Show & Prove San Diego Call for Papers
Logo design by Fritz Aragon
Show & Prove Hip Hop Studies Conference - San Diego
May 31, 2025 || @UCSD || Keywords: roots, solidarity
bkSOUL co-directors, grace shinhae jun and Ant Black, will host San Diego’s first Show & Prove Hip Hop Studies Conference (S&P) – an interdisciplinary Hip Hop Studies platform for scholars across fields, Hip Hop artists and practitioners, community organizers, and students to share work and collectively develop research on Hip Hop. Held on the campus of the University of California, San Diego, S&P Hip Hop Studies Conference is co-sponsored by the Department of Theatre & Dance and the Black Studies Project.
This gathering is part of a collaborative S&P series that, in light of tightened budgets and shifting institutional priorities, aims to amplify local interests while scaling the conference to a concentrated, day-long event. Our convening will center two guiding concepts: roots and solidarity.
Conference Theme: roots & solidarity
At its core, solidarity speaks to collective action, mutual responsibility, and the ways Hip Hop fosters connections across communities, struggles, and generations. From the origins of Hip Hop as a creative response to structural neglect, to its contemporary role in social movements, solidarity remains a fundamental principle shaping Hip Hop’s ethos. Yet, solidarity is also contested—how do we understand and navigate issues of inclusion, exclusion, anti-Blackness, appropriation, and power within Hip Hop cultures and industries?
Roots emphasizes place-based histories and the movement and outgrowth of local cultures into broader, global contexts. While sometimes perceived in a singular way, recent scholarship activates it in rhizomatic ways. This concept recognizes Hip Hop’s grounding in specific neighborhoods while also acknowledging how those foundations give rise to new practices, genres, and alliances across geographic, digital, and cultural spaces. It invites us to consider how local places and their socio-political conditions/contexts shape global movements and vice versa.
Taken together, these keywords might ask, but are not limited to:
● If Hip Hop is essential to one’s world, how does the necessity of learning its roots shape what we do in the present? How do Hip Hop’s roots inform its present and future?
● In what ways does moving toward solidarity necessitate contending with anti-Blackness?; and how does addressing anti-Blackness in our distinct communities activate solidarities?
● How are Hip Hop’s roots evident beyond the 50th anniversary framework?
● How are new technologies shaping Hip Hop’s capacity for collective action?
● What does it mean to be rooted in Hip Hop across different generations, geographies, and cultural spaces?
● What role do Hip Hop’s artistic and activist traditions play in building and sustaining solidarity?
● How do we remain accountable to Hip Hop’s roots while resisting the forces that seek to erase, exploit, or redefine them?
Call for Proposals
We invite proposals for papers, panels, performances, roundtables, and workshops (as well as alternative formats such as cyphers, public dialogues, interactive installations, and digital storytelling). Proposals should engage with one or both conference keywords.
Submission Guidelines:
● Submit a 350-word abstract or summary of your proposal via email to showproveconf@gmail.com by February 28, 2025.
● Panel proposals can include 150-word descriptions of each panelist’s contribution.
● Proposals for performances or films should specify the length of the piece, format, and its relation to the conference keywords.
● Please provide contact information, A/V requirements, and any accommodation needs.
● Accepted proposals will be notified by March 21, 2025.
If you are interested in proposing a session or getting involved in other ways, please contact grace shinhae jun drgracejun@gmail.com or Show&Prove showproveconf@gmail.com.