Call for Papers

The Stoke Sessions 2.0: A Conference on the Culture, History, Science and Politics of Surfing and Skateboarding
October 9-12, 2025 @ San Diego State University
Featured keynote speakers: TBA

Scholars from all backgrounds and disciplines – including but not limited to the humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, sports studies, Indigenous studies, cultural studies, ethnic studies, American studies, etc. - are invited to join us in a comprehensive examination of surfing, skateboarding, and their offshoots, including snowboarding, windsurfing, etc. We also welcome graduate and undergraduate students, writers, journalists, artists, community activists, professional as well as casual surfers and skateboarders to join us in a celebration of, and critical reflection upon, the culture, history, science and politics of surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding and other action sports.

Topics for consideration include, but are not limited to:

• The History of the Relationship between Surfing and Skateboarding
• The Cultural Politics of Surfing and/or Skateboarding
• The Science of Surfing/Skateboarding
• Indigeneity in Surfing and Skateboarding
• Sport or Lifestyle?
• BIPOC Participation in surfing, skateboarding and other lifestyle sports
• The Question of Skateboarding and Surfing in the Olympics
• The Political Economy of Surfing and/or Skateboarding
• Constructing and Deconstructing Identities: Race, Class and Gender in Surfing and/or Skateboarding
• Embodiment in Roll and Flow: The Experience/Phenomenology of Surfing and/or Skateboarding
• The Production of Social Space in Skateboarding Cultures
• Surfing and/or Skateboarding Sexualities
• Sustainability, Environmentalism, and Coastal Access and Protection
• Ecologically Friendly Product Development and Manufacturing
• Skateboarding/Surfing and social movements
• Adaptive Surfing and Skating
• The Body in Surfing/Skateboarding
• Sustainable Surf Tourism
• Skateboarding and the Urban Form
• Surfing and the Labor/Leisure Question
• Skate Parks and Wave Pools
• The Question Concerning Technology in Surfing/Skateboarding
• Nature, the Sublime and Surfing
• The Relationship between Surfing/Skateboarding and the Nation State
• Surfing and/or Skateboarding on Film
• Surf/Skate journalism
• Surf/Skate photography
• Surfing and/or Skateboarding in Music

If you are interested in presenting a paper, a poster, an art project or organizing a panel, please submit a 300-word abstract by July 15, 2025 through the form link below. For panels, please also include a title for the panel and the list of panelists.

Submission Form

As in conferences past, we will consider select papers for publication, either in edited volumes, or in our journal, Board Cultures: The International Journal of Surfing and Skateboarding Studies. For examples of edited volumes based upon papers delivered at our past conferences, please see Roll and Flow and Waves of Belonging. 

For questions about the conference or the SSSC, contact us at: [email protected].