Second Annual Conference on Spirituality, Religion, and Interactive Technology Design (SPIRITED ‘26)

Conference Description

The SPIRITED Collective is excited to announce the Second Annual Conference on Spirituality, Religion, and Interactive Technology Design (SPIRITED ‘26). Religion and/or spirituality (R/S) are deeply ingrained in everyday life and are an essential aspect of many individuals’ existence. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is progressively engaging in research and design within specific R/S contexts. SPIRITED ‘26 provides an ideal venue to highlight intersections of R/S and HCI design research.

The second edition of our free annual conference will take place virtually and will expand into two half-day (3-hour) sessions on Thursday, November 5th, 2026 (10 AM – 1 PM UTC) and Friday, November 6 (10 AM – 1 PM UTC). This format was selected based on input from the community after a successful and well-attended event in 2025. To increase global accessibility of the event, authors of accepted presentations will be invited to share their preferences on which session to attend, and will have the option to post recordings of their talks on our conference event page. The conference is entirely free, fully online, and open to anyone.

This year, we are also excited to announce that a special issue (journal TBA) accompanying the conference is in the works, with more details to be shared at a later date.

The conference will feature presentations (with ~10-12 minute talks) covering everything from academic research and scientific studies to “Tales from the Field” (or case studies) where practitioners share real-world, in-depth experiences they’ve had with spirituality, religion, and the use of interactive technologies. The conference will also have time for open discussion, networking, and forming collaborations.

Whether you are an HCI researcher, a practitioner or leader in R/S, a spiritual care provider or chaplain, a theologian, an interactive technology designer, a developer, or simply a citizen of planet Earth with an interest in R/S and technology, we welcome you to join us at SPIRITED ‘26! The call for submissions is now open–see below for more details.

Important Dates

Note: All deadlines are at Midnight in the Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time zone. When the deadline falls on day D, the last time to submit is when day D ends in AoE. Check your local time in AoE.

Submission Deadline: Thursday, August 27, 2026
Review Deadline: Thursday, September 24, 2026
Notification of Acceptance: Thursday, October 8, 2026
Camera Ready Deadline: Thursday, October 22, 2026

Registration Deadline: Thursday, October 29, 2026

Virtual Conference Dates: November 5-6, 2026
Session 1: Thursday, November 5: 10 AM – 1 PM UTC
Convenient for Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia (e.g., 11 AM – 2 PM CET, 12 noon – 3 PM SAST, 7-10 PM JST, 9 PM-12 midnight AET)
Session 2: Friday, November 6, 5-8 PM UTC
Convenient for USA, South America, Europe: (e.g., 12:00 Noon – 3 PM EST, 2-5 PM BRT, 6-9 PM CET)

Journal Special Issue (more details will be released at a later date)
Call Opens: Thursday, November 5, 2026
Submission Deadline: Friday, December 11, 2026

Call for Submissions

The Second Annual Conference on Spirituality, Religion, and Interactive Technology Design (SPIRITED ‘26) invites researchers, designers, and practitioners to submit work at the intersection of religion, spirituality, and human-computer interaction. We welcome all HCI researchers, designers, R/S leaders, spiritual care providers/chaplains, theologians, and other practitioners who are interested in considering R/S and technology in their work. Our goal is to exchange ideas, build connections, and nourish our curiosity! Participants of any and all R/S beliefs (including no beliefs) are welcome. As an interfaith group with members who hold diverse religious and spiritual beliefs (including none), SPIRITED prides itself on fostering a safe, inclusive, and welcoming community across diverse backgrounds. (See our Code of Conduct for more information.)

Relevant submissions address questions and issues at the confluence of religion, spirituality, design, and interactive technology. Topics may include, but are not limited to the SPIRITED Collective Design Principles:

Becoming Aware of one’s own and stakeholders’ beliefs and practices, and how these can lead to tensions that influence research and design in R/S contexts.
Addressing Tensions that emerge in R/S research and design, while recognizing that some tensions may be irresolvable.
Recognizing Fluidity as a core feature in the beliefs and practices of individuals and in today’s inter-cultural and inter-religious societies.
Embracing Uncertainty, openness, open-endedness, and ambiguity in designs and the design process in R/S contexts.
Centering the Everyday and reframing (participatory) design beyond formal R/S spaces to focus on the day-to-day R/S practices.
Shifting Perspectives from users to human spiritual beings, and toward more-than-human and longer-than-human lifespans when designing in R/S contexts.
Redefining Outcomes so the design process aims at spiritual development and self-reflection rather than the creation of a product.
Disclosing Our Values so people can make informed decisions about whether (and how) to engage with artifacts or interactive systems.
Reshaping Design by drawing on and incorporating R/S values, rituals, and practices into (participatory) design processes and practices.

*Note: We affirm that there is an enormous and diverse spectrum of R/S beliefs and communities in the world, of which many are experienced as sources of profound meaning, connection, and nourishment. We also acknowledge the reality and lived experiences of religious trauma, manipulation, abuse, cults, and other R/S-related harms. Submissions on these topics are welcome, and should be disclosed and scoped carefully, with content warnings where appropriate.

Important Information for Authors

Those interested in presenting should create a non-anonymized submission.
All submissions must clearly relate to the core themes of the SPIRITED Collective and conference: spirituality, religion, and interactive technology design.
Submissions need not follow a particular template or reference style, but should be professionally polished and internally consistent in formatting and references.
Submissions will be peer-reviewed by program committee members and external reviewers to ensure appropriate quality and fit with the conference’s themes.
At least one author of each accepted submission must register, attend, and present at the conference (virtually). (“Conference Registration” information will be posted below at a later date.)
Submissions must be targeted to one of two submission tracks (see below) and submitted via the link below by the deadline. (“Conference Submission Link” will be posted below at a later date.)

Submission Tracks

For the SPIRITED ‘26 online conference, we invite submissions to two tracks: (1) Extended Abstracts; and (2) Full Papers. (Following the conference, full papers may be recommended for re-submission to a special issue (Journal TBA).)

(Option 1) Extended Abstracts (300-1,000 words, excluding references)
Full papers will receive three peer reviews (one from an internal PC member and two Extended abstracts will receive two peer reviews (one from an internal PC member and one from an external reviewer) to be considered for inclusion in the conference program. Extended abstracts should describe the contents of the proposed 10-12-minute presentation and can take many formats. They may represent small studies, perspective pieces/position papers, artworks, works in progress, or tales from the field/case studies. Examples of expected contributions include:

The initial design of an innovative prototype, ritual, or protocol;
A short or pilot study with analysis;
A perspectives piece or position paper calling attention to tensions in the field or new ideas to provoke conversation;
A theoretical contribution, such as examining how an existing theory might apply to the R/S and interactive technology design space;
An artistic expression that explores the conference’s topics in any media or format, such as a speculative sci-fi short story, a contemplative film, or a painting series;
Adaptations* or presentations of previously published work that is of relevance to the SPIRITED ‘26 audience;
Adaptations* of abstracts related to work currently under review at a different conference or journal (Note that because this may compromise the peer-review process, this is done at the author’s own discretion and risk);
A tale from the field or case study that focuses on a specific instance of an in-depth experience, context, or event and can include practical, reflective, and actionable insights or provocations. (We imagine that chaplains, religious leaders, practitioners, theologians, legislators, or others may be especially interested in submitting tales from the field. The program committee intends to schedule field-targeted sessions that cultivate space for field-relevant discussion.)

*To avoid self-plagiarism, we do not accept identical submissions to prior or concurrent work. Rather, adapted submissions of prior or concurrent work may be more concise summaries, refocused excerpts, or additional, complementary content that was not included in a related publication due to space or scope concerns, but which is of relevance to SPIRITED ‘26.

We welcome participants to include additional artifacts in their presentations, such as artworks, technological artifacts, poetry, etc. With permission from authors, accepted abstracts may be published on the conference website. Abstracts are non-archival, and will not be posted without author permission.

(Option 2) Full Papers (~5,000 – 8,000 words, excluding references)
Full papers will receive three peer reviews (one from an internal PC member and two from external reviewers) to be considered for inclusion in the conference program, as well as to generate feedback and recommendations ahead of potential re-submission to a special issue (journal TBA). Authors should benefit from the initial peer review provided by the conference PC, regardless of the ultimate recommendation to submit (or not submit) to the journal special issue. If authors do receive a recommendation to submit to the special issue, re-submitted papers will still undergo the journal’s regular anonymized peer-review process. (Note: The special issue call will remain open to authors who did not present at SPIRITED ‘26, but without any opportunity for preparatory feedback prior to journal submission.)

Given that full papers may be submitted with the intent of future journal publication, they Conference Registrationshould not report on previously published or archived work and must be original. Expected full paper contributions include (but are not limited to):

In-depth design and evaluation with human participants of an innovative prototype, ritual, or protocol;
A methodologically rigorous and complete scientific study, experiment, or review;
A novel theoretical contribution or framework related to the R/S and interactive technology design space.
A curated collection of case studies or design motifs, including rigorous analysis.

Submission Template
A formatting template is provided below as a starting point, but it is not mandatory. Authors are welcome to use a different format if it better suits their work — for example, for artistic, disciplinary, or professional reasons. Submissions may be prepared in any of the following formats:

Journal Special Issue

More details on a special issue (journal TBA) will be added here at a later date.

Policy on Use of Artificial Intelligence

View the full ACM policy on authorship and peer reviewing in relation to Generative AI here: https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/new-acm-policy-on-authorship. Above and beyond this formally stated policy, we kindly request that all authors respect the time of volunteer PC members and reviewers. Use of Generative AI is not prohibited, however authors should use Generative AI only if it is in a conscientious manner that does not replace substantive human effort and critical thought, and which is considerate of climate costs. Submissions may be rejected due to inclusion of hallucinated references or due to suspicion or evidence of low-effort, purely AI-generated work. As humans, we acknowledge that we are imperfect in detecting AI, and we are willing to discuss potential misperceptions. However we do want to set the normative expectation—now and moving forward—that the SPIRITED Collective values and centers the uniqueness and beauty of human spirit, soul, essence, life force, consciousness, or any other terminology that resonates with you. We hope to cultivate a space that is truly about meaningful quality, not quantity. If you have questions about your intended AI use, send an email to spirited.hci@gmail.com with the subject line: “Question on intended AI use.”

Conference Submission Link

A conference submission link will be added here at a later date.

Conference Registration

The conference is free for presenters and attendees. It will be hosted on Zoom, and participants will have access to a Discord channel for informal discussions with other attendees.

A registration form will be added here at a later date.

Please direct any questions about this CfP to spirited.hci@gmail.com. We will respond as soon as possible!

Conference Organizers

General Chairs
Estelle Smith, PhD, Colorado School of Mines
Sara Wolf, PhD, University of Würzburg

Program Committee Chairs
Amanda Hughes, PhD, Brigham Young University
Marco Dehnert, PhD, University of Arkansas
Teresa K. O’Leary, PhD, Yale School of Public Health
Shadi Nourriz, Colorado School of Mines
Xiaran (Sarah) Song, Aalto Universi
Alex Schapiro, Atlantic Health

Technical and Online Experience Chairs
Sarah Cooney, PhD, Villanova University
Varka Carter, Colorado School of Mines
Swapnika Dulam, Pennsylvania State University

Communications and Outreach Chairs
Alexa N. Smith, Virginia Tech
Jigna Chaudhary, University of Colorado Denver
Darrell D. Robinson, M.Div., Emory University

Conference Proceedings Chair
Jean C. S. Rosa, PhD, University of Sergipe & University Centre Maurício de Nassau

Accessibility Chair
Elizabeth Buie, PhD, Independent Researcher