Kurdish Studies Conference 2026

We warmly invite the submission of papers for the fourth Kurdish Studies Conference organised by LSE and the University of Sheffield at the London School of Economics on Wednesday 29 April – Friday 1 May 2026.

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 welcomes paper submissions with 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. Conference fees information will be released in November 2025. Thanks to generous financial support, a travel fund will be available for applications from students and early career scholars without other sources of funding.

 

Submission Guidelines

• Submissions should be submitted on a single Word document and should include: paper title, relevant keywords, an abstract (maximum 200 words), and a short biography.
  
  
• Please name the document with your surname only.
  
  
• Only one paper may be submitted per person.
  
  
• Panel applications are very welcome and should include four papers.
  
  
• Submissions should be in English. It may be possible to present your paper in Kurdish, although we cannot guarantee this. Please indicate if you wish to present in Kurdish.
  
  
• To apply to the travel fund, please submit this form in the same email as your paper application.

Please submit applications to: Kurdish.Studies@lse.ac.uk

Deadlines

• The deadline for both paper submissions and travel fund applications is 28 November 2025.
  
  
• Notification of paper acceptances will be made by 23 December 2025.
  
  
• Registration will open in November 2025.

Conference Convenors: Zeynep Kaya and Robert Lowe

Conference Manager: Nadine Almanasfi

Advisory Committee: Necla Acik, 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