Proposals

The 2025 CSWE Annual Conference
Call for Proposals

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) invites proposals for the 71st CSWE Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado, October 23–26, 2025. The conference theme is "It’s Time to Act: Championing Disability Justice and Disability Joy in Social Work." This theme champions the need for social work conversations around disability joy, justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. We encourage proposals and conversations around disability joy and the disability justice principles of intersectionality, interdependence, centering those most impacted, mutual aid, cross movement solidarity, recognizing wholeness, commitment to cross-disability solidarity, sustainability, collective access, collective liberation, and opposition to oppressive systems. (Berne et al., 2018; Sins Invalid, 2016). 

Participants are invited to submit proposals on the following and other related topics to social work education:

• Disability justice and/or ableism and the Social Work Academy   
• Theoretical foundations and contemporary contributions to the disability justice movement
• Political discourse and representation
• Role of disability justice in anti-racist and decolonial movements
• Media representation and disability justice
• Disability justice and reproductive rights
• Environmental justice and disability
• Sexuality and disability
• Intersectional identities
• Disability justice informed pedagogies
• Care, mutual aid and interdependence

CSWE invites proposals from multiple perspectives and voices. Proposals should raise critical issues about practices, policies, and structures that address disability justice/ and disability joy and social work education. They should also clearly identify strategies for improving curricula and teaching practices and creating more inclusive learning environments in the context of social work education.

We encourage submissions focused on the conference theme and adhere to one of the CSWE tracks. Presentations are organized by tracks, allowing meeting participants to quickly locate and gauge their interest in specific sessions. The CSWE Annual Conference program will be developed using two main proposal categories: peer-reviewed proposals, and non-peer reviewed proposals. 

As a presenter, you can submit: 1 Pre-Conference Summit/Institute Proposal OR Connect Session Proposal AND up to 2 Educational Proposals. In total, you may be a presenter on a maximum of three proposals.

The Call for Proposals opens January 8th, 2025, and will close on February 9, 2025, at 11:59 PM (ET).

 

Submit your 2025 CSWE Annual Conference Proposal by clicking the submit button below!

Peer-Reviewed Proposals

Each peer-reviewed proposal is submitted to one of the tracks. There are four presentation format options:

1. Electronic poster (e-poster; 30 minutes, up to two presenters): E-posters are PowerPoint presentations and will be delivered on monitors in or near the exhibition hall.
2. Interactive workshop (60 minutes, minimum of two and up to five presenters): Each workshop should include a highly interactive portion (i.e., breakout groups, exercises, and similar activities that engage the audience).
3. Paper presentation (30-minute presentation, up to two presenters): Papers are lecture-format presentations that are paired under a common theme and are usually scheduled back-to-back in 1-hour sessions.
4. Panel Discussion (60 minutes, minimum of two and up to four panelists and one moderator): Panel discussions are collaborative presentations on a single research topic, with two to four panelists and one moderator.

Proposals will be reviewed for the following:

• relevance of topic, study, or inquiry to CSWE members and the conference theme.  
• clarity of the written proposal and focus of inquiry.
• appropriateness of research method(s) and/or conceptual foundation; robustness of peer-reviewed resources that assist in understanding methodological, conceptual, or theoretical conclusions about the nature of social work education, practice, and/or policy;
• significance for social work education, practice, research, policy, or theory; and
• relevant and appropriate references.

 

Non-Peer Reviewed Proposals

There are six format options for non-peer reviewed proposals:

1. CSWE Commission/Council Connect Sessions
2. Hot Topic Sessions
3. Partnership Presentations
4. Field Education Institute
5. Assessment Institute
6. Student Summit

Non-Peer Reviewed Proposal Options  

The following presentation formats are available for sessions Friday– Sunday, October 24 - 26, 2025.

• CSWE Commission/Council Connect Sessions (60 minutes, up to seven presenters): CSWE commissions and councils are invited to submit proposals that highlight work that advances their charges and the mission of CSWE. Proposals should showcase any current projects and/or work being done. Priority will be given to proposals that relate to the theme of the conference. This option is only for CSWE commissions and councils. Each CSWE commission and council may submit one proposal.  
• Hot Topic Sessions (15 minutes, one presenter): Presentations will consider emerging and important topics for social work educators or topics related to the conference theme but not covered by other CSWE Annual Conference presentations. Hot Topics will be TEDx-style talks and will be grouped with related Hot Topic sessions as part of a 1-hour session. Hot Topics will be recorded and select sessions may be posted to CSWE’s website following the conference.
• Partnership Presentations (60 minutes, up to 10 presenters): Sessions provide opportunities for social work education-related groups to make special presentations at the CSWE Annual Conference. Due to meeting space availability, each group will be limited to one accepted presentation.

 

 Pre-Conference Summit and Institutes  

One Summit and three Institutes will be presented on Thursday, October 23, 2025.  

• Student Summit: CSWE is pleased to offer the Student Summit at the 2025 Annual Conference. The 2025 Student Summit is a student-focused event to explore and expand leadership styles and leadership potential. The goal of the summit is to develop a deeper understanding of leadership knowledge and skills for social work students as they prepare to enter careers as practitioners or scholars. We seek proposals that address leadership perspectives and styes, particularly around leadership in disability joy and justice.
• Field Education Institute (1.5-hour sessions, up to three presenters each): The CSWE Annual Conference will offer an all-day Field Education Institute. This institute will focus on issues related to disability justice in field education through a series of 1.5-hour sessions. Specific areas of interest include how field education prepares students to address disability issues and how field educators dismantle disability barriers in the field education curriculum.   
• Assessment Institute (up to three presenters each): the CSWE Annual Conference will offer the Assessment Institute, on Thursday, October 23, 2025, designed for faculty and academic staff members focused on program experiences and best practices with assessment using the 2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS). This includes the three types of assessment addressed in the 2022 EPAS: competency-based student learning outcomes, anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI), and program outcomes. We seek proposals that address assessment of any of the following: anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion; administrative and governance structures; student recruitment and retention; classroom or field-based competence demonstration; or program outcomes/bright line indicators. In alignment with the conference theme, we are particularly interested in assessment regarding accessibility/disability as well as anti-oppressive models of assessment. Peer educator sessions will be presented in 1-hour workshops.
• Leadership Development Institute: The 2025 CSWE Annual Conference will offer an all-day Leadership Development Institute pre-conference designed to help current and future social work leaders build environments where everyone wants to work. CSWE will be inviting presenters to fascilitate presentations, workshops and panels on topics including promoting workplace civility, inclusive belonging, and futures thinking.

Note Regarding Non-Peer Reviewed Proposals
Non-peer reviewed proposals are subject to criteria similar to those for peer-reviewed proposals. Only one presentation format may be selected per proposal. Non-peer reviewed session proposals are considered by CSWE and any relevant groups (i.e., commissions/councils) based on the following criteria:  

• relevance of topic, study, or inquiry to CSWE members and the conference and/or pre-conference institute theme;
• clarity of the written proposal; and
• significance for social work education, practice, research, policy, or theory.

CSWE makes the final decision on all invited sessions based on the above criteria.

Submission Instructions

CSWE uses Cadmium, an online proposal management system. Please note that all proposals are to be submitted online using Cadmium.  

If you experience technical problems with the proposal submission system, email [email protected] or call (410) 638-9239/toll-free (877) 426-6323.  

CSWE welcomes first-time presenters and attendees. Therefore, an individual may be listed as a presenter on a maximum of two proposals regardless of the type of proposal. This limit does not apply to contributors or moderators.  

All presenters must be available to present at any time Friday through Sunday, October 24-26, 2025. CSWE cannot accept special requests for presentation dates or times. Presenters who cannot guarantee availability to present on any of these days should be listed as contributors. 

Presenter/Speaker Requirements

You do not need to be a CSWE member to submit a proposal or to register for the conference. However, if your proposal is accepted, each presenter must register, pay in full, and attend the conference. This requirement is applicable for all presentation formats. Members pay a lower conference registration fee than non-members. The category of “contributor” has been added as an optional role for all proposal types, and you may designate contributors on your proposal. Contributors are individuals who contributed to the work but who will not attend the CSWE Annual Conference to participate in the presentation. Contributors are not required to meet presenter compliance policy requirements. To ensure presenters are not disqualified from presenting at the 2025 CSWE Annual Conference, review the 2025 CSWE Annual Conference Presenter Agreement. If you have questions about the call for proposals and/or proposal submission process, please email [email protected] or call (703)-519-2058.   

 
View the "Helpful PDFs" section on the right-hand side of this web page.

The submission deadline is February 9, 2025, at 11:59 PM (ET).