The conference will convene scholars, practitioners, policymakers, artists, families of the disappeared, and advocacy organisations to explore the socio-political, cultural, and economic dimensions of disappearance. A wide range of contributions are welcome from all regions and disciplines.
Formats can include academic papers, roundtable proposals, artistic works, and policy-oriented discussions that engage with the following themes:
- Disappearances as a Human Rights Violation
- State Responsibility for Disappearances by Non-State Actors
- Legal frameworks: Domestic regimes, International Humanitarian Law, and International Human Rights Law;
- Forensic techniques in the search for the disappeared;
- Transitional justice and victims’ rights to justice, truth, and reparation;
- Historical and contemporary perspectives on disappearances;
- Psychological, social, and political impacts of disappearances;
- International solidarity, activism, and resistance;
- Gender and feminist perspectives;
- Emerging dynamics of disappearance;
- Technologies of disappearance;
- Artistic and philosophical approaches to understanding disappearances.
Join this conference in shaping the discourse on disappearance studies and contributing to the collective search for justice, truth, and memory.
Submission Deadline: March 20, 2026
Please submit a proposal of up to 300 words with a working title of up to 25 words to incore@ulster.ac.uk
This event will be in-person. A limited number of scholarships (£800 each) will be offered to early-career scholars from the Global South to cover part of the attendance costs.
To learn more about the conference, you can read the attached pdf document below.