Scholars of Cinema and Media Studies in Solidarity with Palestine (SCMSSP), formerly Palestine Solidarity Working Group (PSWG), calls for a boycott of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2026 annual conference scheduled for March 26-29, 2026 in Chicago.
We condemn the SCMS Board of Directors’ silence and refusal to issue a public statement on the genocide, mediacide, and scholasticide in Palestine, and its lack of transparency with the membership.
For nearly two years, the SCMS Board has refused to publicly acknowledge Palestine or decry anti-Palestinian racism and the Israeli genocide of Palestine. Instead, the Board’s recent actions include:
- ignoring the wishes of more than 700 SCMS members and supporters that it publish a statement condemning the scholasticide and mediacide perpetrated by Israel in Gaza;
- issuing mass messages to, in effect, deny the perpetration of racism and threats against SCMS members at the 2025 conference;
- disabling vital communication platforms for SCMS caucuses and SIGs, then making draconian changes to how those platforms operate; and
- making undemocratic changes to the rules of nomination to the Board without explanation or rationale.
SCMSSP is calling for a boycott of SCMS 2026 Chicago because we care for the safety and well-being of people everywhere, whether outside the U.S. or within its imperial core. SCMSSP’s commitment to Palestine and other countries in the SWANA region affected by the Zionist onslaught is central to our efforts. SCMSSP also denounces the structural, systemic, and historical relationship of that onslaught to the epidemic of neocolonial violence and oppression around the world, especially that which affects racialized and minoritized peoples of the Global South.
In view of the U.S.-based ICE kidnappings of people without due process, targeting of international travelers, and surveillance of people doing work along race, class, gender, sexuality, and other minoritized backgrounds, it is no longer safe for prospective SCMS participants to come to the United States and risk being subjected to discrimination and violence.
We make this appeal to anyone whose sense of moral, ethical, and intellectual integrity condemns academic silence, repression, and complicity in the genocide – all of which the SCMS leadership is historically guilty. Boycott SCMS 2026!!
Follow us on Instagram at @cine.media.studies.4.palestine to stay updated on the boycott and to learn about a parallel scholarly forum to be hosted by SCMSSP that positions justice at its intellectual core and within its organizing framework. Scholars working on all aspects of cinema and media studies will be welcome. SCMSSP thus hopes to offer a space for beginning to imagine and create film and media studies networks that honor and value social justice, responsible scholarship, and human life. Details are forthcoming.
Please join and sign on here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Jb6l9xc7Vb_Q7H9fZLGQ0bqr1eTxeZmd6BltG1eH-XE/viewform
