Call for Papers: for the Conference on “Middle East and Central Asia Futurescapes Network,” Abstract deadline: 30 September 2026 (extended)
The Middle East and Central Asia are undergoing profound transformations that are reshaping the ways their futures are imagined, debated, and pursued. Across the region, governments, societies, businesses, artists, and communities are drawing upon historical legacies, cultural traditions, and collective memories to articulate competing visions of the future. From governance, diplomacy, and economic development to technological innovation to cultural production, the future has become a powerful arena in which ideas, identities, and aspirations are negotiated. Rather than viewing the past and the future as opposing forces, this conference explores how historical experiences continue to inform contemporary transformations and future trajectories across the region.
The upcoming conference will be organised under the “Middle East and Central Asia Futurescapes Network,” an initiative by the ANU’s Centre for the Arab and Islamic Studies (CAIS) to bring together scholars to examine the tangible and intangible ways by which the region is being re-shaped and re-imagined through the prism of future-facing technology.
Call for Papers
The conference invites scholars and early career researchers from across the humanities and social sciences to explore questions such as:
· How are competing visions of the future imagined and contested across the Middle East and Central Asia?
· How are war, technological innovation, climate change, demographic shifts, and economic transformation redefining the region’s futures?
· What roles do states, cities, businesses, religious institutions, artists, and civil society play in imagining and constructing tomorrow?
· How are emerging regional and global orders reshaping identities, governance, security, and everyday life?
By bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives, the conference seeks to foster new conversations on the multiple futures of one of the world’s most dynamic and rapidly evolving regions.
Six panel themes:
1. Power, Geopolitics and Future Regional Orders
2. Technology, Innovation and Digital Futures
3. Economy, Sustainability and Development Futures
4. Society, Identity and Social Transformation
5. Religion, Heritage and Future Imaginaries
6. Media, Arts and Cultural Futures
Abstract deadline: 30 September 2026 (extended)
Please email abstracts to: Niloufar.baghernia@anu.edu.au
We especially encourage submissions from early-career researchers.
Some limited funding support will also be available for participants travelling from within Australia.
For more details, refer here
