Organizer: Plattform Global Encounters / College of Fellows, Universität Tübingen
Funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) and the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German Federal and State Governments
Postcode: 72070
Location: Tübingen
Country: Deutschland
Takes place: In person
Dates: 04.02.2026 - 06.02.2026
Deadline: 20.09.2025
The Global Encounters Research Focus Group is excited to announce the Call for Abstracts for the upcoming “Politics of Division: Legal and Knowledge Regimes,” taking place 4-6 February 2026 at the University of Tübingen. This conference invites submissions that engage with the theme "Politics of Division", fostering critical dialogue across disciplines.
The Politics of Division: Legal and Knowledge Regimes
The politics of division exploit existing or newly created social divisions and cleavages, deploying them as mechanisms to consolidate power and maintain the status quo. Contemporary states and their attendant legal and knowledge regimes are a key marker of these politics of division.
Examples include the changing varieties of ethnonationalism, which are based on notions of exclusive citizenship that dehumanize and denigrate certain racial, religious, and national groups. Similarly, gender and sexuality politics have become sites of intensified hostility, everyday policing, and legal repression. These strategies of division are neither new nor specific to any geographical region. At the same time, a series of overlapping crises exacerbate and fuel these movements: climate change, the migration crisis, the intrusive state, neoliberalism, and the rise of right-wing populism.
Efforts to understand these challenges have been trivialised. In recent years, both ends of the political spectrum have engaged in the production of forms of knowledge suited to political ends and the university has been forced to negotiate curriculums and policies due to external pressures, calling into question its role as a space for critical inquiry and free discussion. The knowledge circulated within online filter bubbles is reshaping the real world, and the effects created in the process overwhelm the facts.
We are interested in exploring how legal regimes institutionalize norms and authorize forms of governance, while knowledge regimes legitimize these norms by producing, circulating, and privileging particular epistemologies over others. Together, they shape the boundaries of what is considered lawful, rational, and politically possible. This conference seeks to interrogate the interplay between law, policy, and knowledge as well as to understand how they are invoked and mediated, gain appeal within a particular population, and evolve in terms of their ideological sophistication, and representations.
We invite proposals for 20-minute papers that consider the following or related themes. Early career scholars are especially encouraged to apply.
- Politics of History and Epistemic Violence
- Political Mobilizations
- The Rhetoric of the Right-wing Populism
- Competing historical narratives and selective invocations of the past, idealism, and nostalgia
- Rulership and sovereignty, political borders, and human movement
- Modern social problems, public policy/environmental justice, great replacement theory, and xenophobia
- Methods of resistance and restorative approaches
Submission Guidelines: Abstracts should be a maximum of 250 words in English. Include a short academic bio with author, current affiliation, and contact details.
Limited travel funds may be available for those who lack institutional support. Participants who need partial funding should submit a travel budget.
Deadline for Submission: 20 September
Selected participants will be notified in early October
Please submit your abstract via mail: global-encounters@uni-tuebingen.de
For inquiries, contact: global-encounters@uni-tuebingen.de
Join us at “The Politics of Division: Legal and Knowledge Regimes” for an inspiring ex-change of ideas. Selected papers will be solicited as part of an edited volume or special journal issue.
We look forward to receiving your submissions!
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