MISR Graduate Students’ Conference – 2026
Call for Papers
Theme: Reading Wars and Armed Conflicts in Postcolonial Africa
From the late 1950s to the 1970s, only a small number of African states won self-rule through full-scale armed struggle against the colonial state. In many cases, African states achieved independence through negotiated transitions and political pressure. By contrast, the post-independence period has been marked by widespread civil wars (secessionist conflicts, armed resistance, counterinsurgencies), ethnic violence, inter-state and geopolitical proxy wars. Coupled with imperialist aggression on the continent, these armed conflicts have reconfigured states, reshaped identities, disrupted natural and material ecosystems, and reorganised society in fundamental ways. The euphoria of independence in many postcolonial African states has slowly cascaded into numerous tragedies. War, in particular, has been a recurrent reality, devastating populations from the Sahel to Mozambique and beyond.
We invite conference papers based on original empirical fieldwork and archival research that thematically converge at the intersection of politics, histories, cultures, and economies of wars and armed conflicts in Africa. The aim is to broaden our understanding of the past, present, and future of wars and armed conflicts from the postcolonial vantage point of Africa. Moving beyond
the narrow lens of peace and security studies, participants are encouraged to read wars and armed conflicts as multifaceted phenomena, looking at them as interdisciplinary texts, lingering presences embodied by the subjects and objects that survive them, and are thus transformed by them. The conference also focuses on violence and war atrocities in their sociopolitical,
economic, and historical forms, cultural and literary representations, ecological, psychic, and institutional lives and afterlives.
Accordingly, we invite papers on one or more of the following related thematic areas:
1. The politics and history of past, contemporary, or impending wars and armed conflicts in
Africa, including transnational and geopolitical conflicts;
2. The political economy of wars and armed conflicts, including as it relates to migrations,
refugees and IDPs;
3. Cultural representations of wars and armed conflicts in Africa, including literary, artistic, and
oral narratives;
4. Ecological, personal (and psychic), social, and institutional lives and afterlives (and
memories) of wars and armed conflicts in Africa;
5. The question of violence, law and justice concerning wars and armed conflicts in Africa;
6. Ethnic, class, race, gender, sexuality, and generational perspectives in the context of wars and
armed conflicts in Africa;
7. Wars and armed conflicts in the contemporary digital age in Africa: questions of biopower,
technological warfare, artificial intelligence, propaganda war, mass media, and the internet.
We welcome submissions of papers or dissertation chapters (5,000–7,000 words) from advanced graduate students who have completed archival, ethnographic, or other forms of fieldwork and are currently developing their dissertations. Papers may adopt an interdisciplinary approach, drawing especially on the fields of Literary and Cultural Studies, Political Economy, Historical
Studies, and Political Studies.
Successful applicants will have the chance to present their work at the 2026 MISR Graduate Students’ Conference, receive constructive comments from MISR’s faculty, and interact with our wider academic community. Travel and full-board accommodation will be provided for all selected presenters based in the African continent. The conference will be conducted primarily in English.
Important Dates:
a) Deadline for Submission of abstracts (300 words maximum): 29th May 2026
b) Notification of abstract acceptance: 5th June 2026
c) Deadline for full paper/chapter submission: 19 th June 2026
d) Conference Dates: 2-4 July 2026
Please send submissions or questions to the following email: gsc1.misr@gmail.com, misrgraduate@gmail.com and copy communicationatmisr@gmail.com