Socialism 2026: Full Schedule

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

Anti-colonial Politics

3:00pm CDT

Ocean Deep Solidarity: Reparations, LANDBACK, and Collective Liberation

Saturday September 5, 2026 3:00pm - 4:30pm CDT

TBA

As capitalism and empire intensify crises this panel explores how Black and Indigenous struggles for land, reparations, and sovereignty are braided to challenge structural power. Drawing on BLIS Collective research with RISE (Research for Indigenous Social Action and Equity) Center, we examine coordinated organizing, narrative, and strategy for liberated futures.

Speakers

Dr. Aymar Jean Escoffery

Dr. Aymar Jean "AJ" Escoffery (fka Aymar Jean Christian) is the Margaret Walker Professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University, Faculty Director of the MS in Leadership for Creative Enterprises, and Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center... Read More →

Matthew Harvey

Matthew Harvey is a father, media literacy educator, and award-winning writer born-and-raised in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. His career is dedicated to empowering communities through access to information, and connecting people through storytelling. He spent nearly a decade as... Read More →

Claire Maracle

Claire Maracle is a Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) member of the Six Nations of the Grand River, raised as a guest on Muscogee, Osage, and Cherokee land. This experience directly informs their work in rematriation and their conviction that language is the key to transcending displacement... Read More →

Justin Morgan

Justin Morgan (he/him) is the Applied Narrative Research Analyst at the BLIS Collective. He is a doctoral candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he researches the convergence of health equity, participatory research, community power, and politics. Justin... Read More →

Raven Schwam-Curtis

Raven Schwam-Curtis (they/she) makes disappeared histories visible through accessible education. As a Black, Jewish, and queer educator, Raven’s work emerges from the intersections where communities overlap, clash, and must find common ground. After earning degrees from Cornell... Read More →

Sponsors

BLIS Collective

Saturday September 5, 2026 3:00pm - 4:30pm CDT
TBA

Anti-colonial Politics

5:00pm CDT

Building the People's Embargo for Palestine: Strategy, Assessment, and the Path to Freedom During the Time of Genocide

Saturday September 5, 2026 5:00pm - 6:30pm CDT

TBA

Last year, the Palestinian Youth Movement launched the People’s Embargo for Palestine (PEP), a grassroots campaign uniting the international movement for arms embargo under a single banner: by intervening in the weapons supply chain, we can stop the genocide on Gaza. Sharing powerful campaign lessons from the U.S., and Europe, this session will share key insights into the PEP’s strategy and framework while equipping participants on how to identify local targets and take on PEP in their locales.

Speakers

TBD

Sponsors

Palestinian Youth Movement

People's Embargo for Palestine

Saturday September 5, 2026 5:00pm - 6:30pm CDT
TBA

Anti-colonial Politics

12:00pm CDT

Palestinian Revolutionary Thought and the Prisoners’ Movement

Sunday September 6, 2026 12:00pm - 1:30pm CDT

TBA

What lessons does the Palestinian left offer today? This session explores the history of prison writing in Palestine and key texts from the Palestinian left. Panelists will situate this discussion in relation to recently translated texts by Palestinian revolutionaries, including Ahmad Qatamesh and Walid Daqqa.

Speakers

Danya al-Saleh

Danya al-Saleh developed her commitment to Palestinian community and youth education while organizing in the Palestine movement in North America. She has contributed as an editor to translation projects of Palestinian literature into English. Danya’s writing has been published in... Read More →

Jenan Awaida

Jenan Awaida is a long-time community organizer in the Palestine movement based in Southern California. Her work has focused on grassroots mobilization, political education, Palestinian cultural programming, and coalition-building. She has contributed to national initiatives for the... Read More →

Ribhi Hussein

Ribhi Hussein is a Palestinian-American born in San Francisco. He spent much of his life living in Ramallah, until recently. He was active as a student organizer at Birzeit University, where he graduated from the Department of Sociology. He recently published a piece about interrogation... Read More →

Sponsors

People's Center for Palestine

Sunday September 6, 2026 12:00pm - 1:30pm CDT
TBA

Anti-colonial Politics

10:00am CDT

End the Genocide Behind Bars: Freedom for Palestinian Political Prisoners

Monday September 7, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am CDT

TBA

Since October 2023, Israel has waged a genocide behind bars, systematizing and intensifying historic tactics of abuse and degradation against Palestinian prisoners, and turning prisons into death camp as part of Israels broader campaign to break the will of the Palestinian People. Palestinian Political Prisoners are the Compass of the National Struggle for Palestinian Liberation, the demand for their freedom must be amplified.

Speakers

Socialism 2026

2:30pm CDT

Kyle T. Mays

Michael Staudenmaier

4:30pm CDT

Noura Erakat

Brekhna Aftab

3:00pm CDT

Dr. Aymar Jean Escoffery

Matthew Harvey

Claire Maracle

Justin Morgan

Raven Schwam-Curtis

BLIS Collective

5:00pm CDT

TBD

Palestinian Youth Movement

People's Embargo for Palestine

12:00pm CDT

Danya al-Saleh

Jenan Awaida

Ribhi Hussein

People's Center for Palestine

10:00am CDT

Nawaf A

Jenan A

Freedom for Palestinian Political Prisoners

Palestinian Youth Movement

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