attendees, including presenters, must register for the conference.
- Location: Marshall Student Center (MSC) 3rd Floor, located at 4103 Cedar Circle, Tampa, FL 33620
- Parking: Visit the USF Parking site
- Some local suggestions for out-of-town attendees - hotels, places to eat, and outdoor sites to visit
Conference Keynote Events
The conference will feature two keynote events. Details will be announced shortly.
Lunch Keynote: Bior Guigni and Dr. Byron Green-Calisch of St Pete Pride
Closing Keynote: Dr. Amy Reid of PEN America