Socialism 2026: Full Schedule

2:30pm CDT

A University Fit For Our Dreams: Abolitionist Higher Education

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

This session will situate the university as a key site of ideological and material struggle within the United States’ racial-gendered-colonial-capitalist political economy. Participants will be introduced to the challenges impacting higher education, be guided in critically appraising the frameworks influencing our Universities’ actions in this moment of perpetual “crisis” and collectively find solutions that generate greater well-being and real safety on campus.

Speakers

Sofya Aptekar

Lucien Baskin

Saudi Garcia

Phil McHarris

Jason Wozniak

Sponsors

Scholars for Social Justice and Coalition Against Campus Debt

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

Education Justice

12:00pm CDT

Break the Board: Neoliberalism in Crisis and the Popular University as Abolition

Saturday September 5, 2026 12:00pm - 1:30pm CDT

TBA

This panel introduces the Board of Butchers framework, an abolitionist project in opposition to the neoliberal university, actualized through the pursuit of the Popular University. The panel further strategizes how academics and intellectuals can use their skills to effectively support the Palestinian liberation movement and the abolition of the university.

Speakers

Adam

Alex

Fiona

Laith

Sponsors

National Students for Justice in Palestine

Saturday September 5, 2026 12:00pm - 1:30pm CDT
TBA

Education Justice

3:00pm CDT

Resisting Attacks on Schools, from Gaza to Chicago

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

TBA

This panel looks at K-12 schools as sites of imperial violence and attacks on knowledge, including scholasticide in Palestine and repression in the U.S. Demystifying the Anti-Defamation League’s assaults on antiracist teaching, this session grounds us in the knowledge needed to organize our schools — for Palestine, against racism, and with our communities.

Speakers

Emmaia Gelman

Emmaia Gelman is the author of The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State (UC Press, 2026) and co-editor of The Anti-Defamation League: A Critical Reader (Pluto Press, 2026). She is the director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism.

Nora Lester Murad

Nora Lester Murad is a writer and activist. She is the author of the award-winning young adult novel, Ida in the Middle, editor of I Found Myself in Palestine (2020) and co-author of Rest in My Shade (2018). Nora writes commentary for outlets including Mondoweiss, The New Arab, Markaz... Read More →

TBD

Sponsors

Chicago Educators for Palestine

DropTheADL from Schools

Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism

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

Education Justice

12:00pm CDT

Sumud in Praxis: Teaching for Solidarity from Turtle Island to Palestine

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

TBA

Teach Palestine and the Xicanx Institute for Teaching & Organizing collaborated to provide teachers support in the face of state repression on teaching Palestine and build broader international solidarity. Our panel will share experiences from institutes that take place on the US-Mexico border, and support participants in bringing lessons to their communities.

Speakers

Anita Fernández

Dr. Anita Fernández has been a high school teacher, a professor and teacher educator for over 20 years. Her teaching, scholarship, activism and organizing have been in the areas of racial justice, decolonizing pedagogies, Chicanx/Latinx movements and Ethnic Studies. After the 2012... Read More →

Zeiad Abbas Shamrouch

Zeiad Abbas Shamrouch is a Palestinian refugee from Dheisheh Refugee Camp in the West Bank and executive Director, Middle East Children’s Alliance. He is the co-founder of the Ibdaa Cultural Center in Dheisheh. Zeiad is also a filmmaker, journalist and educator who has worked with... Read More →

Samia Shoman

Samia Shoman, Ed.D, is a Palestinian-American educator and administrator in the San Francisco Bay Area and the co-coordinator of the Middle East Children's Alliance Teach Palestine Project. She has spent the past 26 years of her career in public education promoting racial and... Read More →

Jenine Wehbeh

Jenine Wehbeh is an educator-organizer, circle-keeper, and former Middle School Social Studies teacher and union delegate, with extensive experience in Critical Ethnic Studies and K-12 education, and co-coordinator, Teach Palestine Project of the Middle East Children’s Alliance... Read More →

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

Education Justice

2:30pm CDT

12:00pm CDT

3:00pm CDT

12:00pm CDT

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