In focus

• Conference, symposium|Language
  Créativité et hétérogénéité langagière dans les pratiques d'écriture du quotidien
  27/04/2026

  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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• Call for papers|Ethnology, anthropology
  Deafnesses and Musical Experiences
  15/04/2026

  Over the past several decades, a growing body of scientific research, artistic practices, and cultural initiatives related to music has sought to explore new perceptual dimensions of the art of sound, grounded in a multisensory experience, encouraging a redefinition of its conventional understanding as an art primarily situated within the audible realm. In this context, the relationship between musics and deafnesses – expressed in the plural to encompass the diverse categorizations and realities – reveals a particularly rich and dynamic field of research and artistic experimentation.

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• Call for papers|Modern
  Our brother Dante
  15/04/2026

  Nell’ambito del progetto Dante World Writer ? (université de Lorraine, in collaborazione con le università di Strasburgo, Bologna e Verona) la giornata di studi Our brother Dante (Verona, 28 ottobre 2026) si interesserà al rimodellamento dell’immagine di Dante all’interno delle letterature mondiali (lontano dall’Italia), che compensa la distanza geografica con un avvicinamento se non un’annessione storica. Il Dante ‘fratello’ è una variante del Dante pop : implica lo sguardo destoricizzato del postmoderno, ma si situa all’interno del campo letterario e contribuisce a ridefinirlo, poiché solo un ‘certo tipo’ di letteratura si presta ad accogliere questo Dante ‘aggiornato’.

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• Call for papers|Language
  Sharing Strangeness
  13/03/2026

  The study day Sharing Strangeness seeks to explore imaginary languages created within works of fiction (film, literature, television series, video games, etc.). Still relatively under-researched, these languages constitute linguistic, aesthetic, and cultural objects in their own right. Used to build fictional worlds, represent otherness, support narrative development, or foster audience engagement, they deserve closer scholarly attention. The event will welcome a wide range of contributions, from linguistic and semiotic analyses to reflections on the creation, reception, and social use of these languages.

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• Call for papers|Epistemology and methodology
  Field practices and epistemological issues, Palestine and Jordan
  04/06/2026

  The workshop aims to combine reflections on the ongoing development of Palestinian studies with the recent revival of work on Jordan, in order to examine Jordan's role as a privileged observation point for Palestine, a question that has been relatively unexplored until now. Through three main axes — archives and primary sources preserved in Jordan that enable the study of Palestine, the cross-border circulation of people and knowledge, and intersecting cultural scenes through the notions of identity and authenticity, this workshop aims to lay the groundwork for a transnational and multidisciplinary reflection on Jordan's place in the production of knowledge on Palestine. 

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• Call for papers|Sociology
  Le travail im/mobile : circulations, dépendance et droits des travailleuses et travailleurs subalternes
  01/09/2026

  This special issue of Sociologie du travail examines how subaltern workers are affected by im/mobility, understood as the multiple spatio-temporal assemblages that simultaneously constrain and delimit their movement and mobility practices. The aim is to rethink work as the product of a tension between the mobilisation of labour, the restriction of workers’ movements, and the agency of workers themselves. Mobility and its corollary, immobility, are thus conceived as a battlefield on which logics of coercion, control, mobilisation, and engagement confront and are reconfigured alongside the aspirations to autonomy of the most vulnerable workers.

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• Call for papers|Geography
  The Social Life of Names and Naming Practices in the Context of Migration
  01/03/2026

  Names are not mere labels but powerful tools through which people assert identity, are categorised, and negotiate relationships with states, institutions and communities. Whether they refer to people, places or businesses, names do things : they index belonging and difference, tell stories, record histories of mobility and settlement, and mediate social interaction. This topical collection uses names and naming practices to trace the reconfigurations that accompany migration.

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• Call for papers|History
  Minority Uses of the Past and Dynamics of Power in the Americas (19th–21st Centuries)
  15/04/2026

  This conference follows on from an initial meeting, which focused on the forms of uses of the past, to examine the consequences of these uses and their results, both on national history and on minorities, as well as on disciplines and their methods. Researchers from different disciplines are invited to reflect on the same subjects from the perspective of their methods: anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, historians, specialists in literary studies, cultural studies, art historians, and linguists. The following four themes may guide proposals for papers.

   

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• Call for papers|History
  The Nature of Anarchism
  30/03/2026

  This multidisciplinary conference aims to explore the relations between anarchism(s) and ecology(ies) from the 19th century to the present day. It seeks to fill a historiographical blind spot by examining the richness of anarchist ‘environmental reflexivity’, from precursors such as Kropotkin and Reclus to their contemporary reconfigurations. Anarchism's historical rejection of centralised power structures and the productivism of the ‘machine age’ makes it one of the political traditions most in tune with current ecological imperatives. By revisiting these affinities and tensions, the conference will offer new insights into understanding social movements fighting for environmental justice.

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• Summer School|Representation
  Cultivating one’s own garden, expanding horizons
  08/06/2026

  The Seine has shaped the history of the Impressionist movement, which, in turn, left a lasting mark on the land. The research framework of this programme places the focus on this influential geographical backdrop, as part of a broader reflection on our regions. Housing traditions, ways of life, social structures, land uses, and the impact of agricultural and industrial development on the landscape are just some of the lines of research that require further study about Impressionism. This summer school aims to open up new perspectives through cross-disciplinary collaboration while experimenting with scales of analysis, to reflect on the experience of land from the most personal to the most universal.

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• Call for papers|Sociology
  Development Seen from Africa: Perceptions, Management, and the Challenge of “Better Living”
  15/07/2026

  Ce numéro de la revue Daftari za Ngūgī (ex-Nouvelles Dynamiques Africaines) invite à une rupture épistémique avec les mesures occidentales du développement (IDH). Contre la vision d’une Afrique pathologisée par les classements internationaux, cet appel sollicite des enquêtes empiriques rigoureuses explorant le « développement par le bas » : économie informelle, solidarités villageoises et définitions endogènes du « vivre-mieux ».

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• Summer School|Middle Ages
  Rereading, (re)emergence, appropriation: What is to be done with the art of the past?
  25/01/2026

  The writings of art historians, like the works of art themselves, are a place of emergence, return, and incessant reinterpretation. This dialogue between periods at the heart of both artistic creation and the narrative of our discipline will be the subject of the 2026 edition of the Ecole de Printemps. Proposals for papers could present case studies, where a work or body of work quotes, repeats, adopts, or readapts earlier images, objects, or monuments. They might analyse historiographical reinterpretations by considering them as transhistorical interventions and reappropriations – whether textual, visual or museum-based.

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• Scholarship, prize and job offer|Ethnology, anthropology
  Intimate Colonies: Family Memories of Colonial Africa in Belgium and Switzerland - Postdoctoral fellowship in Brussels
  15/01/2026

  Le projet Intimate Colonies (IC) place la dimension intime et familiale de la question coloniale au cœur de son analyse, dans le but d’apporter des éclairages originaux sur les significations et les enjeux des héritages et des mémoires coloniales dans les sociétés européennes contemporaines. Le projet se distingue des travaux existants en réunissant, au sein d’un même cadre analytique, les mémoires coloniales des familles issues des sociétés colonisées et de celles associées aux sociétés colonisatrices, reflétant ainsi la réalité multiculturelle des sociétés européennes partagées par ces populations, plutôt que d’aborder un seul versant de ce système relationnel.

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• Call for papers|Africa
  Savoirs endogènes, territoires et durabilité
  30/03/2026

  Dans un contexte mondial caractérisé par la convergence de crises écologiques, sociales, sécuritaires et épistémiques, les territoires africains se trouvent confrontés à des choix déterminants quant à leurs trajectoires de développement et leurs modes de gouvernance. La valorisation et la réappropriation de ces savoirs endogènes s’imposent donc comme une réponse stratégique à ces défis, en offrant des alternatives ancrées dans les réalités locales et porteuses d’innovations adaptées.

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• Call for papers|History
  Lost in Translation: Historical Perspectives on Language and Student Mobility from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century 
  20/01/2026

  This workshop, held at the University of Geneva on 16 June 2026, aims to foster reflection on the languages of student mobility from the nineteenth century to the present, through a historical perspective that has so far been little explored. In order to launch a historical reflection while remaining open to interdisciplinarity, the event will examine the tools and methods of language learning, as well as the actors involved in it, the learning environments, and the diplomatic stakes tied to the language of study.

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