Events

Call for Papers

The Four Nations Law and the Humanities Forums

LHub at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London; University of Glasgow; University of Dundee; Queen’s University Belfast; University of Warwick; and Cardiff University.

We are excited to announce the calls for papers for Four Nations Law and the Humanities Forums 2026!

Located around the country during 2026, the forums will provide an important space to develop research excellence at the intersections of law and the humanities, and foster intellectual community, supporting early-career scholars. Hosted at the University of Glasgow, Queen’s University Belfast, University of Warwick, and Cardiff University, these workshops are a series held across the four UK nations, initiated by the Law and the Humanities Hub (LHub) at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.

The forums will workshop ECRs’ work in progress and offer a rigorous context addressing the nature of interdisciplinary research in law and the humanities and its paths of development.

Criteria for Selection

Contributions developed by early-career scholars will be selected based on their:

• Demonstration of excellence in scholarship and practice. Proposed participation may be written papers or creative work (in visual, sonic, film, etc. form), at any intersection within Law and the Humanities, including research that connects law with history, philosophy, literature, art, performance, linguistics, cultural and media studies, creative practice, and other humanistically-informed fields and methods.
• Eligibility: The forums are open to individuals currently pursuing a PhD or DPhil, or who are within seven years of having completed their PhD, with due accommodation for career breaks, who are actively carrying out research in Law and the Humanities.

Forum Dates

The dates of the workshops are as follows:

• 21st May – University of Glasgow 

• 25th June – Queen’s University Belfast

• 2nd  July – Cardiff University

• 17th July – University of Warwick 

The workshops will bring law and humanities scholarship to wider audiences through the engagement of legal scholars as well as humanities scholars, ensuring that the research is not confined to law or the humanities, respectively. 

Forum Format

A limited number of works in progress will be selected for each forum. Each forum will be based on pre-reading of all papers and works by all attendees, and will include: 

• A friendly opening session;
• Workshop sessions of 45 minutes dedicated to the submitted papers/works. Each session will include an invited senior commentator and an open discussion addressing subject matter, method, interdisciplinarity, and creativity. The authors/creators will not be expected to present.  The discussion will include all participants in conversational style (not as a Q&A).

The scholarship, creative practice, and networking will be fostered and supported through the participating institutions and LHub, via the Four Nations website, a concluding online plenary, and associated networks such as Legal Humanities Association and the Art/Law Network.

Submissions

Please submit a CV; statement of interest in the forum, including an explanation of your eligibility (up to 250 words); and a 500-1,200-word proposal for a paper, or in the case of an artwork submission, the work and a 300-word description. Please also indicate which location you wish to attend.  

If accepted, submission of the completed paper will be expected a month prior to the chosen workshop, and should be up to 6000 words, or the completed artwork if non-text. 

Proposal Submission Deadlines

Dates for the submission are as below.  

• 28th February – University of Glasgow
• 31st March – Queen’s University Belfast
• 30th April – Cardiff University and University of Warwick

NB: Applicants can state a preference for location, and we will seek to have those closest to their institutions to attend the relevant workshop, however their chosen preference may not always be possible. 

Please send the above to Lucy.FinchettMaddock@gold.ac.uk and LHub@sas.ac.uk. 

Completed Works Deadlines for Accepted Proposals

• 21st May – University of Glasgow
• 25th May – Queen’s University Belfast
• 2nd June – Cardiff University
• 17th June – University of Warwick

For further information, please do contact Lucy.FinchettMaddock@gold.ac.uk and LHub@sas.ac.uk.

With thanks to funding from IALS LHub, Learned Society Wales, and University of Dundee, for their additional funding and support.