It’s hard to find joy in the midst of activism and resistance, and yet our movements depend on holding onto joy – together. Resistance is not just about struggle; it is also about healing, connection, and the radical act of embracing joy. Our organization seeks to uplift both resistance and joy, honoring the ways they sustain each other in our collective work. This year’s theme, “In Resistance, We Find Liberation. In Community, We Find Joy,” brings together our shared commitments to activist scholarship, collective healing, and community empowerment. It invites us to explore the ways that joy fuels our resistance, sustains our activism and scholarship, and strengthens our communities. As we engage in a long-term struggle against oppression, we must also create spaces for celebration, renewal, and hope. This theme highlights our presidential mission of embracing the full spectrum of our experiences, recognizing that joy is not merely a byproduct of liberation but an essential part of the process itself.
We invite our community of psychologists, researchers, scholars, practitioners, community workers, healers, elders, and students to share their expertise, scholarship, and journeys in navigating these interwoven forces. We document so much pain, yet joy remains an underexplored and radical force in our work. This convention is an invitation to remember joy, to reclaim it, and to embrace it as an integral part of our resistance. As the saying goes…
If you want to run fast, run alone. If you want to run far, run together.
