The British Sociological Association

While we welcome any topic or methodology, we are specifically seeking papers that engage with one of the following three approaches:

1. Phenomenological approaches: Work that draws on insights from phenomenology to think through the structures and meaning of experience as they appear to the first-person perspective. This could include research that engages with questions of perception, emotions, embodiment, or memory.
2. Feminist and Queer Theory: Work that utilises "the personal is political" or "situated knowledges" to disrupt heteronormative and patriarchal epistemologies. This includes work on intersectionality, affect, and the body.
3. Activist Scholarship: Research born from social movements, community organising, or resistance. We seek papers that theorise from and with the grassroots, prioritising the co-production of knowledge over detached academic theorisation. Methodological interventions are also welcome.

The workshop is designed to be a generative, collaborative environment focused on the development of your work-in-progress:

Discussants: Each paper will be assigned to a discussant and circulated among workshop participants ahead of time. On the day of the workshop, participants will have a chance to briefly present their topic and challenges (3-5 minutes each). An established scholar will then provide feedback on each paper, followed by a group discussion. Each participant will be required to read the papers of the participants in their group before the workshop.

Keynote panel: The workshop will feature a facilitated talk with our discussants. We will announce the established scholars serving as workshop discussants soon.

We invite abstracts for working papers or dissertation chapters from ECRs across the social sciences. Please send us an abstract of 300-350 words and a short, 100-word bio that indicates your current status (e.g. PhD candidate, recent graduate) by 10 June 2026.

Please also include which of the three streams (Phenomenology, Feminist/Queer Theory, or Activist Scholarship) you feel your paper best aligns with, if any. We are open to all topics and methodologies.

Full draft submissions for successful applicants will have a deadline of 1 September 2026 to leave participants and discussants enough time to read and comment on the submitted drafts. We do not expect the full drafts to be final versions, but they should be works-in-progress of 5000-8000 words that are easily readable with a clear structure, argument, and methods/methodology section.