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Call for Papers: Critical Studies on Terrorism Annual Conference (Online)

Contemporary Issues in Critical Terrorism Studies 

9 September 2025

The world is on fire! Political activism, protest, dissent, and political opposition are among the responses to a world that is plagued by war, famine, genocide, climate change and the global rise of fascism. The framing, manipulation, and instrumentalization of the label ‘terrorism’ plays a central role in efforts to silence and criminalise such activism and dissent. Various practices of surveillance, control, and punishment are constantly refined and globalised and contribute to a growing and global counter-terrorism apparatus that becomes ever more far-reaching, pervasive, and normalised. This year’s annual conference invites papers focused on these and other contemporary issues relevant to the critical study of terrorism.
 

We especially encourage papers addressing the following themes:

  • The politics of proscription
  • Activism, resistance, and protest
  • Genocide, surveillance, and structural violence
  • Critical methodologies and ethical challenges in studying (counter-)terrorism
  • Militarism and militarisation
  • Race, Coloniality, and the everyday

We especially encourage submissions from MA students, PGRs, and early-career researchers, scholars from the Global South, and those working at the intersections of academia and activism

We welcome submissions in the following formats:

  • Research papers
  • Panels (should be 4 papers ideally with a chair and/or discussant proposed)
  • Roundtables
  • Doctoral project presentations
  • Other creative engagements (send us a proposal with details)

Please send your abstract (no more than 200 words) to cst.group@bisa.ac.uk by 5pm on 30 July 2025.