Registration
Registration for the 2024 Macksey Symposium is now open for guests only. Presenter registration was completed on January 31, 2024.
All attendees are required to register for the conference in order to gain access to the presentation sessions and receptions. Registered presenters and guests must wear their badge (provided at conference check-in) at all times during the conference.
Presenter Registration
If you have been accepted to present at the Macksey Symposium, please log in to the application portal and complete your registration payment by January 31, 2024.
Conference registration for presenters includes access to all receptions, events, and presentation sessions for the entire symposium, plus a swag bag and an invitation to publish in the Macksey Journal.
Guest Registration
Those attending the symposium as a supporter (not presenting) have the option to purchase a one-day or a two-day pass at a discounted rate. All guest passes (both one-day and two-day) include access to the welcome reception at the Baltimore Museum of Art on Thursday evening. Non-presenting guests may register here: Guest Registration. Please note, presenters may NOT use this link to register for the conference.
Registration is mandatory for all guests. Any unregistered guests who arrive at the conference will be required to register and pay on-site in order to gain access to the conference. It is highly recommended that you register in advance.
2024 Registration Costs
For presenters:
- $150 by January 15 for early registration
- $175 by January 31 for regular registration
For guests (not presenting at the conference):
- Friday pass: $75 (includes breakfast, all Friday presentation sessions, keynote address, and keynote reception)
- Saturday pass: $50 (includes breakfast, book signing, and all Saturday presentation sessions)
- Two-day pass (for both Friday and Saturday): $100 (includes breakfast both days, all presentation sessions, keynote address, keynote reception, and book signing)
Travel and Accommodations
Participants are responsible for their own travel to and from Baltimore. All presenters are asked to reserve a room at the Inn at the Colonnade in one of our conference hotel blocks, which come with a discounted rate. Both hotels, the Inn at the Colonnade and The Study at Johns Hopkins, are located directly across the street from the Johns Hopkins University campus, which serves as the venue for the symposium. A mobility shuttle will be available for those with accessibility needs.
Please use this link to book a room at the Colonnade.
Please use this link to book a room at The Study.
Please note that the blocks include both single-occupancy rooms (one king bed) and double-occupancy rooms (two queen beds). Space is limited, so we strongly suggest booking early.
We recommend that if you are flying you arrive at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI). For train travel, we recommend arriving at Baltimore Penn Station. Transportation is not provided to/from the airport or train station.
Keynote Speaker
The keynote speaker for the 2024 Macksey Symposium is Dr. Sami Schalk, Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Schalk will deliver the talk, “504 and Beyond: Disability Politics and the Black Panther Party” on Friday, March 22, at 5:00 pm.
Drawing from Dr. Schalk’s latest book, Black Disability Politics, this talk will detail the Black Panther Party’s involvement in the 1977 504 Sit-in and discuss it as a historical example of how Black cultural workers have engaged with disability as a political issue in ways that have sometimes been obscured in Black studies and disability studies alike.
Dr. Schalk will also be available for a book signing on Saturday, March 23, from 9:00 to 10:00 am.
About Dr. Sami Schalk
Dr. Sami Schalk earned her BA in English (Creative Writing) and Women’s Studies from Miami University, her MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from University of Notre Dame, and her PhD in Gender Studies from Indiana University. Her interdisciplinary research focuses broadly on disability, race, and gender in contemporary American literature and culture. She has published on literature, film, and material culture in a variety of peer-reviewed humanities journals.
Dr. Schalk’s first book, Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction (Duke University Press 2018), argues that Black women writers of speculative fiction reimagine the possibilities and limits of bodyminds, changing the way we read and interpret categories like (dis)ability, race, gender and sexuality within the context of these non-realist texts.
Her second book, Black Disability Politics (Duke University Press 2022), explores how Black cultural workers have engaged disability as a social and political issue differently than the mainstream, white-dominated disability rights movement. In doing so, Dr. Schalk argues that because Black disability politics take on different qualities, the work has been overlooked or misrecognized within disability studies and Black studies alike. Using archival work on the Black Panther Party and the National Black Women’s Health Project, as well as interviews with contemporary Black disabled cultural works, the book offers a framework for both identifying and enacting Black disability politics for scholars and activists.
Learn more about Dr. Schalk and her work on her personal website.
About the Macksey keynote address
Every year, the Office of Undergraduate Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity at Johns Hopkins University invites a keynote speaker who is doing trailblazing work in the humanities to inspire the next generation of scholars to forge their own paths as humanities researchers.
Symposium Schedule
The tentative schedule for the 2024 symposium is as follows. Please note that this schedule is subject to change.
Thursday, March 21:
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Conference registration and welcome reception at the Baltimore Museum of Art
Friday, March 22:
8:30 am – 9:45 am: Breakfast and registration
9:45 am – 10:00 am: Opening remarks by Dr. William Egginton
10:10 am – 11:20 am: Session 1
11:35 am – 12:45 pm: Session 2
12:45 pm – 2:05 pm: Lunch break (lunch not provided)
2:05 pm – 3:15 pm: Session 3
3:30 pm – 4:40 pm: Session 4
5:00 pm – 6:30 pm: Keynote address by Dr. Sami Schalk
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm: Reception and meet-and-greet with keynote speaker
Saturday, March 23:
8:30 am – 10:00 am: Breakfast and registration
9:00 am – 10:00 am: Book signing with Dr. Sami Schalk
10:10 am – 11:20 am: Session 5
11:35 am – 12:45 pm: Session 6
12:45 pm – 2:05 pm: Lunch break (lunch not provided)
2:05 pm – 3:15 pm: Session 7
3:30 pm – 4:40 pm: Plenary Session
4:45 pm – 5:00 pm: Closing remarks by Dr. Jennifer Wester
Conference Program
Please click the button below to access the Conference Program, which includes a detailed schedule of events and an overview of the panels offered in each session. For a full list of presentations included in each panel, with titles and names of presenters and moderators, please click the Session Details button.
Presentation Tips
Your presentation should be 7-10 minutes long and should cover your original work in the humanities. The most common mode of professional academic presentation in many fields (such as literature and cultural studies) is reading aloud a short version of a research paper you’ve written, often accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation. You should aim for a paper of about 1,200-1,500 words, but be sure to read it out loud and time yourself to make sure you’re under 10 minutes. Alternately, you may give a PowerPoint presentation and speak from notes or from memory.
You will be grouped with three other presenters working on similar themes, and after each of you has presented, there will be time for questions from the audience for all of the speakers in your session.