2026, June 24
Online
Overview
Activists, scholars, artists and practitioners across diverse fields have taken computing as an object of critical study for as long as computing has been around. To take computing as an object of critical study is to make arguments and produce knowledge that centers the social and political conditions that make computing possible, and the implications that existing and future technologies will have, with attention to issues of justice, equity, and ethics. This gathering continues a series of listening sessions from ACM SIGCHI that have sought input on how to imagine a Critical Computing Conference that can meet the needs of activists, scholars, artists and practitioners while breaking harmful habits of academic conferences. The gathering begins with a set of round-table discussions featuring issues of critical computing. These are followed by threaded papers (in parallel tracks), in which academic contributions respond to one another before, during, and after the gathering, producing co-authored or multi-voiced works.
Call for Participation (CfP)
During this fourth and final co-design gathering, we invite you to collectively imagine what a Critical Computing Conference could and should be. Our aim is to surface values, needs, tensions, and possibilities across communities engaged in critical computing and to experiment with formats that challenge extractive, competitive, and exclusionary academic norms. We ultimately hope to support sustained conversation and collaboration beyond a single event.
Topics and Questions
We invite participation that engages, but is not limited to, the following themes:
- Critical, feminist, anti-racist, decolonial, and abolitionist approaches to computing
- Computing and its entanglements with labor, capital, governance, and surveillance
- Artistic, activist, and community-based methods for studying and shaping design and engineering formations
- Ethics, justice, and refusal in the design, deployment, and study of computing systems
- Alternative formats of scholarship, review, authorship, and citation
- Care, repair, maintenance, and stewardship in sociotechnical systems
- Histories and futures of critical computing movements/li>
Format
- Introductions: Conveners will open the gathering with an int the Critical Computing Conference listening process, its motivations, and goals.
- Roundtable Discussions: Facilitated conversations centered on shared concerns, open questions, and collective reflection.
- Breakout Groups: Small-group sessions designed to elicit concrete input about the structure, values, and practices of a future Critical Computing Conference.
- Threaded Papers: Parallel tracks of interrelated contributions that engage one another across time, potentially resulting in collaborative or multi-voiced publications.
- Participation does not require a traditional academic paper. We welcome diverse forms of contribution, including provocations, position statements, reflections, artistic or design-based work, and accounts of practice. As a guideline, around 800-1200 words or equivalent media would be a good length.
Participation does not require a traditional academic paper. We welcome diverse forms of contribution, including provocations, position statements, reflections, artistic or design-based work, and accounts of practice. As a guideline, around 800-1200 words or equivalent media would be a good length.
How to Participate
Fill out this submission form to express interest, contribute to discussions, and/or submit materials. Participation may include attending the online gathering, contributing to threaded papers, or both.
Timeline
| February 13, 2026 | Call for Participation announced |
| March 31, 2026 | Deadline for initial threading submissions |
| April 10, 2026 | Submission decisions communicated to submitters |
| April 30, 2026 | For accepted submissions, deadline for threaded responses |
| June 24, 2026 | Online gathering |
| There will be two sessions to accommodate time zones.
8 am - 10 am GMT |
Convenors:
Alex Taylor, University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Bono Olgado, University of the Philippines (Manila, Philippines)
Daniela Rosner, University of Washington (Seattle, USA)
Lucy Pei, University of Southern California (Los Angeles, USA)
Luis Fernando Medina Cardona, Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá, Colombia)
Nassim Parvin, Associate Professor, University of Washington (Seattle, USA)