Academic Conference “Young Researchers’ Day 2026”

Applications are open until 20 April for the academic conference “Young Researchers’ Day 2026”, which invites PhD students and doctoral candidates in the humanities and social sciences to participate. The conference is organised by the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia (UL) in cooperation with the UL Doctoral School.

The aim of the conference is to promote academic networking among early‑career researchers and to encourage interdisciplinary research, while also introducing the wider public to current research directions in the humanities and social sciences.

Participants may submit topics related to their dissertation research, methodology or research challenges — not only as academic papers, but also as interdisciplinary presentations. PhD students and doctoral candidates working in the following fields, or across these fields, are encouraged to participate:

anthropology; architecture; gender studies; philosophy; folkloristics; cultural theory; movement arts; literary studies; art theory; music; theatre and film history and theory; visual arts; linguistics; history; environmental humanities; visual culture.

The organisers also welcome submissions related to contemporary theories and methodologies, including feminism, queer theory, sexuality studies, posthumanism, affect theory, ecocriticism, new materialism, autoethnography, disability studies, and others.

Early‑career researchers from universities across Latvia and abroad are invited to present. Individual presentations should be 15 minutes, and may be delivered in Latvian or English.

The application must include the presenter’s name, presentation title, an abstract of up to 1,500 characters, the name of the home university or workplace, and an email address.

Applications may be submitted until 20 April 2026 electronically:
https://forms.gle/Qp44qbWJdSk3kfM49

Notifications of acceptance will be sent to participants by 27 April 2026. All conference participants will receive an e‑certificate confirming participation in “Young Researchers’ Day 2026”.

The conference will take place on 12 May, from 9:30 to 17:00, in the UL Doctoral School hall “Sapere aude”, Kalpaka Boulevard 4, Riga.

A live online stream of the conference will be provided.

“Young Researchers’ Day”, organised by the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia, is an annual public conference held at the end of the spring semester, bringing together PhD students and doctoral candidates from Latvia and around the world. The event aims to support the academic development of early‑career researchers and provide opportunities for networking and building connections between scholars from different institutions.

The conference is supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation.