POPFEST: Calling all postgraduate students!
It is with great pleasure that the PopFest organising committee cordially invites you to the Annual Postgraduate Population Studies Conference, affectionately referred to as 'PopFest'. This 30th conference edition is held in collaboration with the British Society for Population Studies and Keble College.
The conference takes place on the 18th–19th of August 2026 at Keble College, University of Oxford. The conference themes are diverse and we encourage submissions from all areas of demography and beyond such as geography, sociology, economics, and politics. The working language of the conference is English.
We are excited to announce that Professor Melinda Mills and Dr Morten Kjær Thomsen will be giving keynote talks.
Professor Melinda Mills (MBE FBA FAcSS) is Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science and Nuffield Professor of Demography at the University of Oxford. Her research combines social science and genetic approaches to study behavioural outcomes, with a focus on fertility, chronotype, nonstandard and precarious employment, and assortative mating. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she served as a scientific adviser to the UK Government's SAGE group and the Royal Society's SET-C advisory group. She has been awarded over £25 million in research grants and has published 7 books and over 100 articles across leading journals in demography, genetics, and the social sciences.
Dr Morten Kjær Thomsen is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Sociology and the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, University of Oxford, and a Non-Stipendiary Research Fellow at Nuffield College. His research centres on queer populations and the sociology of gender, sex, and sexuality, with a particular focus on how these factors shape life trajectories and outcomes in health, the justice system, and the labour market. He is Principal Investigator of QUEERVICT, a research project exploring the intersection of crime victimisation and queer identity using population-wide data, supported by the Danish Victims Fund and the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science.
If you are interested in participating, please submit your details and a short abstract via the submission form before 31st May 2026 (only two submissions per first, presenting author are allowed). You can submit your work as an oral presentation or a poster in our dedicated poster session. The poster presentation also includes a 2–3-minute lightning talk. You will be informed about acceptance week beginning 8th June 2026.
SUBMIT HERE: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc25ktGglCCuqR9BkbL1MtzUTJbjAROfoJL9knQKM2sEZq_Vw/viewform?usp=header
Themes
1. Ageing Populations and Intergenerational Relations
This strand welcomes submissions exploring the multifaceted dimensions of population ageing and the relationships between generations. We invite papers on topics including mental and physical health in later life, financial security, social engagement, care provision, and employment among older adults. Research examining how inequalities accumulate across the life course, and how early-life circumstances shape outcomes in later life, is particularly encouraged. We also welcome work on intergenerational dynamics, including geographical proximity of families, kinship networks, and the flow of support between generations. Submissions may address policy responses to ageing populations at local, national, or international levels, and comparative or cross-national perspectives are warmly invited. Papers using any methodological approach are welcome.
2. Computational Demography and Data Science
This strand invites contributions that push the boundaries of how population science is conducted, communicated, and critiqued. We welcome research employing novel data sources, including digital trace data, administrative records, and remotely sensed data, alongside emerging methods such as machine learning, natural language processing, and geospatial analysis. Equally, we encourage critical and reflective work that interrogates the limitations of existing data infrastructures, examines algorithmic bias and representation, and considers the ethical dimensions of data-driven demography. Submissions exploring how demographic evidence and uncertainty are produced and communicated in an age of AI are also of interest. Any substantive area of population science is in scope, provided the contribution engages meaningfully with novel data, methods, or their critique.
3. Critical Demography, Life Course Events and Human Capital
This strand creates space for work that challenges, interrogates, and reimagines how demography is practised and understood. We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions that trouble dominant assumptions in population studies, engage critically with data collection and classification, or bring fresh conceptual frameworks to bear on demographic questions. Alongside this critical orientation, the strand invites research on life course events and human capital — including education, employment, social mobility, and the long shadow of early-life experience on adult outcomes. Papers that sit at the intersection of demography and politics, examining how demographic narratives are constructed and contested, are also welcome, as are historical and comparative perspectives.
4. Ethnicity, Migration and Migrant Populations
This strand invites contributions on migration, mobility, and the lives of ethnic minority populations across a broad range of contexts. We welcome research on the causes and consequences of both internal and international migration, the settlement and integration experiences of migrants, and outcomes across the life course including health, employment, family formation, and mortality. Papers on the experiences of second and subsequent generations, on ethnic minority communities more broadly, and on the spatial dimensions of migration — including segregation, neighbourhood change, and regional inequality — are all encouraged. The strand is committed to methodological pluralism and welcomes quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods work, as well as comparative and cross-national perspectives.
5. Global Health, Mortality and Wellbeing
This strand invites papers engaging with population health, mortality, and wellbeing from a broad and international perspective. We welcome substantive and methodological contributions across a wide range of topics, including trends in adult health and health behaviours, social and structural determinants of health, mental health and wellbeing, disability, women's health across the life course, and inequalities in health and survival within and between populations. Work focused on low- and middle-income countries is particularly encouraged, as are submissions that take long-run or comparative perspectives on health inequalities. Papers using biosocial, interdisciplinary, or innovative methodological approaches are also welcome. Contributions from early-career researchers and postgraduate students are especially warmly received.
6. Spatial Issues, Environment and Sustainability
This strand welcomes research at the intersection of population dynamics, place, environment, and sustainability. We invite submissions exploring how environmental factors, including climate change, pollution, and natural disasters, shape demographic outcomes such as mortality, health, fertility, and migration, as well as work examining how population change in turn affects the environment. Papers on housing, homelessness, displacement, and neighbourhood change are also encouraged, alongside research on the spatial sorting effects of migration and the structural forces that drive them. We welcome diverse methodological approaches, including geospatial and computational methods, and are particularly interested in work that connects demographic processes to broader questions of environmental justice and sustainable futures.
7. Sexuality and Queer Demography
This strand invites papers examining how sexuality, across identity, attraction, behaviour, and partnership contexts, shapes demographic outcomes, including but not limited to fertility, mortality, and migration. We welcome research on intersections with sex and gender, life course dynamics, health, and inequality, and encourage submissions on sexuality across all identities and contexts, including LGBTQIA+ populations and experiences. Work exploring the structural and policy environments that shape the lives of queer populations across different national and cultural settings is also warmly invited, as is methodological work on measuring sexuality in demographic surveys and administrative data. Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods submissions at any stage of development are welcome.
8. Posters / Flash Session Strand Conveners: PopFest Organising Committee
Poster and flash talk submissions are invited across the full spectrum of population studies and demography. Researchers are encouraged to present results from completed studies or ongoing work not yet at the results stage, the latter being particularly well-suited to this format. Presenters may also submit a poster or flash talk abstract in addition to an oral submission. During the dedicated session, presenters are expected to be available to discuss their work with attendees. Submissions from early-career researchers and postgraduate students are especially encouraged, and a poster prize will be awarded.
Registration
The registration fee for the conference is tiered. Day rates excluding accommodation, for both days £228.00 for non-members, and £190.00 for members. Accommodation (in college) is £105.00 per night. Meals and light snacks are included throughout the duration of the conference.
We are pleased to announce that we have a number of registration fee bursaries which you can apply for using the submission form. Further accommodation bursaries may become available subject to conditions.
You can join BSPS at https://www.lse.ac.uk/international-development/research/british-society-for-population-studies/how-to-join
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at popfest2026@gmail.com
We are looking forward to seeing you in Oxford!
Ellen Falkingham
E.V.Falkingham@sms.ed.ac.uk
Michaela Nudo
nudom@tcd.ie
Kevin Wang
PopFest 2026 Organising Committee
Students
Ellie Falkingham and Michaela Nudo are the BSPS postgraduate student representatives. Ellie is a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh and Michaela is a PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin. They attend BSPS council meetings to represent the views of BSPS student members, and can be reached at e.v.falkingham@sms.ed.ac.uk and nudom@tcd.ie for any students wanting to discuss BSPS matters.
To any students studying population related topics (yes, you!), join BSPS! With your membership, you can:
Present your work at the annual BSPS conference, with the support of student member's bursaries from the organisation.
Get involved with the ‘Postgrad only’ conference, PopFest. The annual conference is a friendly environment to present and receive feedback from your peers.
Engage socially and professionally with a community of young researchers, and find out more about funding and career opportunities.
If you have any questions, thoughts or ideas, please contact Ellie at e.v.falkingham@sms.ed.ac.uk or Michaela at nudom@tcd.ie !