Socialism 2026: Full Schedule

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2:30pm CDT

Confronting Colonialism: Race, Indigeneity, and Liberation

Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT

In a period marked by the rapid expansion of U.S. empire at home and abroad, how can the left build a real fight back beyond white supremacist ideas of justice? What does meaningful solidarity between Indigenous, Black, and working-class struggles look like? How can movements confront colonialism while building collective liberation? Join Kyle T. Mays and Michael Staudenmaier as they examine these questions and envision a path toward organizing beyond colonial structures.

Speakers

Kyle T. Mays

Kyle T. Mays is an Afro-Indigenous (Saginaw Chippewa) writer and scholar. He is a professor of African American studies, American Indian studies, and history at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author or co-author of four books, including Rethinking the Red Powe... Read More →

Michael Staudenmaier

Michael Staudenmaier is an independent scholar living in Chicago. He received his PhD in history from the University of Illinois and taught for more than a decade at various universities in Illinois and Indiana. He is the author of White, Black, Brown: Becoming Puerto Rican in Chicago (University... Read More →

Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
TBA

Anti-colonial Politics

4:30pm CDT

Confronting Zionism: Decolonizing Palestine and Building the World Anew

Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT

TBA

For over one hundred years, Palestinians have struggled for liberation in their homeland. This session will take direct analytical aim at the ideology and institutional structures animating Israel’s brutal rule over Palestinian lives, and argue that Zionism is colonial and racist in essence and practice and that decolonization in Palestine predicated on redistribution, reparations and refugee return remains the only just way forward.

Speakers

Noura Erakat

Noura Erakat is Professor of Africana Studies and Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. She is the author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019), which received the Palestine Book Award and the Bronze Medal for... Read More →

Brekhna Aftab

Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA