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Call for Papers for the 3rd SOS4Democracy Conference: “Resilience, Resistance, Renewal: Rethinking Democratic Politics in Times of War and Emergency

Venue: Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey

Dates: 24 – 26 June 2026

Abstract submission deadline: 15 February 2026

Call for papers

We invite you to submit an abstract to our third annual conference, “Resilience, Resistance, Renewal: Rethinking Democratic Politics in Times of War and Emergency”.

Themes:

While scholars disagree on whether the current moment constitutes a global wave of autocratization, there is little doubt that democratic politics is undergoing one of its deepest crises in decades. Across regions, states are experiencing democratic erosion, illiberal turns, and, in some cases, full-scale democratic breakdowns. The proliferation of new forms of securitization, criminalization, and emergency governance across democracies, visible in the repression of pro-Palestine protests, labor and feminist struggles, climate activism, migrants, and other vulnerable groups, as well as assaults on university autonomy and academic freedoms, reveals that this crisis puts into question the long-established assumptions about the strength and consolidation of democratic politics. They also show that the current crisis of democracy is deeply entangled with multiple global emergencies: the genocide in Gaza, the war in Ukraine, the climate crisis, inequalities and contradictions of global capitalism, and a rapidly escalating landscape of geopolitical rivalry, militarization, and deteriorating international law. A critical dimension of these transformations lies in the ambivalent role of law. Legal frameworks and institutions have increasingly become instruments for producing, legitimizing, and normalizing autocratization through emergency decrees, constitutional change, and the weaponization of legality. Strong states have exploited the cracks in the international legal architecture or blatantly disregarded it to wage wars and anti-minority violence with virtual impunity. Yet, law also remains a site of contestation and resistance, mobilized by civil society, opposition parties, and transnational actors to challenge authoritarian encroachments, defend fundamental rights, struggle for justice and peace, and envision new democratic horizons.

This conference seeks to explore how democracy can be sustained, reimagined, and renewed amid these overlapping crises, authoritarian assaults, and resurging international violence. What forms of democratic resilience and resistance are emerging in response to these challenges and what are their possibilities as geopolitical interestes marginalize democratic norms and human rights in international politics more than ever? Which actors, institutions, and conditions foster resilience and enable resistance and what role law plays in these processes? How can these efforts be channelled into a politics of democratic renewal and transformation? What role do collective memories of war, repression, struggle, and liberation play in shaping new democratic imaginaries? And how might global solidarity and international institutions contribute to defending democracy amid the breakdown of international law and human rights in the wake of Gaza, Ukraine, and beyond?

We invite contributions from across disciplines and regions that address these and other questions through empirical, theoretical, and historical perspectives. Possible themes include:

  • Autocratization, democratic backsliding, and the uses of emergency rule
  • Law’s role in enabling and constraining authoritarian power
  • Democracy under remilitarization and geopolitical competition: war, security, and global power realignments
  • Repression, securitization, and criminalization of dissent
  • Democratic resistance and civil mobilization across regime types
  • Actors, institutions, and mechanisms of democratic resilience
  • Role of opposition parties and electoral alliances in resisting and reversing autocratization
  • Subnational politics of democratization and autocratization
  • International law and human rights politics after Gaza
  • Memory politics and the legacies of violence in shaping democratic imaginaries
  • Universities under authoritarian assault
  • Illiberalism, populism, and polarization
  • Global capitalism, oligarchization, and democratic erosion
  • New visions of democratic politics beyond the liberal framework

The conference welcomes researchers from social sciences and humanities, practitioners, activists, students, and others engaged in research and advocacy on the rule of law, human rights, and fundamental freedoms in contemporary democracies.

Venue & accessibility:

The conference will take place over three full days from 24 to 26 June 2026 at the Boğaziçi University, Istanbul. This will be an entirely in-person meeting with no option for virtual attendance or presentation.

General guidelines for abstract submissions:

  1. For individual paper presentations, submissions to the conference should include an abstract of a maximum of 300 words (please state the name of the author(s), the title, the objectives, the research question, methodology, and results).
  2. Submissions should also include a short biography (maximum 100 words) of the author(s) of the paper.
  3. Please submit your abstract and short biography by 15 February 2026 to the e-mail address [email protected] (please use “Call for abstracts – SOS4democracy conference” as the subject line of your e-mail).
  4. Abstracts (and papers) must relate to the conference’s general themes. All abstracts (and papers) must be in English.
  5. All submissions will be peer-reviewed. Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis with notifications sent out regularly. Applicants will be notified about the acceptance of abstracts by 1 April 2026 at the latest. Should you not receive a notification by this day, please contact us as soon as possible at [email protected]
  6. The final program of the conference will be available by 1 June 2026. 

There will be no registration fee for participating at the conference.

The organizers of the conference cannot provide any funding for travel and accommodation.

If you have any questions about the conference, please do not hesitate to contact us at this e-mail address: [email protected]

Scientific committee:

  • Vasja Badalič, Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law, Slovenia
  • Gašper Završnik, Delo Media house, Slovenia
  • Matija Žgur, Roma Tre University, Italy
  • Damir Banović, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Darko Brkan, Citizens Association Why not?, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Elisa Orlando, Libera Associazioni, nomi e numeri contro le mafie, Italy
  • Deniz Erkmen, Ozyegin University, Turkey
  • Lior Volinz, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
  • Mert Arslanalp, Bogaziçi Universitesi, Turkey
  • Saygun Gökarıksel, Boğaziçi University, Turkey
  • Edgar Sar, Istanbul Political Research Institute, Turkey