Location
Institute of Historical Research
The HistoryLab Annual Conference 2025 is themed ‘Shaping Histories: Representation and Perception through Time’
Thursday 24 July 2025 | Institute of Historical Research, Senate House London
Call for Papers, deadline – 28 February 2025
Keynote Speaker: Neil Forbes (Professor, International History, Coventry University)
Neil Forbes is Professor of International History at Coventry University where he has held several senior posts including, latterly, as the Director of the Research Institute for Creative Cultures. His research focuses on the relationship between Europe’s rich cultural heritage and its peoples, particularly how the tangible and intangible legacies of conflict and war underpin the multiple identities of Europe and its nation states. He also studies and has published widely on the interaction of foreign policy with the practices of business, especially those of multinational enterprise, in the context of the interwar, international crisis and the coming of the Second World War. As Principal Investigator or Co-ordinator, he has led several, international research projects funded by national and European agencies. He sits on the advisory and review boards of several professional associations and projects, and acts in this capacity for UK Research and Innovation and the pan-European Joint Programming Initiative.
We invite papers for an interdisciplinary conference on representation in history to be presented at the HistoryLab Annual Conference on July 24, 2025. This conference aims to explore how identities—whether gendered, national, religious, or cultural—have been shaped, expressed, and transformed across different historical periods and regions.
Key questions include
How have historical events influenced the way individuals and groups are represented and perceived? In what ways have power structures such as empire, religion, and war shaped these representations in both tangible and intangible forms—through official records, cultural artefacts, literary traditions, and collective memory?
We invite postgraduate researchers (MA by Research and PhD students) based at UK institutions in history and related disciplines to submit abstracts for either:
- a 20-minute paper,
- a 10-minute lightning talk or;
- a panel of three 20-minute papers.
Possible themes include, but are not restricted to the following:
- Visual and Textual Representations: How have identities been constructed or contested through art, textual formats, literature, political discourse, and other mediums of expression during periods of significant change, such as wars, revolutions, or colonial rule?
- Religion and Identity: Exploring the representation and evolution of religious identities in historical contexts, particularly their interactions with political and social power structures.
- Colonial and Post-Colonial Histories: Investigating how colonial legacies have shaped national and cultural identities, and how the representation of colonised peoples has evolved over time.
- Gender and Historical Representation: How have gendered identities been portrayed and transformed through historical events and social movements?
- Crisis and Identity Shifts: Examining how crises like pandemics, wars, or political upheavals
We welcome contributions that analyse these themes from diverse methodological approaches and historical contexts including but not limited to (counter)memory, public history, institutional narratives and many more!
Presentation Formats
The conference will feature several presentation formats:
- Panel Presentations: 90-minute sessions with three 20-minute presentations, followed by Q&A.
- Individual Papers: 20-minute presentations followed by a 5-minute Q&A. These submissions will be grouped into panels by the organisers.
- Lightning Talks: 10-minute short, focused presentations designed to quickly convey key ideas.
Publication Opportunities
Participants will have the opportunity to submit presentation papers for open-access publication on the History Lab/IHR Website if they wish as part of the conference proceedings.
Submission Guidelines
Please submit a 300-word abstract and a brief bio (150 words) – for panel submissions please do this for each paper in the panel – to ihrhistorylab@gmail.com by 28 February 2025. Use the following as the subject of the email: History Lab Conference 2025. Shaping Histories.
More details can be found here: Call for Papers | HistoryLab Annual Conference 2025- Shaping Histories: Representation and Perception through Time | Institute of Historical Research
For any questions, contact the conference convenors, Adeola Eze and Anna Molnár via email: ihrhistorylab@gmail.com