NAAFA at the 9th Annual Weight Stigma Conference
Image description: Five NAAFA attendees stand together in front of a large projection screen that shows the Weight Stigma Conference hybrid conference webpage. All attendees are wearing face masks and looking toward the camera.
The 9th Annual International Weight Stigma Conference was held in Denver, Colorado and online on June 28-29, 2023. This annual conference is an interdisciplinary event that brings together scholars and practitioners from a range of backgrounds (e.g., public health, government and public policy, psychology, medicine, sociology, anthropology, allied health professions, education, sports and exercise science, social sciences, media studies, business, law, activism, and the lay public) to consider research, policy, rhetoric, and practice around the issue of weight stigma. The conference was founded by researcher Angela Meadows, who currently organizes it annually with a crew of volunteer support.
The conference is hosted in different cities around the globe every year. This is the first year that the conference was fully hybrid, with delegates and presenters joining online as well as in person for all sessions. Delegates appreciated that the conference was offered in both online and in-person formats for maximum accessibility for all delegates. This allowed for a diversity of presenters and perspectives, including those from distant locations for whom travel to Denver was not feasible. The in-person conference was a wonderful opportunity to network with researchers, scholars, activists, and policy experts from around the world. One highlight was meeting Ratna Devi, a fat activist based in Malaysia, who was this year's recipient of the Cat Pausé Memorial Travel Bursary, which supports conference participation by activists and scholars from the Global South. (Click here to contribute to the fund for next year.)
NAAFA's delegation consisted of board members Dawn Clark, Tamra Dozier-Garland, Tegan Lecheler, and Elaine Lee. NAAFA's new Executive Director, Tigress Osborn delivered a rousing keynote address on "What's the Solution? Size Inclusion! Building a successful nationwide campaign for fat legal rights in the USA." Dr. Joy Cox's opening keynote on the future of fat liberation, and Shilo George's closing keynote address on body sovereignty and building bridges of care provided reflective bookends that incorporated their respective personal experiences in fat liberation and body sovereignty into their insights on the impacts of weight stigma on society.
Having attended the 8th International Weight Stigma Conference in Berlin last year, I loved meeting new and old friends who are joined together in the fight against weight stigma. It was also wonderful to see the conference thriving in its new hybrid format, and to be reminded, once again, that we have many brilliant, dedicated comrades committed to fighting for fat liberation around the world.