EASA2026 Call for Labs

Introduction

Continuing the EASA’s successful experience with Labs as a space for collective discussion, collaborative practice, and creative contribution, the convenors of EASA2026 encourage participants to explore this year’s theme, Anthropology: Possibilities in a Polarised World. We suggest submitting proposals that differ from the typical 20-minute conference paper format and favour the experimental forms of sharing practical anthropological knowledge. As previously, Lab organisers would facilitate interaction, improvisation, speculation, as well as creative and open-ended approaches that go off the well-trodden paths and unveil new ways of anthropological thinking.  

In times of deepening global crises, escalating conflicts, growing social polarisation, and widening divisions, the humanities laboratory becomes a space for collective, communal, responsible, and engaged exchange of ideas. Contrary to its scientific prototype, the humanities laboratory is not associated with the production of knowledge, but rather with subjecting it to multidirectional reflection, resulting from the intersecting approaches, experiences, and standpoints. It is built on inclusion, transversal relations, and sets a transdisciplinary horizon that openly absorbs viewpoints that may appear seemingly incompatible. It creates possibilities not only to rethink the existing ways of framing and understanding such phenomena as conflict and crisis, but also to reimagine the potentiality of overcoming widespread polarisation. 

Lab proposals

To convene a Lab, please submit a proposal through the online system.  

Lab convenors are invited to devise sessions in experimental formats drawn upon the conference theme. Each Lab will be a 105-minute session and might be convened by individuals or collectives. There is a possibility to organise a Lab outside the university buildings – Adam Mickiewicz University’s campus is situated in the outskirts of the city, surrounded by forests and ponds that might inspire outdoor activities: open-air workshops, picnics, walks*.  

Proposals should provide:

• a title for the Lab,  
• technical and material requirements,  
• accessibility guidelines and requirements for participants*,
• the name/s and email address/es of the Lab convenor/s,  
• a short abstract (less than 300 characters),  
• a long abstract (up to 250 words)**. 

*The information concerning the indoor or outdoor character of the Lab, and its accessibility guidelines and requirements for participants, should be mentioned and explained. Please note that organising the Lab outside might require some additional time to get back to the main venue of the conference.

**The long abstract should outline the Lab’s technical and material requirements (computers, preferred software or platform for the online/hybrid lab, projector, camera, boards, flipcharts, markers and others).

When submitting your proposal, please indicate the maximum number of participants for your Lab to run effectively. It is possible to limit the number of participants through pre-registration (please add the link to an online form attached to the long abstract to gather pre-registration data).