Kurdish Studies Conference 2026

Conference registration is now open, you can purchase a ticket to attend here.

This interdisciplinary event builds on the conferences held at LSE and Sheffield since 2023 and is organised by the Kurdish Studies Series at the LSE Middle East Centre and the SPIR at the University of Sheffield.

The Kurdish Studies Series encourages dissemination and discussion of new research on Kurdish politics and society and provides a network for scholars, students and all others with related research interests. Over the past seven years, the series has hosted 24 public events and published ten monographs and edited volumes as part of the I.B. Tauris/Bloomsbury Kurdish Studies Series.

The conference will highlight research related to social sciences and humanities disciplinary approaches to any aspect of Kurdish studies. These might include but are not limited to: history; political movements; social movements; gender; political representation; governance; displacement; anthropology; nationalism; ethnography, ecology, political economy; international relations; history; cultural studies; diaspora; security; and religion. The conference seeks to promote, share and celebrate recent research across this growing field and encourage connections between scholars, students, professionals and members of the public.

All speakers will need to pay a conference fee. The fee for students and those not in employment will be heavily subsidised. 

The open call for papers has now closed, we will no longer be accepting paper submissions.

Conference Convenors: Zeynep Kaya and Robert Lowe

Conference Manager: Nadine Almanasfi

Advisory Committee: Necla Acik, Nidal Al Haj Sleiman, Arda Bilgen, Marouf Cabi, Durukan Imrie-Kuzu, Emrah Karakuş, Mostafa Khalili, Kamaran Palani, Hakan Sandal-Wilson, Veli Yadirgi

For any enquiries, please contact: Kurdish.Studies@lse.ac.uk