American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies
Student Registration Fee ($30):
Conference registration includes In Person and/or Online for one price:
Step 1: pay conference fee ($90 for Faculty/Independent Scholars
or $30 for Students)
Step 2: Fill out registration form
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF CURRICULUM
STUDIES ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2025
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Priority Submission Deadline: Friday, February 14, 2025 (Midnight, EST)
Last Call for Submissions:
EXTENDED to Monday, March 24, 2025 (Midnight, EST)
In Person Conference April 21-23, 2025
Monday 10amEST, April 21, 2025 – Wednesday Noon, April 23, 2025
Denver, CO
Online Conference Friday, June 13, 2025
Wrestling with Spectacle: Curriculum Studies, Courage, and the Current Moment
This year, AAACS will convene conferences once again alternating between the physical place and the virtual space. The first, our 2025 AAACS Place-based conference, will be held in Denver, CO. This conference will precede AERA. The second, our 2025 AAACS Online Conference, will follow in June.
At year’s conferences we seek to explore the intersections of spectacle, identity, and education. We invite proposals that consider the ways in which the theater of the absurd becomes a site for meaning-making, identity formation, and societal expression.
As AAACS President, Todd Alan Price recalls: The Bergamo Curriculum Conference has always been a site for groundbreaking and provocative discussions. Reflecting on the very first session I attended at Bergamo, I am reminded of a prophetic presentation on the emergence of the Worldwide Wrestling Federation (WWF) and its implications for curriculum studies. What seemed initially disconnected from curriculum discourse revealed itself to be a profound commentary on our cultural and political landscape.
Wrestling, as a microcosm of larger sociocultural trends, offers an entry point to examine:
● The blurring of fantasy and reality in media and its implications for education.
● How performance and spectacle shape public discourse and voting behavior.
● The role of mediated hypermasculinity and other identity constructs in shaping societal norms.
● The use of theatricality as a tool for political messaging, from the Reagan era to the Trump presidency.
● How these cultural spectacles inform the construction of personal and collective identities.
Professional wrestling, with its evolution from regional entertainment to a global phenomenon, exemplifies the emergence of spectacle as both cultural zeitgeist and political force. From the carnival theatrics of Gorgeous George to the mainstream ascendance of Hulk Hogan and beyond, wrestling provides a lens to interrogate the sociopolitical narratives that shape our world. It exemplifies how low-brow entertainment becomes a meaningful site for cathartic engagement, expression, and even societal decision-making, including the practice of voting.
In wrestling’s history, we see an arc that mirrors shifts in American politics: from Reagan’s “tear down that wall” to Trump’s “build the wall.” Both presidents utilized spectacle to craft compelling narratives that resonated deeply with their audiences, highlighting the interplay between mediated personas and the public’s desires. Wrestling’s hypermasculine tropes, dramatic storylines, and constructed realities reveal how spectacle functions as a tool for both political rhetoric and identity formation.
In the current moment, we are faced with threats to academic freedom, efforts for diversity and equity, and basic freedoms. At this year’s conference, we ask presenters to consider what curriculum studies teaches us about courage. As we wade into an era where many curricularists feel uncertainty, we ask you to consider what it means to write, learn, and act courageously.
Additional topics and questions presenters might consider include:
- Analyze the pedagogical implications of the spectacle in shaping societal values and norms.
- Investigate the intersections of media, politics, and performance in education.
- Examine how these themes manifest in classroom practice, curriculum design, and student engagement.
- How curriculum studies teaches about courage.
Curriculum Studies, Courage, and the Current Moment
Online Conference June 2025
Friday, June 13, 2025 Online
We are excited to welcome proposals for our 5th Annual Online Conference, which we hope will continue to bring opportunities to engage with scholarship and thinking together from across the globe. We are also committed to finding ways to increase accessibility in our conference spaces and see the virtual space as imbued with possibility in this way. As an association that has explicitly valued curriculum studies from diverse geographies, cultures, and histories with our Taskforce on the Internationalization of Curriculum Studies, we value and want to continue to hold a space for an international focus in AAACS. With this, we will hold a separate and, yet, closely connected virtual conference less than three weeks after our in-person conference with an emphasis on internationalization.
Our online conference will extend this call with an explicitly international focus engaging in, as the Taskforce emphasizes, surveying, analyzing, translating (where necessary), interpreting, and sharing the work of curriculum theorists, scholars, and contributors who work outside of the North American context.
Presentation Formats:
We also welcome presentations, panels, and proposals for sessions exploring other issues relevant to curriculum studies and concerns of curriculum theory broadly. We welcome proposals for single papers, collaborative presentations, panels, round tables, posters for an all-conference poster session, and we invite proposals for alternative formats. We continue to encourage multiple modes of engaging with sharing ideas through formatting such as podcasts, short documentaries, comics, performance, or additional creative formats.
Specifically, we encourage proposals in the following alternative formats:
Virtual Poster Session: We encourage proposals for a poster session that will be available for viewing online. You will work closely with our AAACS Secretary, Sandra Vanderbilt, to make your work available for viewing a couple of days before the virtual conferences including a short video of your explanation of your work.
Book Review Panels: We welcome proposals for panels responding to recently published books including the author of the text.
Arts and Media: We also hope to see proposals taking up new ways of sharing ideas, disseminating research findings, and opening up possibilities for theorizing through arts and media that can be shared at or before the conference times as a way to engage your audience.
We continue to accept donations.
Thank you very much for your support
and generosity:
2025 Conferences
In-Person in Denver, CO April 21-23 & Virtual June 13
Conference Schedule
Coming soon
Proposal Submission
To submit your proposal, click on the submission form for In Person or Online.
Proposals will include a maximum 500 word abstract (excluding references)
Proposals are due March 24, 2025
Faculty/Independent Scholar
Registration Fee ($90):
The American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies (AAACS), a non-profit organization since 2017—the American affiliate of the International Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies (IAACS) —was established to support a "worldwide"—but not "uniform"—field of curriculum studies. Our hope, in establishing this organization, is to provide organizational support for a rigorous and scholarly conversation within and across national and regional borders regarding the content, context, and process of education, the organizational and intellectual center of which is the curriculum.Type your paragraph here.
Step 2: Registration Form