Aims

After a fruitful fifth seminar series organized between October 2024 and June 2025, the IPS Belgium organising committee is pleased to invite submissions for a new online seminar series beginning in January 2026.

As a transdisciplinary approach to the study of International Relations (IR), International Political Sociology (IPS) offers alternative lenses to understand global politics and transnational relations through a wide range of analytical perspectives and empirical research strategies. By questioning the fragmentation of traditional IR categories such as the domestic/international divide, high/low politics, or rationalist/constructivist approaches, IPS casts a light on the power dynamics at play in these entangled spaces and on their outcomes. IPS brings insights from sociology, anthropology, geography, history, among others, into the analysis of international relations. One of its key aims is to question and analyse the tensions and the connections between the concepts of the international, the political and the social. Contemporary IPS research embraces ethnographic and other anthropological/sociological methodologies, and employs a range of conceptual traditions, including (but not limited to): deconstruction, Foucauldian and Bourdieusian approaches, postcolonial and decolonial thought, queer and feminist theory, assemblage and materiality theory, Deleuzian perspectives, and critical race theory.

IPS Belgium provides a platform for scholars to present and debate their research. We aim to create a space for discussion and to foster collaborations for anyone sharing an interest in the conceptual, ontological and methodological implications of the IPS perspective. From PhD candidates to senior scholars, all researchers in the humanities and social sciences are welcomed to participate in the seminar and present their work.

Themes in IPS

IPS includes various themes and research interests. We particularly welcome papers about (but

not limited to) the following themes:

• Migration, mobilities and borders

• Postcolonial and decolonial thought

• (In-)Security and surveillance practices

• Technologies of governance

• Science and Technology Studies, data practices

• Socio-legal, critical legal studies approaches

• Queer, trans, and feminist theory

• Politics of emotions

• Citizenship and sovereignty

• Social mobilizations

• Environmental challenges

• Expertise circulation and knowledge production

• Fieldwork methodologies

• ...

Programme

The seminar series will run monthly from January to June 2026. Each seminar (1 hour and 15 minutes) will be devoted to the discussion of one work-in-progress paper in English (8,000- 10,000 words of a journal article, a thesis or book chapter...). Feedback on the paper will be provided by an invited senior academic and by another seminar participant. The discussion will be followed by Q&A with the audience. All registered participants will receive the paper in advance and are encouraged to contribute to the discussion.

The purpose of the IPS Belgium seminar series is to foster dynamic exchanges, therefore, all selected participants are expected to attend regularly and actively. In addition to presenting their paper, each selected participant will serve as discussant for one other paper in another session of the series.

The seminars will be held fully online on Teams to make attendance easier for everyone. Seminars usually take place on the third Friday of the month, between 4-5.15 PM (CET). In addition, we are planning an in-person event as a highlight of this year’s series.

Application

Please send your title and abstract (max. 300 words), together with a short bio and a description of how your research relates with IPS (max. 100 words) all in a single document to ipsseminar.belgium@gmail.com by October 31, 2025 at 11:59 PM CET. Please also indicate three preferred months (Jan-June) when you could present your paper. Notifications of acceptance will be sent mid-November 2025. Do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to be added to our mailing list or if you have any questions.

(Post-)Doctoral organisers

Morgane GHYS (ULB) - Marie KWON (ULiège and ENS-PSL) - Laura LUCIANI (UGent and VUB) - Alexander SCHLEPPER (UAntwerp) - Zeger VERLEYE (UAntwerp and Utrecht University)

Senior academic advisors

Rocco BELLANOVA (VUB) - Denis DUEZ (USL-B) - Julien JEANDESBOZ (ULB) - Julien POMARÈDE (ULiège) - Christophe WASINSKI (ULB)

More information on www.doingips.org/ips-belgium.