Here is a call for papers for Transatlantic Collective Reasonings: An Interdisciplinary Conference organized around the following topic: “The (Im)Possibility of Forgiveness? Encountering the Legacies of Colonialism in the 21st Century.” This interdisciplinary event will take place at the Iberostar Waves Rose Hall Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica, from November 12 to 15, 2026.
The Transatlantic Collective welcomes submissions from scholars, creatives, and practitioners across disciplines including history, theology, literary studies, law, musicology, performance, and cultural studies. The deadline for submission of abstracts (250 words) and bios (150 words) is June 10, 2026.
Description: The Transatlantic Reasonings Conference is an interdisciplinary gathering that will take place in Montego Bay, Jamaica, from November 12–15, 2026. This conference will bring together scholars, creatives, and practitioners from a wide range of fields, including history, literary studies, law, musicology, performance, theatre studies, and theology.
The conference will explore the theme, The Possibility of Forgiveness? Encountering the Legacies of Colonialism in the 21st Century, with the aim of generating wide-ranging and far-reaching conversations on the role of forgiveness in relation to slavery, colonialism, reparations, justice, and repair.
CONFERENCE THEME: Forgiveness is approached here as a broad and challenging framework for thinking through the legacies of slavery and colonialism in contemporary academic, political, and social life. The conference asks whether forgiveness is possible, what it requires, and how it intersects with justice, apology, repair, and material reparations.
Rather than treating forgiveness narrowly, the conference also welcomes engagement with related themes such as shame, hospitality, racism, nostalgia, justice, cultural and economic reparations, and the question of how we meaningfully encounter the past in the present.
For more information and guidelines, go to https://www.transatlanticcollective.com
Deadline for submission of abstracts: June 10, 2026
Email submissions to transatlanticcollective@gmail.com
[Shown above: Detail of Hew Locke’s “Ambassador 4” (Yale Center for British Art). Locke’s “Ambassador 4” was recently acquired by the from Hales Gallery. This sculpture is one of four Black figures on horseback, two women and two men, from the artist’s series “The Ambassadors” (2021). See more of his work at https://britishart.yale.edu/ and https://hyperallergic.com/what-hew-locke-carries/]