– Extended Deadline –
Submission deadline has been extended to Thursday, January 15th
✴︎ Keynote speaker announcement:
—Dr. Tanine Allison
Associate Professor and Arthur Blank NEH Chair in the Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences in the Department of Film and Media at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Animate EXPERIENCE 2026: The 37th Annual Conference
June 15th-20th, 2026
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
The 37th Society for Animation Studies Conference will take place in the city of Pittsburgh (USA) from June 15 to 18, 2026 (with optional excursions to follow on June 19-20). It will be hosted by the Pennsylvania Expanded Animation Alliance (PA XAA), a consortium of faculty from local universities (including Carnegie Mellon University, Point Park University, Robert Morris University, and the University of Pittsburgh) in concert with the Children’s Museum Pittsburgh. The event will be hybrid, with additional details to follow.
For this year’s conference, we welcome especially proposals that engage with the theme of “The Animate Experience.” While this theme presents many productive interpretations, this conference will attempt to raise questions about animation as a way of processing extreme experiences that lead to such psychological states as affect and trauma. We particularly encourage submissions that explore the potential and limitations of animation as a means of coping with experiences for animation makers and animation audiences and as a vehicle for social emotional learning.
We invite proposals on any animation-related topic but encourage in particular proposals that engage with the theme of the Animate Experience. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Animation and the Anthropocene: Animating environment
- Animation as affective practice: Haptic and/vs digital
- Animation as witnessing: Translating experience through animation
- Mediated empathy: Creating safe distance or bringing closer to the event
- Beyond indexicality: Abstraction and emotion
- Vicarious resilience: Animation as a vehicle for (learning) coping
- Animation and pedagogy: Animation in the classroom
- From screen to community: Animation and its role in the public dialogue
- Representation of experience: Hollywood and/vs independent animation
- Documentary animation: Documenting the undocumentable
We welcome the following submissions:
1
Papers, Microtalks and Panels:
Individual conference paper: 300-word abstract, 3-5 bibliographic references, 2-3 keywords, and 100-word author biography
5-minute micro talk: 150-word abstract, 2-3 bibliographic references, 2-3 keywords, and 100-word author biography
Panel: 500-word panel summary, plus 300-word abstract and 3-5 bibliographic references per paper, and 100-word author biography per panel member. Proposed panels should comprise 4 panellists.
Please note that each person may only submit a proposal for ONE of the above categories. Multiple submissions from the same individual will be rejected.
Please submit your paper, micro talk, OR panel proposal here: Oxford Abstracts
2
Screening
We will hold a screening of animated works from SAS practitioners as part of the conference proceedings. Submissions should be no longer than 10 minutes in length. Please include a link from which the proposed animation can be streamed/downloaded, supplemented with a project description of 350-500 words, 2-3 keywords, and a 100-word artist biography. Please also confirm that you, as the creator of the work, have the necessary rights to screen the animation at the conference.
Screening and Exhibition proposals may be made IN ADDITION TO a paper, micro talk, or specialist panel proposal.
3
Exhibition
We will host an exhibition of short and or interactive animated works from SAS practitioners & Students as part of the conference proceedings. Animated shorts should be no longer than 2 to 7 minutes in length, interactive animation length should be no longer than 30 minutes. Please include a link from which the proposed animation can be streamed/downloaded, supplemented with a project description of 350-500 words, 2-3 keywords, and a 100-word artist biography. Please also confirm that you, as the creator of the work, have the necessary rights to exhibit the animation at the conference gallery.
Screening and Exhibition proposals may be made IN ADDITION TO a paper, micro talk, or specialist panel proposal.
The deadline for submissions is 11:59pm (EST) on Monday, January 5, 2026***. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by the end of February 2026. ***Deadline Extended to Thursday, January 15th
If you have any questions, please email the team at information@animate-experience.com Please note that, as of the time of the Conference, you will have to be a member of the SAS. To learn how to “Join Today” please refer to this page: https://v4.animationstudies.org/register/
Hybrid Participation Options
The Animate Experience conference is designed primarily as an in-person community event, supporting rich exchange, networking, and shared engagement. At the same time, we recognize that not all participants are able to travel to Pittsburgh at this time. To ensure broad and equitable access, the conference will offer curated virtual participation options for participants who have an approved reason.
Virtual participation may be requested in cases of demonstrated need, including but not limited to:
- Travel restrictions
- Risk of persecution
- Health, mobility, caregiving or accessibility considerations
- Institutional or logistical barriers
- Financial hardship will be considered but please do apply to the Emru Townsend Award (the Society for Animation Studies’ dedicated travel assistance grant) first.
Requests will be subject to blind-review following acceptance of all submissions to ensure fairness and to maintain the integrity of the conference experience.
Support for Virtual Presenters
The host committee is committed to supporting approved virtual participants before and during the conference. Based on feedback on previous SAS conferences, virtual participation will be facilitated with pre-recorded papers. Our team will provide guidance and technical assistance for presenters to submit their talks to a secure, conference-managed online platform. Online questions and discussion for all presentations will be synchronous and presented via text by in-person facilitators.
Support includes:
- Clear instructions and deadlines for uploading presentation materials
- Technical specifications and best-practice guidelines for recorded online presentations
- Access to a secure platform for submitting and hosting conference content
- Coordination to ensure virtual presentations are scheduled alongside in-person sessions where possible
Virtual presentations will be integrated into the conference program to support meaningful scholarly exchange while maintaining a high standard of quality and accessibility for all attendees. Regardless of in-person or virtual participation, all presenters must be members of the Society for Animation Studies.
For questions about hybrid participation or to request virtual consideration, please contact the conference team at information@animate-experience.com
Animate Experience 2026: 37th Annual Conference
Find venue locations, contact numbers, and emails here for seamless coordination.