Conferences, Symposiums, and Assemblies - Oh, my!

Jun 29

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By Tigress Osborn, Executive Director of NAAFA

If you’ve ever seen me on a Zoom, in a room, or on the road and thought, “Wow! NAAFA is everywhere these days,” thank you for noticing! Event participation has been a huge part of my work at NAAFA, first as Board Chair, and now as Executive Director. NAAFA remains committed to hosting and supporting virtual and hybrid events because they offer important accessibility in so many ways, for so many people in our community. But we also cover a lot of ground (literally!) as we work toward our mission to change perceptions of fat and to end size discrimination, so you’ll increasingly see me and other NAAFA teams members in real life, too!

Conferences, symposiums, and other such gatherings get a lot of my time because they give me the opportunity to connect with many people at once, and they put NAAFA in front of bigger audiences. Sometimes this looks like attending fat-specific events, like Philly Fat Con last fall or Fat Con in January. Other times, I’m going to national meetings that are not focused on fat people at all. Sometimes it’s because there is value-alignment with the organizers or with the event themes. For example, I’ve presented for thrice at the Impact Conference, which brings together college student activists who are committed to social justice causes, first with former board member Tegan Lechler, and more recently with current board member Francisca Moreno. Sometimes I’m going into less-friendly territory, such as last year’s Ob*sity and Diabetes Symposium by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. I’m invited by committed planners who want to challenge their participants, but the participants are not always as open-minded as the hosts.

There are lots of reasons that conference et al. get a lot of time on my calendar, but it’s especially joyful when the reason is “that’s where some of the best fat thinkers will be!” And, ooooweee, did I get to surround myself with some incredible fat thinkers in the last few weeks. (Of course, thanks to Team NAAFA, I always get to surround myself with incredible fat thinkers!). In the span of nine weeks, I joined six gatherings of fat folks and dedicated allies/accomplices, presenting at three of them and attending the others as an active participant (and fangirl!).

The season started with the American Pop Culture Association’s annual conference, where Dr. Lesleigh Owen has organized the Fat Studies Area of the conference for many years. I traveled to Atlanta to present examples of where NAAFA has shown up in television over the years, in news media, talk shows, game shows, cartoons, and even crime dramas. (If you’re a pop culture geek but not a PCA member, never fear. I’ll host a virtual version of this presentation in the next few months for NAAFA nerds!) From Atlanta, I headed to Boston, where I was honored to be a last-minute addition to the Tufts symposium organized by scholar Sara Berry Pierce. I drove from Boston to New York to settle some affairs with NAAFA Founder Bill Fabrey’s loved ones, then continued further upstate to Ithaca, where iconic fat activist Barbara Altman Bruno organized Speaking Truth to Power About Weight at her alma mater, Cornell University. At both Tufts and Cornell, I gave an overview of NAAFA’s role in fat rights over the last 5 (almost 6!) decades, including updates about size discrimination law and other public policy pursuits under the Campaign for Size Freedom.

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As April wound down, I was able to shift into participant mode for the next few events, attending both the AWSIM Scientific Assembly and the 12th Annual International Weight Stigma Conference online from my home in Arizona. Between the two, I traveled with our International Intern, Ieva Miltina, to the University of California Santa Barbara, where we joined seasoned and up-and-coming Fat Studies scholars in discussing the particular challenges fat people face in this highly Ozempicy moment in time.

It is an honor, a privilege, and a pleasure to represent NAAFA at so many events. Whether I’m there as an advocate, a teacher, a speaker, or just another fatty being with the fatties, it is incredible to share space with seasoned fat activists, budding fat liberationists, researchers and scholars, artists and leaders, and everyone in between. Creating and contributing to spaces where everyone shares a fat-inclusive vision of the future is an important part of NAAFA’s strategic priority of supporting fat leadership and strengthening fat community. No other organization in the world can show up in any space bringing 57 years of fat rights experience and expertise. We should be wherever we can be, to lead and, just as importantly, to learn. My own 18+ years of individual experience creating fat-positive events, programs, and curriculum is hopefully additive whenever I’m the face of NAAFA in any setting.

My next conference will be the BIPOC Eating Disorders Conference, July 16-18. I’ll be presenting the closing keynote on the subject of Fat Liberation as an Intersectional Social Justice Priority. I’ll also be attending and hosting smaller local events in Iowa, New Mexico, Arizona, and California this summer. NAAFA Board members are planning many summer pop-ups at local events, too! And, of course, you can expect to see plenty of NAAFA online in August for Fat Liberation Month. Stay tuned for more details as events are confirmed.

Editor’s Note: NAAFA is able to send Tigress and other NAAFA leaders to local, national, and international gatherings through a combination of resources provided by those events and support from our generous donor community. Make a one-time donation to NAAFA or become one of our Passionate Ongoing Donors today at naafa.org/give. Got airline miles or hotel points you’ll never use? Use our contact form to tell us about travel resources you’d like to donate, and one of our team members will be in touch!

Spring 2026 Fat Community Gatherings

Pop Culture Association - Fat Studies Area (April 8-11, Atlanta, GA) Fat Studies panels organized by Dr. Lesleigh Owen
Body Language: Rewriting the Gendered Body through Embodied Knowledge, Accessibility, and Fat Resistance! (April 10-11, Tufts University, Medford, MA) Symposium organized by Sarah Berry Pierce and Tufts Women’s Center
Speaking Truth to Power About Weight (April 24, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY) Symposium organized by Barbara Altman Bruno and Cornell Human Ecology Department
AWSIM Annual Scientific & Member Assembly (May 8, virtual) Assembly organized by the Associtation for Weight and Size-Inclusive Medicine
Riots Not Diets: Fat Studies in the Age of Ozempic (May 14-15, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA) symposium organized by Dr. Caleb Luna and UCSB Center for Feminist Futures
International Weight Stigma Conference(June 13-14, Oslo, Norway and virtual) Conference organized by Dr. Angela Meadows