From June 1-5, 2026, the CHCI Annual Meeting will take place at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Canada. Registration will open on December 8, 2025.
Building the Present We Want | CHCI Annual Meeting 2026
The crises that once seemed distant are here. Artificial intelligence is reshaping pedagogical practices while raising urgent questions about whose languages, cultures, and ways of knowing are centered—or marginalized—in digital systems. Energy struggles drive geopolitical conflicts threatening democratic institutions. Climate change manifests daily with unprecedented urgency. Personal, communal, and global security face constant disruption. Simultaneously, academic freedom has come under sustained assault. These are no longer "future possibilities"—they constitute our present moment.
Yet these interconnected challenges demand more than technical solutions alone. How do we navigate democratic participation when technological infrastructures privilege dominant languages and exclude others? How do we defend conditions for open inquiry while fostering dialogue amid increasing polarization?
"Building the Present We Want" recognizes that marginalized communities are already building alternatives and reshaping our present despite structural constraints. Similarly, scholars and educators are constructing new forms of humanistic inquiry even as academic freedom faces unprecedented challenges. This conference brings together humanities scholars, center directors, and public intellectuals to explore how humanities research—with its engagement with democracy's contradictions, climate justice advocacy, and cultural meaning-making—offers essential insights for navigating these crises and building the just, sustainable, and secure communities we collectively need.
The CHCI Annual Meeting is our international conference for leaders in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Each Annual Meeting is hosted by a member center or institute and focuses on a theme chosen by the host director. The program is a balance between thematic sessions and member-oriented sessions, including a Membership Plenary, Best Practices for Humanities Centers, and sessions led by our CHCI Networks. The Annual Meeting takes place in May/June and we aim to meet at a venue outside of North America every other year. Attendees include but are not limited to humanities center and institute directors and staff, early career scholars interested in humanities leadership, humanities networks and funders, academic administrators, and non-academic humanities leaders.
