CFP: International Virtual Conference on Contested Bodies and Emerging Selves: Anthropology at the Crossroads of Identity, Technology, and Meaning [Dialogo2026 CBES]

The International Virtual Conference (DIALOGO 2026 CBES) on “Contested Bodies, Emerging Selves: Anthropology at the Crossroads of Identity, Technology, and Meaning” invites scholars and professionals worldwide to engage one of the most urgent questions of our time: what remains of “the human” when bodies are contested, identities are renegotiated, and technologies increasingly mediate personhood?

“At stake is not only how identity is defined, but whether the very category of ‘the human’ remains intelligible across biological, technological, and symbolic transformations.”

CFP — Call for Papers

This year’s conference is designed as a balanced, high-rigor forum where religious and philosophical anthropologies enter into direct conversation with contemporary frameworks shaped by gender theory, rights-based identity paradigms, biomedical innovation, AI-mediated life, and posthumanist thought. Our aim is not ideological verdicts, but serious mapping of the emerging anthropological terrain—what is changing, why, and with what consequences.

Venue

Online (Join us at www.dialogo-conf.com)

Dates

• Earlybird submission: [Jan 15 – Feb 28, 2026]
• Regular submission: [Apr 25, 2026]
• Author notifications: [May 10, 2026]
• Conference dates:May 20–28, 2026
• Live keynote Webex event: [May 23, 2026 | 18:00–22:00 UTC]

Why submit? (Incentives)

• Global reach, zero travel: participate from anywhere, with international visibility
• High-impact dialogue: meet scholars across theology, philosophy, social sciences, law, bioethics, education, and digital studies
• Extended engagement: nine days of online discussion + live video meeting
• Rigorous review: double peer-review for submissions
• Visibility and indexing: publication in Dialogo with broad international indexing and database visibility (20+ databases)
• Fast publication track: accepted papers can be published within 30 days after the conference concludes (subject to timely revisions)

Key Themes and Questions (8 Panels)

DIALOGO 2026 features eight panels, each focusing on a major axis of contemporary anthropological transformation:

I. Anthropology and Gender Debates: Tradition, Identity, Transformation

II. Religion Under Pressure: Classical Anthropologies Confront New Ideologies

III. The Technologized Body: Medicine, Alteration, and Posthuman Embodiment

IV. Digital Selves, Virtual Realities, and AI-Mediated Personhood

V. Philosophy and the Collapse of Essentialism: New Ontologies of the Human

VI. Social and Legal Reconfigurations of Personhood

VII. Cultural Memory, Myth, and the Rewriting of Human Meaning

VIII. Ethics, Education, and the Future of Human Normativity

Core questions include:

• What assumptions about personhood are being challenged today—and why?
• Does self-determination expand freedom, or create new forms of fragility and exclusion?
• How do technologies of transition and enhancement reshape embodiment and moral agency?
• Can religious and philosophical anthropologies adapt without losing substance?
• How should institutions (education, law, medicine, religion, policy) respond to shifting anthropological premises?

Distinguished Guest Speakers

[confirmed so far…]

• Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller
• Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Gunther Wenz
• Prof. h. c. Jürgen Henkel
• Emeritus prof. Albert Classen
• Emeritus prof. Stephen David Edwards
• renowned British author Karen Armstrong

Extended Engagement Format

Engage in nine days of online presentations and discussions, culminating in a special live Virtual Video Meeting with featured speakers (Webex).

Live meeting (proposed): May 23, 2026 | 18:00–22:00 UTC(editable)

Key Dates (editable)

• Earlybird Deadline (full-paper submission): Jan 15 – Feb 28, 2026
• Regular Deadline: Apr 25, 2026
• Author notifications: May 10, 2026
• Conference dates: May 20–28, 2026
• Webex live meeting: May 23, 2026 | 18:00–22:00 UTC(editable)

Submission Instructions

Publishing guide / submission rules: https://www.dialogo-conf.com/publishing-guide/