Just Transformations: Reimagining Sustainable Food Systems and Cultures
The Agriculture, Food & Human Values Society (AFHVS), the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS), and the host committee at the University of Vermont invite scholars and practitioners to participate in their annual meeting in Burlington, VT, June 7-10, 2026.
The theme of the conference is “Just Transformations: Reimagining Sustainable Food Systems and Cultures.”
Abstract Deadline: January 31, 2026. Notification of acceptance by approximately February 28, 2026
Click here to submit an abstract.
This conference invites critical and bold engagements with the idea of Just Transformations in Food Systems: transformation processes that center sustainability, equity, sovereignty, ecological care, and other forms of transformative action. We seek contributions that examine and confront the structural and systemic roots of food system injustices while illuminating the pathways being forged by communities, movements, and practitioners striving to create regenerative, democratic, and just alternatives.
We invite participants to share scholarship on the creative, courageous, and often under-recognized work already underway to reimagine and rebuild food systems and society from the ground up, reclaiming agency over diets, food culture, land, labor, knowledge, and nourishment. We seek contributions that bring disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches to the analysis of structures, systems, and the cultures of food and agriculture that shape how we relate to land, labor, nourishment, and one another. This includes, but is not limited to, scholarship on the following: developing alternative food systems, Indigenous-led land rematriation, seed sovereignty efforts, advancing rights-based approaches, women’s cooperatives promoting agroecological farming, youth mobilizations, confronting corporate agribusiness, neighborhood mutual aid networks, communities working to revitalize food cultures grounded in care, reciprocity, seasonality, and memory, and how cultural expressions, values, and traditions are being mobilized, reimagined, and protected. The aim is to stimulate thinking, discussion, and collaboration on deep, holistic, and enduring transformation of the food system
In addition to general sessions, this year’s conference will also feature two themed tracks building on critical research and engagement being undertaken by UVM Institutes.
The first is a track on agroecology and its role in just transformations. UVM is home to the Institute of Agroecology, which is working to seed more equitable and sustainable food systems through research, learning, and action. Building on the Institute’s work, the agroecology track will feature papers that address urgent agrifood challenges and adopt holistic socio-ecological approaches. Papers will focus on agroecological topics, including livelihoods, biodiversity, polycultures, the right to food, and the co-creation of knowledge.
The second track is ecological economics and just food systems transformations. UVM is home to the Gund Institute for Environment, an interdisciplinary research accelerator focused on tackling environmental challenges, and the Leadership for the Ecozoic (L4E), a community of practice on ecological economics and growth.
Building on the work of Gund and L4E, the ecological economics track will feature papers on topics such as food as a commons, non-market food systems, economies of care, and degrowth. If you would like your paper to be included in one of these tracks, please indicate so when submitting. Papers not designated to a track will be placed in the general sessions.
Meeting Format
The meeting will primarily be in person on the UVM campus in Burlington, VT. However, understanding that some may have difficulty reaching Burlington, we will provide a limited number of hybrid sessions. These sessions will feature both in-person and virtual presentations and will be held in rooms equipped for hybrid meetings. There will be up to two hybrid sessions per time slot. People presenting from outside the United States will have priority for these slots. The presidential addresses and keynotes will also be livestreamed.
Submissions
While we seek presentations that specifically speak to this year’s theme, any submission across the broader study of food, agriculture, culture, nutrition, society, and sustainability will be considered, including proposals from and with scholars, practitioners, community partners, activists, policymakers, and others.
Formats
Lightning Talks: five-minute presentations on preliminary results, works in progress or part of a larger project
15-minute Paper Presentation: Papers will be organized into themed sessions with 4-5 papers.
90-minute Paper Panel: Organize a group of papers into a 90-minute panel in a format of your choosing. (e.g. four 15-minute papers with 30 minutes of audience discussion; four 15-minute papers followed by a discussant and audience discussion; an organizer introduction, three 20-minute papers, audience discussion, etc.). Please organize the panel (including title) with your co-presenters in advance, and then be prepared to enter the title for this panel when you submit the abstract.
90-minute Roundtable: Host a conversation on a topic with a group of stakeholders and/or experts as panelists.
Linked Sessions: Organize a series of sessions around a common topic. This option would create a set of (likely 2 to 4) consecutive sessions, each consisting of a combination of paper panels, roundtables, and/or creative sessions. Please organize the sessions (including title of linked sessions) with your co-presenters in advance, and then be prepared to enter the title when you submit the abstract.
Poster: Share a poster that describes a research project or program. There will be an opportunity to share more with attendees in person during a dedicated poster session time.
Creative Sessions: In addition to papers, panels, posters, and roundtables, we welcome films, kitchen demonstrations or hands-on workshops, and other creative sessions (e.g., story-sharing, tasting).
About Food Systems at UVM
The host committee looks forward to seeing you at the University of Vermont, which is home to a critical mass of work on regional food systems, sustainable development, agroecology, ecological economics, transdisciplinary team science, and the nexus of food, agriculture, and planetary health. Our community of scholars and practitioners warmly invites you to join us in Vermont for co-learning, sharing, conviviality, and to experience one of Vermont’s most precious assets: our summer! This will be a great opportunity to bring together a scholarly community working on just transformations across the two societies and to deepen our work and our relations.
Please send any questions about this call to david.conner@uvm.edu
FoodAnthropology 