CFP: Algorithmic Bias, Phallicism & Counter-Insurgency: Understanding the Racialized Male Target

Algorithmic Bias, Phallicism & Counter-Insurgency: Understanding the Racialized Male Target

Hosted by the Clay-Gilmore Institute for Philosophy, Technology, and Counterinsurgency (CG-IPTC) in collaboration with the Algorithmic Bias Project in Canada & Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto

Workshop (in-person & online): Summer 2026

Conference (University of Toronto): Winter 2027

Edited Anthology (same title): 2027–2028

Overview

The Clay-Gilmore Institute for Philosophy, Technology, and Counterinsurgency (CG-IPTC), in collaboration with the Centre for Ethics at the University of Toronto, invites abstract submissions for an interdisciplinary workshop and subsequent international conference addressing how racism is being reproduced through AI and how AI technologies can be located within the long history of slavery and colonization.

This initiative situates algorithms, data infrastructures, and AI-enabled systems of surveillance within longer genealogies of colonial militarism, genocide, racial capitalism, and counterinsurgency doctrine. We are especially interested in work that theorizes and historicizes the racialized male body as a primary site of technological targeting, focusing on how Black and racialized men have been repeatedly constructed as objects of risk, control, expendability, and elimination across colonial, military, and data-driven regimes. This project develops what we call the technologization of counterinsurgency: the translation of racialized fear, militarized governance, and tactical logics into algorithmic systems of prediction, classification, and surveillance.

We seek 10–12 contributors whose work will form the basis of:

• a Summer 2026 in-person workshop

• a Winter 2027 conference at the University of Toronto

• an edited anthology by the same title

Core Themes – Submissions should engage one or more of the following themes:

Algorithmic Targeting and the Racialization of Risk

Phallicism, Gendercide, and the Political Construction of the “Dangerous Male”

Counterinsurgency Logics in Contemporary AI Systems

Genocide Studies and Slow Violence: From Camps to Code

Necro-Being, Social Death, and Digital Ontologies of the Racialized Male

Militarized Data and the War Origins of Artificial Intelligence

Mapping the Racialized Body: Computer Vision and the Politics of Recognition

Statistical Objects and the Colonial Invention of Populations

Philosophy of Technology and the Myth of Neutral Systems

Predictive Policing, “Pre-Crime,” and Temporal Violence

Resistance, Refusal, and Counter-Surveillance Practices

Art, Visualization, and the Algorithmic Imagination

We particularly encourage work that:

• Connects AI technologies to colonial, genocidal, and military histories

• Engages Black Male Studies, Africana philosophy, Black Power thought, and especially Phallicism

• Analyzes facial recognition, predictive policing, gang databases, drone warfare, biometric surveillance, risk modeling, or “pattern-of-life” technologies

• Employs philosophical, historical, ethnographic, legal, technical, artistic, or data-driven methods

Submissions may be traditional academic papers or include creative, visual, or experimental components.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit the following materials by April 15, 2026:

• Abstract (300–500 words)

• Short bio (max 150 words)

• Institutional affiliation (if any)

• Contact information

Send submissions to: [email protected]

Subject line: Algorithmic Bias/CG-IPTC CFP – [Your Last Name]

We strongly encourage submissions from:

• Early-career researchers

• Black, Indigenous, and racialized scholars

• Scholars from the Global South

• Independent researchers and artists

• Community, abolitionist, and activist practitioners

Limited travel support will be available for selected participants when possible.

Timeline

Abstract deadline: April 15, 2026

Decisions announced: May 15, 2026

Workshop (selected participants): July 2026

Full paper drafts due: December 2026

Conference: March 2027 (University of Toronto)

Final revised papers due: May 2027

Edited anthology publication: 2027–2028

About the Hosts

The Clay-Gilmore Institute for Philosophy, Technology, and Counterinsurgency (CG-IPTC) is an independent research institute dedicated to examining the connections between of artificial intelligence, liberal humanism, racialization, and militarized state power. Through philosophical inquiry, historical analysis, and data-driven research, it investigates the technological infrastructures that govern life, death, and social control. Website: https://www.cg-iptc.org

The Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto is a leading interdisciplinary research center engaged in critical inquiry into emerging technologies, governance, and public life. It supports innovative scholarship at the intersection of ethics, science, and society.

Together, this collaboration responds to the urgent need to interrogate the role of AI in the reproduction of racialized violence, population control, and the management of life and death in the contemporary world. Website: https://algorithmicbias.ca