From improving the UK’s mental wellbeing to re-evaluating the rise and fall of the Inca Empire: The British Academy announces its 2025-26 Conference programme

Tackling mental wellbeing in the UK and exploring new data about empire in the Andes are among the wide range of topics in the British Academy’s new 2025-26 conferences programme.

Held at the British Academy in London and in venues across the UK, the conferences bring together academics from across the globe to discuss and debate new humanities and social sciences research.

Conferences are a place for students, scholars and specialists to expand their networks and learn about the latest developments in their field. The 2025-26 programme features 16 conferences, with funding from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and from Wellcome for conferences which focus on health and wellbeing.

Full details and booking for each conference will be made available on the British Academy website. Applications for the 2026-27 Conferences are now open.

Professor Lindsay Farmer FBA, the British Academy’s Vice-President for Publishing and Conferences, said:

“Our 2025-26 conference programme is a testament to the British Academy’s dedication to nurturing innovative interdisciplinary research tackling some of today’s most pressing issues. Next year, there is a remarkable breadth of topics, from the UK’s health and wellbeing landscape to new interdisciplinary perspectives on migrant experiences in the Global South.

“By bringing together scholars from all over the world, our conferences highlight the power of SHAPE subjects to illuminate challenges that resonate far beyond academia. With many courses and departments facing an uncertain future due to the financial instability within higher education, we are proud to be playing a role in supporting an ever-expanding network of institutions and connecting people and ideas across the UK and beyond."

The full list of British Academy 2025-26 conferences is: 

• Social practice theory and public health: microbes, bodies and environments
  June 2025
  Lead Convener: Elizabeth Shove, Cecily Maller and Simon Cohn
  Funded by Wellcome. Held at Mary Ward House, London
  
  
• The Global Baroque: European material culture between conquest, trade and mission, 1600–1750
  July 2025
  Lead Convener: Adam Sammut
  Funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Held at Humanities Research Centre, York
  
  
• Sound, Nature and Wellbeing in Ageing
  September 2025
  Lead Convener: Abigail Gardner
  Funded by Wellcome. Held at the University of Gloucester
  
  
• Mental health in context: research, policy and practice 
  July 2025
  Lead Convener: Joanne McLean
  Funded by Wellcome. Held at the British Academy
  
  
• Deconstructing the Inca: multidisciplinary approaches to empire in the Andes
  September 2025
  Lead Convener: Frank Michel Meddens
  Funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Held at the University of Reading
  
  
• Achebe Redivivus  
  July 2025
  Lead Convener: Terri Ochiagha
  Funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Held at All Souls College, University of Oxford
  
  
• Conceptualising Environment(s): continuity and change  
  November 2025
  Lead Convener: Christina Malathouni/Ranald Lawrence
  Funded by Wellcome. Held at the University of Liverpool
  
  
• Climate, health and faith - understanding science, building trust  
  October 2025
  Lead Convener: Shahid Jameel
  Funded by Wellcome. Held at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
  
  
• The Migrant Body: Embodied experiences and bodily strategies in South-South migration  
  Autumn 2025
  Lead Convener: Tanja Bastia
  Funded by Wellcome. Held at the University of Manchester
  
  
• Risk Uncertainty and Decision 
  June 2025
  Lead Convener: Horst Zank
  Funded by Wellcome. Held at the University of Manchester
  
  
• Building a Sustainable Future: Integrating Climate Action, Financial Stability, and Transition Financing
  June 2025
  Lead Convener: Mohammed Alshaleel
  Funded by Wellcome. Held at the University of Essex
  
  
• The Ethics of Health Communication
  June 2025
  Lead Convener: Ben Davies
  Funded by Wellcome. Held at the British Academy
  
  
• Religious, Ethnic and Professional Groups in the Abbasid Caliphate, 750-1000
  May 2025
  Lead Convener: Bogdan-Gabriel Draghici
  Funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Held at Trinity College, Cambridge
  
  
• Comparative Literature and Decoloniality
  September 2025
  Lead Convener: Mohamed-Salah Omri
  Funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Held at St John's College, University of Oxford
  
  
• Parity of esteem as a constitutional principle in Northern Ireland and beyond
  April 2025
  Lead Convener: Tom Flynn
  Funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Held at Queen’s University, Belfast.
  
  
• Charles Ignatius Sancho: A Black British Man of Letters and His World
  October 2025
  Lead Convener: Oliver Ayers
  Funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Held at Northeastern University London