Literacy Research Association Convenes Global Scholars in Honolulu to Shape the Future of Education
Annual conference will explore how AI, multilingualism, Indigenous knowledge, Hip Hop, migration, trauma and emerging technologies are reshaping what literacy means.
TAMPA, Fla., Sept. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As the Literacy Research Association prepares to gather in Honolulu, we extend our care to communities across Hawaiʻi affected by the recent storms. We also mourn the passing of LRA Past President P. David Pearson and honor his extraordinary legacy of scholarship, mentorship, and leadership in literacy research.
This December, more than 1,000 literacy scholars, educators, and advocates will convene, as they have for over seven decades, for the 76th Annual Conference of the Literacy Research Association. A singular question will serve as the primary focus for this assembly: How does literacy create new possibilities when it travels across people, communities, languages, technologies, cultures, and histories?
Registration is now open for researchers, educators, community leaders, and literacy advocates who want to help shape how literacy research responds to AI, migration, multilingualism, cultural change, and emerging forms of learning.
Join literacy experts from around the world from December 2–5, 2026 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort, 2005 Kālia Road, Honolulu, HI 96815.
Hotel accommodations are available through the LRA conference room block. Detailed session schedules and program information are available through the LRA 2026 online conference program via All Academic. Connect with LRA on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, and Facebook and get quick, real-time updates from the conference.
Explore a Transformative Theme: Redefine the Future of Literacy Research
The LRA 2026 theme is "Manifesting Quantum Imaginaries: Re-searching Literacies as a Transcontextual Enterprise." The theme uses quantum imaginaries as a metaphor for exploring how literacy moves, connects, and changes across contexts—not as a claim that quantum science itself is a theory of literacy.
The conference program features Reading Hall of Fame inaugural addresses, and includes keynote speeches, presidential sessions, and workshops for practitioners. These events span contexts such as primary and secondary education (encompassing kindergarten through high school), post-secondary instruction (college-level studies and beyond), informal community learning, emerging technologies, and the swiftly evolving domain of artificial intelligence.
"Literacies are never confined to a single place," said Patriann Smith, LRA 2026 President-Elect and Conference Chair. "They travel across communities, languages, technologies, and generations. This conference asks what new possibilities emerge when we view literacy through that lens."
Attend a Featured Keynote: Trauma, Language, Literacy and the Global South
A major conference highlight will be the featured keynote address by Suresh Canagarajah. Canagarajah is the Evan Pugh University Professor at Penn State University and internationally renowned scholar of language, literacy, multilingualism, and translingual practice.
His keynote, "Disturbances that Entangle Anomalous Texts: Trauma Literacy in the Global South," will examine how language and literacy shape the ways individuals and communities understand, negotiate, and transform experiences of trauma. Through the conference's theme, he will explore how literacy can enable healing, resilience, and social transformation across diverse global contexts. He will connect questions of language, identity, colonialism, conflict, and community to the ongoing pursuit of more just and humane futures.
The LRA 2026 program will also feature a keynote speech by esteemed professor at Teachers College - Columbia University, Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz.
View a Film: Hip Hop, Literacy and the "Hour of Chaos"
A special conference session, Presidential Session 8, will bring Hip Hop artists, scholars, and activists together for a screening and discussion of a new film. The film, "In the Hour of Chaos: Hip Hop Art & Activism with Public Enemy's Chuck D," features Public Enemy's Chuck D and a corresponding 2026 book.
H. Samy Alim, Samuel Lamontagne, and Tabia Shawel directed the film, which reflects artists, activists, and scholars sharing their thoughts on 50 years of Hip Hop culture. They discuss its ongoing importance in society, culture, and politics.
The session in Honolulu will gather directors Alim, Lamontagne, Shawel, along with Joan Morgan, Jeff Chang, Casey Philip Wong, and Emile YX? from Black Noise. They will have a film screening, discuss the book, and join a panel. They will talk about Black radical movements, Hip Hop feminisms, how culture spreads worldwide, technology, education, and the future of Hip Hop and literacy studies.
Examine Presidential Sessions: Research, Practice, and Community
The LRA 2026 Presidential Sessions will feature leading scholars, educators, artists, and community leaders, addressing some of the most consequential questions facing literacy education today. Across four major areas of inquiry, the LRA 2026 Presidential Sessions will examine how literacy research is responding to a rapidly changing social and technological landscape:
- Transnationalism, immigration, race, and belonging through discussions of transnational, immigration, and Black literacies.
- Community, relationality, and Indigenous knowledge systems, with a focus on multilingual solidarities, Hawaiian literacies, and intergenerational connections.
- Technology, Hip Hop, and educational innovation, examining digital literacies, cultural activism, and adolescent achievement.
- Critical literacy, artificial intelligence, and identity, addressing responsible AI, research-policy-practice partnerships, and community-based approaches to literacy and learning.
"The future of literacy research and of education cannot be shaped by any one discipline, institution, or perspective," Smith said. "It takes researchers, educators, artists, community leaders, and learners coming together to ask different questions and connect ideas across contexts. LRA 2026 is an invitation to do exactly that—and to leave Honolulu with new questions, new partnerships, and new possibilities for flourishing and for the field."
About the Literacy Research Association
The Literacy Research Association (LRA) is a community of scholars, educators, and literacy professionals dedicated to advancing research and disseminating knowledge about literacy, language, communication, and learning. For more than seven decades, LRA has supported research and dialogue that informs literacy scholarship, education, policy, and practice.
Patriann Smith
Email: psmith@literacyresearchassociation.org
Website: https://literacyresearchassociation.org/
Literacy Research Association
Share this article