Island Dynamics Blue Humanities Conference 2027: Oceanic Urbanism
11th to 14th January 2027
Helsingborg, Sweden
Call for papers
Island Dynamics Blue Humanities Conference 2027: Oceanic Urbanism
Helsingborg, Sweden and Helsingør, Denmark, 11-14 January 2027
Theme
As a multidisciplinary scholarly movement within the environmental humanities, the Blue Humanities explores the role of water spaces in forming, maintaining, and transforming human cultures and societies as well as takes humanities and social science approaches to the non-human aquatic world. The Blue Humanities encompasses research from such fields and disciplines as history, anthropology, cultural studies, maritime studies, human geography, literature studies, ecology, gender studies, Indigenous studies, im/migration studies, art history, and tourism studies.
Presentations at this conference are welcome on any topic within the Blue Humanities (past, present, or future). However, presenters are especially encouraged to address the special conference theme of oceanic urbanism: the ways in which human cities, settlements, technologies, and infrastructures interact with water systems and spaces (oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, bays, estuaries, glaciers, fog, etc.).
Throughout history, coastal cities, towns, and villages have been spaces of intensive interaction between humanity and the aquatic realm. Urban experiences with waters have shaped ways in which people perceive themselves, their culture, the city, nature, and the world as a whole. Human-water entanglements have inspired a myriad of artistic and cultural creations on the part of humans as well as urban adaptations on the part of non-human actors such as plants and animals. It is in urban spaces that the hard infrastructure of ports; harbours; and waterside residential, leisure, and commercial zones meets the ever-changing liquid environment. It is here that marine and riverine forces challenge the illusion of human control over nature and the hubris of imagining that any anthropogenic structure can ever be permanent or complete. Yet it is also here that people undertake both productive and extractive engagements with aquatic spaces in ways that profoundly influence human life, hydrological systems, and the ecosystems that depend upon them. Oceanic urbanism extends beyond coastal cities as discrete, primarily terrestrial units, encompassing offshore rigs, aquaculture facilities, dams, ships, undersea cables and pipelines, and other spaces that can be studied from an urban perspective.
Presentations may reference particular water bodies, sites, cities, infrastructures, or they may discuss the conference theme in general terms that are nevertheless situated within particular cultural frameworks and worldviews. The conference is open to all theoretical approaches. In line with Island Dynamics' wider philosophy, we take a pluriversal perspective that insists upon epistemic diversity and distinct ways of knowing and acting within the world.
Min Zhou (Professor at Hangzhou Normal University's Center for Caribbean Studies and co-Editor-in-Chief of Blue Humanities) and Søren Frank (Professor at University of Copenhagen's Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics) will serve as keynote speakers.
Abstract submission
If you wish to give a presentation at the conference, please submit your proposal via the abstract submission form: https://islanddynamics.org/conferences/abstractsubmission
Abstracts should be 150-200 words long and must not include citations or references. After submission, your proposal will be reviewed, and the organisers will respond with a decision as soon as possible. The earlier you submit your proposal, the earlier you will receive the decision. All presentations will be in English. The deadline for abstracts is 30 June 2026.
Conference location
The main conference location is Helsingborg, a small Swedish city on the Öresund, facing the Danish town of Helsingør across the strait. As both a border city and a port city, Helsingborg's millennium-long history has been inseparable from the sea. Today, Helsingborg is striving to become a testbed for smart and sustainable urbanism - a laudable goal that nevertheless raises questions about the wider proliferation of role models of eco-urbanism and their complicated role in global systems of financial, racial, gender, epistemic, and other inequalities. The conference will begin with two days of local site visits. On 11 January, delegates will explore the Helsingborg's terrestrial and marine cityscapes, from the medieval centre to the state-of-the-art harbour and port. On 12 January, delegates will take a ferry across the Öresund to Helsingør in Denmark, visiting the M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark, walking the grounds of the imposing Kronborg Castle, and experiencing the wider historic city. Conference presentations will be held on 13-14 January at Elite Hotel Marina Plaza.
Publication opportunity & free registration
This conference is organised in association with the peer reviewed, non-fee charging open access journal 'Blue Humanities'. Presenters are strongly encouraged to submit papers to the journal. If you wish for your paper to be published in advance of the conference, the deadline for submissions is 31 August 2026. Although we strongly encourage article submissions, it is not necessary to submit a paper to the journal or to have a paper accepted for publication in order to participate in the conference. To learn more about journal publication, please contact Adam Grydehøj (agrydehoj@islanddynamics.org).
Authors who have had a paper accepted for publication to the journal in the 12 months prior to the conference can receive free full conference registration and accommodation during the conference upon request. If you have already paid the registration fee, this can be refunded to you. For multiauthored papers, this free registration is available to one author only.
Conference registration
In order to make the conference affordable to as many people as possible, we have created two registration packages:
Basic registration: Includes attendance at the conference presentations (13-14 January), two lunches (13-14 January), and one dinner (14 January). Cost: 500 Singapore dollars.
Full registration: Includes attendance on the study trips in Helsingborg and Helsingør on 11-12 January, conference presentations (13-14 January), four lunches (11-14 January), and one dinner (14 January). Cost: 850 Singapore dollars.
Students can receive a 20% discount on their registration fees. Registration does not include accommodation. It is recommended, but not required, that delegates stay at the conference hotel in Helsingborg: Elite Hotel Marina Plaza. The early deadline for registration will be 30 June 2026, after which registration fees will rise by 250 Singapore dollars. To register, fill out the registration form: https://islanddynamics.org/conferences/registration/. Within the following few days, you will be sent an invoice (payable by credit or debit card) using the information included in the registration form. Payment of the registration fee is due within one month after you have received the invoice.
Organisers: Island Dynamics and Research Center for Indian Ocean Island Countries and School of Foreign Languages, South China University of Technology
Enquiries: agrydehoj@islanddynamics.org
