The organisers are pleased to announce the University of East Anglia’s School of Politics, Philosophy, and Area Studies and School of Media, Languages and Communication PGR Conference. Taking place in person on the 6th of June 2025, our theme this year is ‘Reimagined Futures: Humanities in Flux’.
About the event:
The theme for this year’s PGR Conference, Reimagined Futures: Humanities in Flux, invites participants to critically engage with the role of the humanities in a world characterised by constant change, and how transdisciplinary approaches to humanities research can fortify this discussion. As we navigate a period shaped by democratic challenges, international conflict, and the far-reaching implications of technological, social, and political transformations, this conference will provide a space to interrogate the relevance and adaptability of the humanities in times of challenges. These pressing realities are critical and of vital concern as our disciplines interchangeably adapt in continuous flux. In this state of perpetual change, we must engage critically and meaningfully with these dilemmas in the public sphere. By fostering robust discourse, the humanities and their intersection with other disciplines can help us better negotiate and understand the reimagined futures of our time's evolving cultural, social, and political landscape.
With transdisciplinarity as a focus, we welcome contributions across the humanities, social sciences, and the cross-disciplinary intersections between these fields and those beyond (e.g. medicine, natural sciences, law). We particularly encourage critical reflection on the following:
- Emerging Technologies and Digital Culture: How innovations such as Artificial Intelligence and Digital Media are reshaping the human experience.
- Environmental Change: The role of the humanities in communicating and addressing climate change, sustainability, and ecological uncertainty.
- Political and Economic Realities: The impact of global financial shifts, governmental policies, and political discourse on public life, and how these in turn shape cultural narratives.
- Health and Wellbeing: The challenges of communicating health crises and the evolving interchange between medical science, public discourse, and cultural representation.
- Educational Transformation: Reimagining the role of education in fostering critical thinking and academic freedom amid new digital and ethical challenges.
We welcome abstracts applying quantitative or qualitative methodologies such as experimental, diverse discourse/rhetorical analysis methods, content analysis, case studies, and research based on ethnographic techniques. We are also happy to receive contributions that are still a work in progress.
How to submit a proposal:
Interested researchers are invited to submit max. 300-400 words paper proposals for a 15-minute presentation that approaches these themes from theoretical, practical, and/or empirical perspectives by the 31st of March 2025 to ueapgr2025@gmail.com. Participants will be informed about our decision by the 25th of April 2025.
We aim to provide a safe and friendly environment for developing and refining our ideas regarding these and other relevant topics. Each panel will benefit from an academic respondent, who you can send draft papers or presentations to in advance. The UEA campus has extensive accessibility provisions; however, please let us know via the email address above if you have any accessibility requirements so we can do our best to accommodate them. Lunch and refreshments will be provided during the event.
Organising Committee
Anna Titov, Jack Barton, Jamie Underwood, Simon Skitch, Roseanne Hurst
More information: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1251683923309