In focus

• Call for papers|Political studies
  The Enemy Within
  10/07/2026

  In a context of intense polarisation and radicalisation, this event aims to examine how the concept of the ‘enemy within’, though long-standing, has re-emerged with renewed vigour following Donald Trump’s re-election on the one hand and the rise of the far right in the UK on the other. It has now become one of the favourite discursive tools to stigmatise, demonise and marginalise any community or individual that does not fit into the national narrative as shaped by representatives of the US or British far right, thereby contributing to blurring the boundaries between dissent, legitimate opposition and national threat.

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• Call for papers|Language
  Plurilingualism and language education, an invisible pillar of democracy?
  10/10/2026

  Contemporary democracies face political and social crises fueled by discriminatory and xenophobic ideologies that challenge the legitimacy of diversity and the recognition of the other. In this context of growing nationalism (Billig, 1995), this conference proposes to examine, from a critical perspective and in light of recent global events, the role of multilingualism and language education in the construction and preservation of democratic systems. 

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• Call for papers|Sociology
  Fieldwork, Theory, and Reflexive Sociology: Debating Michael Burawoy and the Extended Case Method
  30/06/2026

  This symposium focuses on debating the epistemological and methodological proposals systematized by sociologist Michael Burawoy, in the wake of the Manchester School of Social Anthropology, in the form of the extended case method. This reflexive perspective invites a twofold extension : not only to connect what we directly observe in the field to a broader historical, social, and political context, but also to question (or even challenge) our own theoretical frameworks in order to test them against reality and broaden their heuristic scope.

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• Conference, symposium|Modern
  Critical Theories of Antisemitism
  18/06/2026

  For several decades, critical theories of society have relegated contemporary antisemitism to the margins. Often regarded as “non-systemic” or “residual,” and associated primarily with the past, antisemitism appears to elude the traditional frameworks of social and political critique. In academic research, efforts to connect the study of antisemitism with analyses of other forms of domination and othering remain limited. This international conference aims to move beyond this situation and to fully reintegrate the question of antisemitism into contemporary critical theory.

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• Call for papers|Representation
  Contemporary Art: from Creation to Conservation
  20/08/2026

  Since the 1960s, contemporary works of art, in their very diversity, have differed from preceding creations by the disappearance of formal or material norms presiding over their creation. Conserving this heritage as it is produced poses a cluster of previously unasked questions. These bear on the critical analysis of the work and the understanding of the artistic project ; they enable defining the criteria of authenticity and legitimacy of interventions intending to prolong the works’ existence. This issue’s aim is to bring new light to a field where the problematics are not reduced to mere technical or scientific dimensions, but also explore the doctrinal limits of the discipline.

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• Conference, symposium|History
  Islam in Africa in Question
  05/06/2026

  This international conference has two major objectives. The first aims to revisit and renew historical approaches. Since 2000, notable attempts to synthesize the history of Islam and Muslim societies in Africa include Levtzion & Powell’s History of Islam in Africa and Robinson’s Muslim Societies in African History. One can also point to important case studies on early modern and modern Africa, as well as scholarship documenting and analyzing Africa’s Islamic textual traditions. More recently, many scholars have recognized the need for a greater synthesis that will show the state of the field and the achievements of this now established subfield.

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• Call for papers|Language
  Minority and Minoritized Languages in Artificial Intelligence: Visibility, Representation, and Inclusion
  30/09/2026

  As Artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes how language is processed, generated, and transmitted, a critical disparity is emerging : the vast majority of natural language processing (NLP) systems, large language models (LLMs), and machine translation tools are built around a handful of dominant languages — leaving thousands of languages with little or no digital presence. This asymmetry raises urgent questions about linguistic justice, cultural preservation, and epistemic equity. This special issue of Ikhtilaf, Journal of Critical Humanities and Social Studies seeks to critically examine these dynamics, foster interdisciplinary dialogue, and amplify voices from communities whose languages are at risk of digital — and ultimately cultural — erasure.

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• Call for papers|Geography
  Labor and Agricultural Workers in Morocco: Trajectories, Representations and Empowerment
  10/07/2026

  Since the 2000s, Moroccan workers have been receiving increasing media attention (demonstrations, deteriorating living conditions) while institutional stakeholders are expanding programs to regulate temporary labor mobility between Morocco and Europe. This emergence of agricultural workers, long ignored in public debate and political agendas, coincides with a growing interest in the social sciences regarding the issue of agricultural labor. This conference aims to examine, from a critical perspective, the major trends of agricultural labor that Moroccan workers are experiencing, both locally and in the diaspora. We also want to explore the political and social perceptions of these workers. Moroccan workers are a diverse group and are constantly on the move. 

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• Call for papers|Sociology
  Prisoners' Artefacts, Status and Carceral Authority
  03/07/2026

  This international conference (Université Grenoble Alpes, June 2027) proposes a comparative analysis of artefacts worn by incarcerated people - patches, badges, armbands, uniforms - as material devices of classification and hierarchisation within prisons. Drawing on fieldwork from across all continents, it constitutes the first systematic comparative study of these objects, in order to analyse the diversity of institutional, legal, and material configurations in which they are embedded. The project brings together sociology, anthropology, political science, history, law, and geography, as well as perspectives from academic research and civil society.

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• Call for papers|Sociology
  Taking Account of Concerned People in the Production and Analysis of Gendered Representations of Autism
  08/06/2026

  The conference is dedicated to gendered representations of autism in fiction and aims to broaden the reflection to include international research perspectives, alternative forms of research writing and creation beyond the academic world. It specifically examines how concerned people are considered in the production and analysis of gendered representations of autism in fiction. As such, it is open to proposals that help to decompartmentalize the production of knowledge and representations (experiential narratives, activist knowledge, documentary, artistic or literary creation, etc.).

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• Call for papers|Thought
  The Voice of Things
  01/09/2026

  Of many films one might say what Michel Chion has clearly observed : one need only strip the sound from a sequence of moving images for its perceptual coherence to begin to unravel. Sound participates in the very constitution of the cinematographic image : it sustains its temporality, organises its space, and models its sensible presence.

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• Call for papers|Ethnology, anthropology
  Anarchist anthropologies
  15/06/2026

  This special issue of Condition humaine / Conditions politiques is grounded in a shared observation : for several years now, a body of anthropological research—often described as “anarchist”, though not forming a homogeneous current—has contributed to a common shift in perspective. Speaking of “anarchist anthropologies” is therefore not an attempt to establish a new school or to stabilize a doctrinal definition of anarchism, but rather to open a pluralistic space for discussion around research practices that concretely experiment with forms of non-domination, autonomy, and coexistence.

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• Call for papers|History
  Encounters with Death: Macabre Imagery and Symbolism across the Arts, Texts, and Cultural Traditions
  10/09/2026

  The congress invites scholars to reflect on the representation of death in art, literature, and history from the Middle Ages to the present day. Taking the iconic theme of the Dance of Death as its starting point, contributions may explore both the iconographic and literary traditions associated with it, including the Encounter of the Three Living and the Three Dead, the Triumph of Death, the Ars moriendi, the Memento mori, the Vanitas, and eschatological themes connected with the Last Judgement. Papers may also address funerary monuments and monumental sepulchral art, including gisants, tombs, and cemeteries, as well as the social practices surrounding death, such as funeral rites, the commemoration of the dead, and obituary traditions.

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• Call for papers|Geography
  Mountain Infrastructure and Its Vulnerabilities: Design, Governance and Repurposing
  01/09/2026

  This thematic issue on mountain infrastructure is dedicated to exploring the planned structures and facilities that ensure the long-term accessibility, habitability and economic activity of mountain regions. These infrastructure assets have both a physical and technical materiality (in relation to the practices of the actors who use and/or manage them, and playing a central role in operational issues) and an economic existence (in terms of their management and finance). They therefore need to be approached both through the lens of the sociotechnical and economic systems of which they are a part, and from the perspective of their environmental, political and historical dimensions.

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• Conference, symposium|Language
  Créativité et hétérogénéité langagière dans les pratiques d'écriture du quotidien
  28/04/2026

  Pursuing the dialogue opened by Michel Dabène that helped bring to the fore more than thirty years ago the need to move beyond the dichotomy between “literary writing” and “ordinary writing.” Since writing is a staging of language, writing practices always reflect an “attention, never entirely absent but more or less acute, to the different levels of the elaboration of the written object (materiality, spelling, lexicon, syntax, textual organization) and by a submission, never totally absent but more or less assumed, to the (linguistic and social) norms that govern these different levels”.

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• Call for papers|Representation
  Ageing on Contemporary European Screens: Dialogues Between Film Studies and Cultural Gerontology
  18/05/2026

  What transnational narrative patterns, thematic or iconographic motifs can be identified in European films that portray ageing and age-related subjects ? What role, if any, is played in this by the ‘silvering of stardom’ and ‘the silvering of audiences’ across the European region ? How can these representations be viewed in light of the specific industrial and institutional dynamics that characterise film production in Europe, including supranational funding schemes and co-production agreements ? We will prioritize contributions that focus on films released after 2010 and incorporate transnational or comparative approaches between European countries. 

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• Call for papers|History
  Global Histories of Hair, c.1500-2026
  15/05/2026

  Hyper-present on almost all heads and bodies, hair is a forceful matter of difference. It signals gender, class, sometimes religion or politics – as well as racialised distinction. As such, hair connects and disconnects humans and other species across the globe and throughout history. The conference “Global Histories of Hair” aims to bring together researchers working on hair as a matter of distinction in the early modern and modern worlds. 

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• Call for papers|Modern
  Raul Hilberg, a Historian and his Century
  15/04/2026

  The Destruction of the European Jews (1961) de Raul Hilberg (1926-2007) demeure à ce jour un ouvrage de référence dans la recherche sur la Shoah. L’histoire complexe de sa genèse et de sa réception invite à interroger à la fois le contenu et les formes de l’écriture de l’histoire de la Shoah. Que peut nous apporter la lecture de l’œuvre de Raul Hilberg aujourd’hui ? Dans le cadre d’un colloque international (Paris, 8-10 novembre 2026), il s’agira de réexaminer la trajectoire professionnelle et l’œuvre de Raul Hilberg sous différents angles, d’en évaluer l’impact sur la recherche actuelle et future sur la Shoah ainsi que sur l’historiographie des génocides en général.

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• Call for papers|Language
  Afro-Caribbean Literary Discourse – A Tribute to Professor Roger Toumson
  11/05/2026

  This call for papers is intended as a tribute to the literary history work carried out by Professor Roger Toumson since the publication, in the journal Présence africaine, of his article “La littérature antillaise d'expression française. Problèmes et perspectives.”

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• Call for papers|History
  Fighting Harmfulness
  30/04/2026

  This conference seeks to be a multidisciplinary forum (history, sociology, geography, medicine, anthropology, etc.) devoted to analysing the knowledge, practices, and repertoires of action arising from these mobilisations. It welcomes diverse historical and geographical contexts, especially beyond countries of early industrialisation, to document and map past and present struggles against harmfulness.

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