2027 Creating Space 17 Call for Abstracts (PDF)

 Call for Abstracts

What remains undocumented in healthcare—and what is lost because of it?

Creating Space 17: Off the Charts invites you to explore the stories and knowledges that exist beyond, between, and outside the formal medical record. We are interested in what is left unsaid or relegated to the margins, those narratives that resist standardization, quantification, or institutional legitimacy.

Healthcare systems rely on charts to organize, prioritize, and legitimize knowledge. But charts also exclude. They flatten complexity. They silence multiplicity. They decide what counts—and what does not.

This conference asks:

  • Whose voices are prioritized, and whose are marginalized or erased?

  • What happens to the “extra” information: the emotional, relational, cultural, spiritual, and embodied knowledge that does not neatly fit?

  • What stories live in liminal spaces between encounters, across time, in the wake of loss, or in the presence of uncertainty?

  • How do histories—personal, familial, ancestral—leave their traces on bodies and records?

  • What are the “parallel charts” that exist alongside the official record?

We invite contributors to reimagine the medical chart itself:

  • As a collaborative document

  • As a site of resistance

  • As a space that might hold counter-narratives, creative expression, and alternative ways of knowing

We are particularly interested in submissions that engage with:

  • Parallel charting and shadow records

  • Narrative, poetic, and arts-based representations of care

  • Lived experience as knowledge

  • Neurodivergent, disabled, and otherwise marginalized perspectives in healthcare

  • Grief, memory, and intergenerational presence (“the tracks of ghosts”)

  • Power, authorship, and voice in documentation

  • What counts as research, and who gets to decide

Presentation Formats

In the spirit of “off the charts,” we encourage diverse and non-traditional formats, including:

  • Research Presentation: 20 minutes (15 minutes + 5 minutes for questions)

  • Innovative Experience in Humanities Pedagogy: 30 minutes (20 minutes + 10 minutes for questions)

  • Workshop: 60 minutes (with at most 25% didactic)

  • Themed Panel: 60 minutes (40 minutes + 20 minutes for questions)

  • Performance (e.g., storytelling, spoken word, other): 30 minutes (20 minutes + 10 minutes for questions)

  • Film and multimedia: 30 minutes (20 minutes + 10 minutes for questions)

  • Experimental or hybrid format

  • Pecha Kucha: 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide

  • Poster

Submissions that challenge conventional academic norms are not only welcome—they are central to this gathering.

Creating Space 17 will be primarily an in-person conference. A limited number of virtual presentation spots will be available for research presentations only. All other presentation formats will be offered in person.

 

Who Should Submit

We invite researchers, clinicians, artists, educators, caregivers, patients, and community members. Lived experience is a vital form of expertise, and we actively seek voices often excluded from traditional academic spaces.

 

Abstract Requirements

Abstracts of up to 250 words (excluding references) must be submitted in English or French. Up to three references may be included. Please submit your abstract using the online abstract submission form. The deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. PT, December 1, 2026.

 

About Creating Space

Creating Space is the annual conference of the Canadian Association for Health Humanities, bringing together scholars, educators, clinicians, artists, and students from across the field. Founded in 2010, the conference is held in a different Canadian city each year and attracts participants from Canada and around the world. Known for its interactive and interdisciplinary approach, it fosters critical dialogue, collaboration, and networking across diverse health humanities communities.

 

Questions?

Please email us at creatingspace2027@gmail.com.