The 3rd International Conference on Furry Studies
Location: Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia / Online Streaming
Date: July 2027, Wed-Thurs before Aurawra 2027

Theme: Feeling the ‘fur’

The furry community, once an Internet subculture with roots in animation and comics (Strike 2017), has seen individuals gain visibility in mainstream consciousness. For example, the consecutive esports champion player, SonicFox, asserts their nonbinary, Black and Asian, furry, and gay identity on social media, using these platforms to delegitimise hate (Wagner 2024). The acumen required to have healthy discussions under hyper-attention in the public eye is tricky to attain, as furries are often readily dismissed by society standards as “cringe”, unworthy of critical discussion on self-expression and acceptance (Wolf 2024). 

In scholarship, furry can be understood as a “flexible and self-defined identity term” that signals a person’s participation in the furry community (Zaman and Anderson-Nathe 2025, 2). Furries here is used as an umbrella term that encompasses people who engage in imaginary anthropomorphic acts of creation and self-expression, as well as fans of other furries and their imaginations. Popular media depict furries with photos of fursuiters, or people wearing fursuits, often referred to by laypeople as mascot costumes. Fursuits have been described as “works of craftsmanship, typically made out of a foam base or resin with fur sewn atop it—designed to approximate the visage of an animal” (Esther 2025). Though studies show that most furries do not own a full or partial suit (Plante et al. 2023), their definitions are by no means singular nor fixed (Mount 2024). That is to say, definitions of furry continue to evolve as communities shift alongside complex fandom tendencies, hold space for individual expressions, and offer collective creative possibility.

Much academic research has been carried out by furries themselves interested in doing community-based projects. Specifically, FurScience has in the past focused on furry convention attendees in the United States (Plante et al. 2023). They have since begun to do research in international conventions like Eurofurence and Japan Meeting of Furries. More work is needed to centre furry communities both online and offline in Central and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. One example is the kemono communities that grew from Japanese roots, different from the North American cartoon animation scene, and have a distinct culture from western furry understandings (Inokuchi et al. 2024).

Outside researchers entering furry spaces tend to conflate furry communities as if it were a cohesive, singular community, overlooking the fact that each country, city, and neighbourhood has its own flavour of furry. To be clear, researching furries by non-furs is welcome, and anyone interested in furry culture can undertake rigorous academic inquiry and creative practice alongside furries. However, there is yet insufficient research that can effectively equip scholars to discuss furry. We argue that the internal terminologies, sociologies, technologies, and “significant emotional investment and deep personal feelings” (Freeman and Acena 2022, 9) from the furry community requires more than existing established methodologies, but methodologies that synthesise research analysis with one’s positionality and relationship to the furry community, taking into account “how furry ecologies are never just furry” (yerf 2020).

Call for Proposals

As organisers of the 3rd International Conference on Furry Studies, we call for new research that creatively engages with furry culture and community. Recalling that the theme of the first year asked, “What does it mean to be furry?”, and the second year focused on furry worldbuilding on the global stage, this third iteration of Furry Studies asks, “How do furries use fursuits, fursonas, and the feeling of ‘fur’ to navigate identity, belonging, and collective creativity?”

This call for proposals aims to shine a light on greater understanding of fursuits, fursonas (portmanteau of furry-personas) and other concepts specific or adjacent to furry. This includes research on therians and otherkins, though we recognise that they are distinct identities from furry with overlapping communities. Below are some topics to ground your thinking. This list is by no means exhaustive, and we encourage proposals that go beyond these suggestions:  

• Furry and identity: furry for self-expression and identity, furry as a cultural category that identifies a person who participates in furry spaces, and the exploration of difference.
• Co-creation of fursonas and furry works: social creation and evolution of fursonas, collaboration among furry creators, and the co-development of creative furry works in visual art, music, film, games, writing, and more.
• Fursuit feelings: theoretical and affective knowledge generated through making, wearing, acting, and interacting with, fursuits and their accessories.
• Gender, sexuality, and fursona species: exploration of the self, and issues in intersectional regulatory boundaries, working towards social and self acceptance, and the affirmative practices within furry communities.
• Furry representation: analysis and critique of popular depictions of individual furries and furry groups in media, fandom, and global cultures. 
• Furry technologies: inventions and reappropriations of materials and tools that can become an extension of the body for exploring furry expressions.
• Furry cultures: studies of furry practices within specific regions in relation to international communities, recognising that furry communities vary greatly from country to country, and city to city.
• Sex, kink, and furries: adult aspects, erotic pleasure and felt feelings in furry culture situated within wider societal contexts.
• Queer, trans, and furry: putting furry in conversation with queer studies and trans studies toward the development of new research methods for furry studies, with an ear turned to the precarity of existing within a cis/heteronormative society.
• Furry and fan culture: consumption of wider popular cultural media, production of furry-made fan fiction and media, and their economic interactions.
• Furry and the state: researching political movements and narratives that attempt to target furry and its impact on individual furries and the larger furry community.
• Race and racism in furry: critiques of racial narratives (or the perceived lack thereof) in furry spaces, media, and critical discussions, and strategies for inclusion, equity, and solidarity.
• Furry spaces and events: understanding how furry spaces, such as furry convention hotels, room parties, raves, and furmeets, have shaped culture throughout time.

Furry Studies seeks to hold space for inclusive values and welcomes researchers and students at all stages of careers as well as independent scholars. We also encourage submissions from non-academic furries and welcome creative presentation formats such as photographic, audio, and video accounts.

The conference welcomes both in-person and remote presentations.

What we’re looking for

We categorise submissions into two types: 1) academic papers and 2) community talks. Submissions should use the template provided. As scholars ourselves, we recognise the issue with categorisation and welcome submissions that push these boundaries.

If you have any supplementary audio/visual files, you may host them elsewhere and share links directly in the document. Authors are responsible for hosting supplementary files for peer review.

Download Proposal Template

Submit a Proposal

Academic papers

Academic papers are research presentations. Submissions should describe:

• the research background context
• motivation
• aim
• method
• overview of findings
• initial analyses
• expected contributions
• list of references
• and a brief author biography 

Academic papers are expected to be in conversation with prior literature and provide a list of references. Submissions must be new and have not been previously published elsewhere. 

Creative practitioners with a research-oriented practice are encouraged to submit to this category.

Furry Studies is an interdisciplinary conference and welcomes authors’ home discipline citation style of choice, as long as they are consistent. Submissions must be at least 500 words and be no longer than 1000 words excluding references and author biographies. Panel submissions are welcome in the form of academic papers and should include a list of presenters and their presentation topics in brief.

Community talks

Community talk submissions should describe:

• the topic
• a brief background
• main points of discussion
• what the audience will take away
• and a brief author biography

Community talks are in-depth presentations about furry culture, history, and communities, and not research or creative practice in nature. Past presenters include Moms of Furries and Furries at Berkeley. 

Furs who have experience in organising and producing furry community events, and have “furry knowledge” to share in an academic format are encouraged to submit to this category.

A good community talk is one that generates further questions and conversations throughout the Furry Studies conference and the communities beyond. Submissions must be at least 300 words and be no longer than 1000 words. References are optional.

Submission deadline

8 January 2027

All submissions will be put through a single-blind peer review process, meaning the submissions are not anonymised, with at least one reviewer from the furry studies community. You will be notified of the panel’s decision on 5 February 2027. 

Furry Studies welcome submissions from artists, musicians, filmmakers, writers, and technologists and more forms of creative practice. If you’d like to speak to your practice in an academic setting, use either category that suits you the most.

For questions related to the call for proposals, please contact the Conference Chair, Dr Xavier Ho / Spaxe Austral, at xavier.ho@monash.edu.

General enquiries to Furry Studies and its activities can be made to the Furry Studies Board at hello@furrystudies.org.

Frequently asked questions

When are the exact dates for Furry Studies 2027? 
Furry Studies will coincide with one of Australia’s major furcons, Aurawra, aiming on the Wednesday and Thursday before the convention around July 2027. When the official dates are announced, we will update the call for proposals, our website, and social media.

I’m new to furry research, and I’m not sure which category my submission fits in?
We plan on hosting a proposal workshop at a later date which will include resources and writing best practices, and an opportunity to ask questions to Furry Studies. Stay tuned for updates on https://furrystudies.org.

I have event ideas that I’d like to pitch, but it doesn’t fit either of the two submission categories?
Please email your idea to hello@furrystudies.org. As an academic conference run by furries for furries, we are always looking for ways to include folks. Please note that as a not-for-profit research organisation, we are unable to accept event ideas that are primarily commercial in nature.

My research is by creative practice and includes more than oral presentations. How do I submit?
Furry Studies welcomes non-traditional forms of research, which includes time-based media, live performance, interactive exhibition, and experimental works that may be interesting to attendees of furry studies. Please submit your work via the same template and include any technical requirements for your presentation.

I’m not a researcher. How can I help out Furry Studies?
Follow us on Bluesky, YouTube, and Telegram for when registration opens.

I’ve read this far and I still don’t understand what Furry Studies is?
Take a look at our 2025 full conference recording on YouTube.

References

Esther, Alec. 2025. “Brushing Up Against Species: Transgender Feminist Worldbuilding through Fursuit Practices.” Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Furry Studies, 19.

Freeman, Guo, and Dane Acena. 2022. “‘Acting Out’ Queer Identity: The Embodied Visibility in Social Virtual Reality.” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 6 (CSCW2): 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1145/3555153.

Inokuchi, Tomohiro, Yunfan Mao, and Midoriko Hayashi. 2024. “The Past and the Present of the Fandom in East Asia: Cases of Japan and China.” Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Furry Studies, 14–15.

Mount, Reuben. 2024. “I Bark, Therefore I Am: The Creation of the Fursona and Its Representation of Identity in the Furry Fandom.” Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Furry Studies, 10–11.

Plante, Courtney, Stephen Reysen, and Sharon Roberts. 2023. Furscience: A Decade of Psychological Research on the Furry Fandom.

Strike, Joe. 2017. Furry Nation. Cleis Press.

Wagner, Travis L. 2024. “‘FUCK THIS CHARACTER I’M JUST GOING TO GET STRONGER’: SonicFox’s Hypermediation of Blackness and Queerness as Radical Archival Embodiment.” In Queer and Femme Gazes in AfroAsian American Visual Culture, edited by Rebecca Kumar and Seulghee Lee. Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-67698-7_5.

Wolf, Chipper. 2024. “Furry History As Media Literacy.” Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Furry Studies, 25.

yerf. 2020. “On Furry: Technology, Subjectivity, and Narratives.” https://yerfology.wordpress.com/.

Zaman, Hazel A., and Ben Anderson-Nathe. 2025. “A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Exploration of Fursona Embodiment by TGE Youth of Color.” International Journal of LGBTQ+ Youth Studies, September 25, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/29968992.2025.2564982.