Over 1,100 delegates are heading to Belfast this week for the British International Studies Association (BISA) conference, taking place from the 18–20 June. As BISA marks its 50th anniversary, this milestone gathering offers more than reflection – it’s a call to reimagine the future of International Studies.
The Global Souths Hub and Third World Quarterly (TWQ) teams are excited to take part with a dedicated stand. Read on for a few key highlights from the 4 day programme.
Where to Next for IR?
This year’s papers were invited to reflect on the past 50 years and to ask: What do we want – and need – from International Studies over the next 50?
Founded in 1975, BISA aimed to support those researching and teaching International Studies at advanced levels, while also creating a bridge between academia and policymakers.
Today, amid global crises and growing uncertainty, such urgent questions arise: Is the discipline of International Relations equipped for the challenges ahead? And if not, how must it be reshaped to build a more just and inclusive future?
Keynote: Seeing and Sensing World Politics
Titled Seeing and Sensing World Politics, this year’s keynote by Professor Roland Bleiker from the University of Queensland investigates how images and emotions influence global issues. The talk is sponsored by TWQ and will take place on Thursday 19 June, from 4:45 to 6:15pm.
Professor Bleiker leads the Visual Politics Research Programme. The keynote will explore how images and emotions shape political phenomena, including humanitarianism, security, peacebuilding, protest movements and the conflict in Korea. His current project, Visualising Humanitarianism, brings together scholars across disciplines to rethink how crises are represented and understood. Find out more about the Visual Politics Research Programme by watching the video below.
Special Featured Events
On Wednesday 18 June, BISA 2025 features two standout events: Introduction to Book Publishing (3:00pm–4:30pm) which will be a practical session for first-time authors, including insights from editors across academic publishing. While 50 Years and Counting (4:45pm–6:15pm) will be a public roundtable with former BISA Chairs, reflecting on how International Studies has evolved over the past five decades.
If you are interested in finding out more about journal publishing. There is a Meet the Editors session on Wednesday 18 June, (1:15pm–2.45pm), hosted by the Editors of the Review of International Studies, the European Journal of International Security, and International Affairs. You can find out more about the featured events on the BISA 2025 Belfast conference website.
Professor Mustapha Pasha (University of Aberystwyth), Academic Editor at TWQ will be chairing two panels at BISA 2025: Indebtedness as a Political Condition on 18 June (13:15pm–14:45pm), sponsored by the Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working Group, and Producing Enemies on 20 June (15:00pm–16:30pm), hosted by the Critical Studies on Terrorism Working Group. Indebtedness creates multiple vulnerabilities, power imbalances, and forms of coercion, while also weakening democratic governance. The papers in this panel explore these various dimensions, ranging from race and austerity to developmental change, calling on the field of International Relations to engage more deeply with the material realities that shape global political life.
One of TWQ‘s Advisory Editorial Board members, Dr Philipp Schulz (University of Bremen) will chair the roundtable Masculinities in Conflict and Peacebuilding on 20 June (16:45-18:15) at BISA 2025, sponsored by the Gendering International Relations Working Group.
“The imprint of masculinities on global politics and international security is as evident as it could be in this day and age. In this roundtable discussion, we want to collectively explore and strategise how different manifestations of masculinities shape and are shaped by violence, conflict and peacebuilding, and what possibilities and challenges exist for gender transformation.”
Dr Philipp Schulz
Edited by Philipp, and colleagues, two new volumes engaging with gender, masculinities and peacebuilding will also be launched – the Routledge Handbook of Masculinities, Conflict, and Peacebuilding and Masculinities and Queer Perspectives in Transitional Justice . You can order tickets for the launch event on Thursday 19th June, at 18.30-20:00 on Eventbrite.
Come visit the Global Souths Hub Stand
Stop by the Global Souths Hub stand to pick up free articles, bookmarks, and highlighters – and join us for a chat!
To celebrate BISA at 50, Third World Quarterly (TWQ) is offering free access to special issue (Vol 45, No 14) on Climate Security in the Indo-Pacific: Variations, Contestations and Convergence of Security Practices (Guest Editors.Caballero-Anthony, Mely Cook, Alistair David Blair). Come visit our stand to find out how you can access these articles for free.
We also wanted to highlight that our colleagues at Routledge, Taylor & Francis journals have collated a list of free articles to honour author and academic Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, an inspiration in African literary production, who sadly passed away in May of this year.
All ten articles are free to access until 31 December 2025, and include a variety of journals, such as the Journal of African Cultural Studies, Wasafiri, Journal of Postcolonial Writing and TWQ. Come visit the stand to pick up a voucher or view them here.
Enjoyed a Session? Share Your Reflections with the Global Souths Hub
The Global Souths Hub will also be reporting live from the event! If you’re presenting a talk or attending an inspiring session or roundtable, we’d love to hear from you. You can find details on how to contribute on our website or learn more about how to submit an event write-up.
