The climate emergency, gender-based violence and prison reform explored in new British Academy conferences programme

The human cost of heritage loss from climate change, the complex relationship between art and the market, and strategies for preventing gender-based violence are among the subjects featured in the British Academy's new conferences programme.

Funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Wellcome Trust, British Academy conferences bring together scholars from around the world to present, discuss and consolidate new research in the humanities and social sciences.

The 2023-24 programme features 14 conferences taking place in venues across the UK or online. Full details about each of the conferences will be made available on the British Academy’s events homepage when bookings open.

The full list of 2023-24 conferences is:

• Measuring Heritage Loss and Damage from Climate Change for Effective Policy Reporting
  30 – 31 March 2023
  Lead convenor: Professor Joanne Clarke (University of East Anglia)
  Funded by BEIS. Held at the University of East Anglia.

• Reproductive Justice in a Post-Covid World: Transnational Protest and Resistance
  18 – 19 April 2023
  Lead convenor: Dr Rachell Sanchez (University of Cambridge)
  Funded by the Wellcome Trust. Held at the University of Cambridge.

• Art & The Market: Examining the Intersections between Museums, Philanthropy, Commerce and the Law
  11 – 12 May 2023
  Lead convenor: Dr Richard McClary (University of York)
  Funded by BEIS. Held at Guildhall, York.

• Public health after COVID: beliefs, religion and competing epistemologies
  26 – 27 May 2023
  Lead convenor: Dr Suzanne Newcombe (Open University)
  Funded by the Wellcome Trust. Held at Kings College London.

• Lessons of resilience and social inclusion from the Covid-19 pandemic
  1 – 2 June 2023
  Lead convenor: Dr [Marta] Cristina Azaola (University of Southampton)
  Funded by the Wellcome Trust. Held at the Royal Society, London.

• Reframing Endometriosis: Power, Politics and Potential Futures
  6 – 7 July 2023
  Lead convenor: Dr Annalise Weckesser (Birmingham City University)
  Funded by the Wellcome Trust. Held at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

• Hegel and the Hegelian Tradition in Political Thought
  7 – 8 July 2023
  Lead convenor: Professor Richard Bourke (University of Cambridge)
  Funded by BEIS. Held at the University of Cambridge.

• Histories, Art Histories and Heritage Narratives in Eastern Africa
  13 – 14 July 2023
  Lead convenor: Dr Alison Bennett (University of Manchester)
  Funded by BEIS. Held online.

• Resisting Toxic Climates: Gender, Colonialism, and Environment
  26 – 27 July 2023
  Lead convenor: Dr Rebecca Macklin (University of Edinburgh)
  Funded by the Wellcome Trust. Held at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE).

• Partition Machine: The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne 100 Years Later
  10 – 11 August 2023
  Lead convenor: Dr Jayita Sarkar (University of Glasgow)
  Funded by BEIS. Held at the University of Glasgow.

• Narratives of Law in the Exhibition Space
  7 – 8 September 2023
  Lead convenor: Dr Anne Neylon (University of Liverpool)
  Funded by BEIS. Held at the University of Liverpool.

• Audiences, Publics, Experience: Rethinking Music Reception
  7 – 8 March 2024
  Lead convenor: Dr Christabel Stirling (Royal College of Music)
  Funded by BEIS. Held at University College London.

• How Can we Prevent Gender-based Violence? A 10-year Vision.
  19 – 20 March 2024
  Lead convenor: Dr Charlotte Barlow (University of Central Lancashire)
  Funded by the Wellcome Trust. Held at The Studio, Leeds.

• Therapeutic Spaces for Dangerous Minds: Eco-psychosocially Supportive Prisons and Forensic Psychiatric Wards
  Jan – March 2024 (tbc)
  Lead convenor: Dr Evangelia Chrysikou (University College London)
  Funded by the Wellcome Trust. Held at the British Academy (tbc).
  

Many of these conferences subsequently lead to volumes in the Proceedings of the British Academy series which is published by the British Academy in partnership with Oxford University Press. In addition, one of the British Academy/Wellcome Trust Conferences will be published as a special issue of the open-access Journal of the British Academy.

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

“We are excited to announce our new programme of British Academy conferences, featuring some of the foremost SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy) experts in their respective fields. The Academy’s 2023-24 conference programme will explore a range of important topics, including the climate emergency, the legacy of the Treaty of Lausanne, gender-based violence, and prison reform. In line with the conference programme’s rich history, the conferences offer a platform for discussion and debate, allowing attendees to learn from one another and exchange ideas. I look forward to what promises to be a thought-provoking and enriching series of events.”

Dr Jayita Sarkar, Senior Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow and a 2023 conference convenor, said: 

“Partition Machine,” is a dream come true for me. The two-day conference at the University of Glasgow in August 2023 commemorating the centennial of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, foregrounds the role of territorial divisions in worldmaking of the twentieth-century world. Bringing over twenty-five scholars at various stages in their careers from the UK, Europe, Asia, and North America, to discuss the idea and practice of partitions, would not have materialised without the British Academy’s generous support. To be able to convene a world-class event at my home institution is incredibly exciting.”