The fifth edition of Poetics + Politics will be centered around the theme: Poetics in the Politics of Now. The symposium will be held at the University of California at Santa Cruz between May 14-17, 2026.
This intentionally broad theme aims to engender a space of open dialogue about the interplay of aesthetics, politics, and history as they emerge in our various and discrete practices, commitments, regions and contexts. What are ‘poetics’ in the politics of now? Or, what are the ‘politics’ of the poetics of now? What is ‘now’? How are the pervasive topics that tend to cluster around documentary (realism, fidelity, responsibility, ethics, representation) animated or challenged or changed by this contemporary moment? What work does documentary do, and what can it do, in a media space increasingly dominated by altered images and facts? In a world increasingly shaped by the forces of financialization and nationalism? What could investing in form and poetics do in a moment like this?
Keynotes for this year’s symposium are DeeDee Halleck and Miko Revereza. DeeDee Halleck is a filmmaker, author, community and media activist, the founder of Paper Tiger Television and co-founder of Deep Dish Television, the first grass roots community television network. Her work to broaden and remake media landscapes has been recognized by major cultural and funding institutions. Miko Revereza is an award winning filmmaker whose body of work experiments with and examines the process of documenting the undocumented, moving through themes of diaspora, colonialism, and Americanization.
The 2026 symposium will be an in-person gathering: we are committed to the community-building work of physical presence and to creating an intentional space for shared and durational conversation across our time together.
Our call for proposals for the 2026 symposium is closed.
Principal Organizers are Irene Gustafson, Irene Lusztig, and Hannah Jayanti. This year’s symposium is made possible by funding from Porter College, the UCSC Arts Research Institute, and the UCSC Center for Documentary Arts and Research (CDAR).
