Call for Papers: BISA 2027 Annual Conference

The theme of this year’s conference is Fragmenting Orders, Shared Futures: Global Politics in Turbulent Times. This theme provides an important opportunity to examine the role of religion and faith in shaping contemporary international politics, particularly amid geopolitical transformations, intensifying conflicts, changing global power relations, and debates over identity, sovereignty, and international order.

The Religion and International Politics Working Group (RIPWG) seeks to advance interdisciplinary scholarship on the complex relationships between religion, politics, and international affairs. We welcome theoretically innovative, empirically grounded, and methodologically diverse contributions that explore how religious beliefs, practices, institutions, movements, and discourses are shaped by international and global political dynamics.

We welcome proposals on a broad range of topics, including, but not limited to:

. Religion and foreign policy decision-making, diplomacy, and international negotiations

. The role of religious actors and institutions in global governance

. Religion, nationalism, populism, and the construction of political identities

. Religious nationalism, sectarianism, and geopolitical competition

. Religion, great-power politics, and transformations in the international order

. The politicisation and instrumentalisation of religion by states and non-state actors

. Religion, human rights, international law, and global justice

. Religion, migration, diaspora politics, and transnational movements

. Religious soft power, public diplomacy, and cultural relations

. Secularism, secularisation, and secular approaches to international relations

. Comparative and historical approaches to religion and international politics

We particularly encourage contributions that engage critically with the conference theme, develop innovative theoretical approaches, explore under-researched empirical cases, and bring novel perspectives from different geographical regions and intellectual traditions into conversation.

Submission formats

BISA 2027 welcomes three types of submissions:

Individual papers            : Submit an individual research paper for consideration within the Religion and International Politics Working Group.

Panels                                  : We particularly welcome proposals for panels bringing together papers around a shared theme, research question, or theoretical debate.

Roundtables                      : We also encourage roundtable proposals that facilitate critical discussion of emerging debates, methodological challenges, policy developments, or future research agendas.

We welcome submissions from scholars at all career stages, including postgraduate researchers, early-career researchers, and established academics. We also encourage international and interdisciplinary collaboration and diverse panels in terms of gender, career stage, institutional affiliation, geographical expertise, and methodological approach.

How to submit

Please submit your proposal through the official BISA 2027 conference submission system:

https://conference.bisa.ac.uk/

When submitting your proposal, please select Religion and International Politics as your Working Group/track.

Submission deadline: 6 November 2026, 11:59 pm UK time.

We warmly invite scholars to submit individual paper proposals, as well as proposals for panels and roundtables. Researchers interested in convening a panel but seeking to connect with colleagues working on related themes are encouraged to contact us. We would be pleased to facilitate scholarly connections and foster collaborative submissions wherever possible.

We look forward to convening a diverse community of scholars to advance scholarly dialogue and critical inquiry into the relationship between religion and international politics at BISA 2027.

Please feel free to circulate this call to colleagues and researchers who may be interested in contributing.

With best wishes,

Conveners

Dr Çağlar Ezikoğlu, University of Wolverhampton

Dr Eyüp Ersoy, University of Oxford

Religion and International Politics Working Group (RIPWG)
British International Studies Association (BISA)

Working Group Webpage   : https://www.bisa.ac.uk/members/working-groups/rip
Contact                                  : rip.group@bisa.ac.uk