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Proposals must be received by Sunday, May 3, 2026. All proposals must be submitted electronically through All Academic. This site will officially open March 9, 2026.
The University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) invites you to submit proposals for the 2026 Annual Convention. This year’s theme, “Unity as a Bridge to Freedom: Educational Leadership and the Interdependence of Research, Practice, and Community”, underscores the Convention's location in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where history, activism, and collaboration offer a powerful context for educational leadership.
Pittsburgh’s bridges serve as a metaphor for unity across diverse communities, while the city’s history of labor organizing and collective action reflects enduring struggles for freedom and justice. In that spirit, the 2026 Convention invites educational leaders, researchers, practitioners, and students to consider how research, practice, and community are deeply interdependent in building more just and liberatory educational systems.
We welcome proposals that engage this year’s theme and highlight innovative, critical, and collaborative work in educational leadership. Join us in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 18–21, 2026.
Unity as a Bridge to Freedom: Educational Leadership and the Interdependence of Research, Practice, and Community
The 40th annual UCEA Convention theme underscores the Convention’s location in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In this city, history and landscape epitomize freedom, unity, and interdependence in driving transformative change.
Pittsburgh’s iconic bridges, connecting distinct communities across rivers, runs, and valleys, serve as a metaphor for unity among people with diverse identities and experiences. The city also reflects a powerful history of activism, from labor conflicts in the 1880s to contemporary organizing and long-running strikes.
Today, Pittsburgh also reflects collaborative partnerships and networks among universities, foundations, school districts, museums, libraries, nonprofits, artists, and more. The Convention theme invites us to think deeply about how educational leadership can build bridges across difference and strengthen the relationships among research, practice, and community in pursuit of freedom and justice.
