2026 Symposium
April 22-23, 2026

Uttering the Unutterable

McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Students Council is delighted to announce the Call for Papers

for its hybrid 13th annual graduate symposium, entitled “Uttering the Unutterable,” scheduled

for April 22-23, 2026.

This symposium seeks to explore the limits of language, representation, and expression across

diverse intellectual traditions. We invite graduate students to investigate the spaces where meaning

resists articulation - whether due to sacred awe, philosophical impossibility, traumatic memory,

political censorship, or cultural taboos. Submissions should engage with the challenges inherent

in speaking the inexpressible, the methods used to approach it (e.g., silence, metaphor, ritual), and

the ethical or political implications of such attempts.