Call for Papers/Participation | Deadline: 10 November 2026
After Washington, D.C. (2017), Paris (2019), and Cape Town (2025), the RIM Research Forum returns in 2027: this time in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Gathering scholars across continents carries undeniable environmental costs, creating a tension that we do not take lightly. Yet building a genuinely global conversation on race and markets also requires engagement across diverse spaces, histories and knowledge traditions—something that has been central to RIM’s mission. Like its predecessor host cities, Rio occupies a distinctive position within both global and local market and racial dynamics. And we hope that, as in previous forums, this setting will help deepen our dialogues across domains, disciplines, and geographical boundaries.
In this fourth forum, we seek to move beyond hegemonic global accounts of race. Our focus will examine markets and move toward a more explicit engagement with the global–local power relations through which knowledge about race and markets is produced, circulated, legitimized, and enacted. For instance, how can our understanding of race and markets deepen by examining them through the distinct legacies of Brazilian chattel slavery? Or, how can critical theoretics developed outside the U.S. context and other dominant centers of knowledge production be leveraged to better understand how race and markets intersect globally and regionally? This ambition is reflected in the theme of the forum, Race, Markets, and the Politics of Global Knowledge and Practices, which invites contributions that situate counter-hegemonic (and often marginalized) empirical and theoretical analyses within the broader epistemic, historical, and political structures through which power and knowledge are intertwined.
The 2027 Forum also marks a historic milestone as we come together to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Race in the Marketplace network. Our anniversary theme, “Then, Now, Next” reflects how since our inaugural gathering in Washington, D.C., in 2017, RIM has grown from a foundational idea into a thriving, transdisciplinary international community. This anniversary celebration will be woven throughout the Rio Forum.
To keep the discussions lively and dynamic, the Forum will offer a variety of thematic areas and presentation platforms for participants to interact, including colloquia, posters, and thematic sessions.
In conjunction with the Forum, selected papers presented at the event may be considered for publication in a forthcoming special journal issue on the theme.
Pre-Conference Activities: O Caminho para o Rio (optional)
In the months leading up to our time in Brazil, we plan to offer a series of online, RIM-related group activities to help us learn about and better understand how race is experienced and conceptualized in the context of Latin America and the broader Global South. These may include short readings (with discussion), films, lectures, and other educational resources.
In the spirit of collaboration, please feel free to share any other ideas regarding the Forum that you believe would make it a more meaningful experience for attendees. Please forward your ideas to us by emailing contact@rimnetwork.net. We look forward to your contributions and to exploring this vital and evolving field of study in Rio de Janeiro!
Submissions should be electronically submitted to submissions@rimnetwork.net
THE DEADLINE IS 10 NOVEMBER 2026
Submission Formats
Submissions can be done in two formats: (1) Papers/Contributions and (2) Participation without Presentation (statement of participation).
1. Submission of Papers/Contributions
We welcome papers and other contributions (e.g., poetry, artwork, videography [less than 10 minutes]) with a broad range of underpinnings, including those rooted in theory and practice. Submissions will be evaluated based on their relevance to the RIM network’s overall philosophy: critical approaches, intersectionality, cross-disciplinary relevance, and being globally-minded. While all submissions do not need to directly align with the theme, we will give priority to submissions that fit with the Forum’s specific focus on global power-knowledge structures, local-global tensions, and epistemic boundaries.
Potential areas of inquiry for submissions include (but are not limited to):
What are the local and global implications of concepts and practices treated—sometimes erroneously—as U.S.-born, such as racial capitalism, intersectionality, or blackfacing, when examined in diverse market contexts worldwide?
How do presumed U.S.-derived concepts and practices travel, adapt, or come into tension across contexts, and with what consequences for theory, methodology, and policy?
How do local creative industries, such as advertising and branded entertainment, negotiate local configurations of racial logic with hegemonic configurations, and to what effect?
How does the dominance of English as the primary language of academic publishing shape what kinds of race–market phenomena become visible and which voices, concepts/theories, or experiences remain invisible or untranslated?
Beyond the United States, how do other imperial, colonial, or regional power formations (e.g., European colonial legacies, post‑Soviet dynamics, Chinese state capitalism, global development institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and United Nations) shape race–market relations and the production of related knowledge?
How can critical theoretics developed outside the U.S. context and other dominant centers of knowledge production be leveraged to better understand how race and markets intersect globally and regionally?
How can Indigenous or locally grounded theories generate new and deeper explanations, making research more relevant while addressing the limits of purely contextual approaches?
How do (anti-)racist social movements and local resistance strategies re-shape regional and transnational markets?
Can marketplaces decenter Eurocentric and Western values in order to become racially equitable under a global capitalist system? If so, how? If not, how might alternative forms of economy offer framework(s) to support equitable markets?
What practical actions can be taken by individuals, collectives, organizations, businesses, and government entities to bring about fair and equitable marketplaces?
How can innovative, alternative, and/or exploratory research practices (e.g., auto-ethnography, arts-based research practice, activist-scholar work) improve the investigation of race and markets across distinct geographical boundaries?
We seek submissions in 4 tracks:
Conventional Papers: This track invites scholars to submit an extended abstract outlining the main ideas of a research project, including objectives, theoretical background, methodology (if empirical), main findings, and contributions. The abstract must not exceed 1500 words (excluding references, appendices, and other material) and include a statement of how the research contributes to RIM’s objectives.
Poster Session: This track invites submissions of completed works, conceptual works, and works in progress that support the Forum’s objectives for visual presentation in an informal session. For consideration, please submit a 500-word abstract (excluding references), including a statement of how the research contributes to RIM’s objectives.
Thematic Sessions: This track invites scholars to propose 90-minute sessions, which should include three or four short presentations followed by group discussion. The proposal should promote the overall goals of the research forum and network (i.e., interdisciplinary, international, and collectively insightful – with an emphasis on the global-local politics of knowledge) and provide ample time for discussion (about 60 minutes). The proposal should state which presentation style they would use, namely: traditional vs. lightning (see above).
Art-Based Contributions: This track invites scholars to submit original research expressed via visual/audio formats. Such expressions may include (but are by no means exclusive of) poetry, photography, paintings, performance art, videography, and graphic illustrations. Art-based submissions should include an anonymized copy of the art-based contribution along with a 500-word abstract (excluding references) which 1) overviews your creative process, 2) links your submission to relevant research, and 3) demonstrates how the submission contributes to RIM’s objectives.
Art-Based Contribution Guidelines:
Videographic and performance art submissions should be no longer than 10 minutes, with a maximum of 1 submission of each art-based modality per person.
Poems should be no longer than 1 single-spaced page (12-point font), with a maximum of 2 poem submissions per person.
(Photo)graphic submissions should be limited to no more than 10 individual images.
Partially completed work will not be accepted.
2. Participation without Presentation
Individuals wishing to attend the conference without presenting in any of the 4 tracks must submit a written statement of interest.
This statement should include:
Name, e-mail, field/department, and institutional/organizational affiliation information;
Responses to the questions below regarding what the applicant believes they have to offer this area of research and the research network.
Statements of interest should answer the following questions (2-page maximum, 12-point font, single-spaced):
How does/will your research (in general and specifically [i.e., provide examples]) contribute to the goals and objectives of the Forum?
What do you hope to gain from attending this Forum?
How do you expect to contribute to RIM’s/the Forum’s objectives?
Please provide a list of five publications, presentations, or other activities most relevant to your scholarship, which illustrate how your research activities have addressed RIM’s/the Forum’s objectives.
Individuals should also include a CV or resume and a statement of commitment to indicate their intention to attend the Forum if accepted.
Program Committee:
Kevin D. Thomas, Independent Scholar, USA
Matt Williams, American University, USA
Guillaume D. Johnson, CNRS & Université Paris-Dauphine, France
Anthony Kwame Harrison, Virginia Tech, USA
Ana Raquel Coelho-Rocha, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brasil
Charis Tucker, University of Illinois, USA
Federico García Baena, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, France
Natalie Clue, University of London, United Kingdom
J.P. James, Salem State University, USA
Nakeisha Lewis, University of San Diego, USA
Franck Freitas-Ekue, Université de Lille, France
Flavia Galindo, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil