2026 Work and Family Researchers Network Conference

Work and Family Researchers Network next conference will be June 17-20, 2026 at Concordia University in Montreal Canada.  The WFRN will host preconference events on June 17, including Predoctoral Workshops and Early Career Fellowship Workshops.  Information on applying to participate in preconference events is presented below. The main conference of presentations and plenaries will take place June 18-20.

Concordia University is located at 1450 Guy Street Montreal, Quebec Canada.  Registration is in the John Molson School of Business (JMSB) also known as the “MB building”.

The 2026 conference theme is Centering Care Across the Life Course.

Care is foundational to human well-being and to the functioning of our workplaces, families, and societies, yet it remains chronically undervalued. The 2026 WFRN Conference theme “Centering Care across the Life Course,” will explore how we can place care at the core of work, family, and policy conversation, ensuring that care and caregiving responsibilities are supported equitably.

This theme emphasizes care not only as caregiving responsibilities (for children, elders, and others with needs across the life course), but also as relational labor that sustains healthy families, workplaces, and communities. Whether expressed through care work in families, professional care work, informal caregiving, or relationship-building at work, care deeply shapes individual trajectories and well-being, workplace experiences, and organizational cultures.

Achieving a care-centered society requires both structural reforms and cultural shifts, ensuring policies reflect the needs of diverse caregivers while also building public and political support for care as a shared societal responsibility. This conference invites scholars, practitioners, policymakers, journalists and other stakeholders to explore solutions that prioritize care, in all its forms.