21st Annual Doctoral Conference 2026

Humanity at a Turning Point: Reaffirming or Reimagining Political Common Sense? CEU’s Annual Doctoral Conference (ADC) provides an interdisciplinary space to present works in progress, receive constructive feedback, and form connections for future research. We invite PhD students and early-career researchers to submit paper proposals. This three-day conference is organised by the Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations, and there will be 4 panels specifically for political philosophy/political theory. Dates: April 27-29, 2026. Location: Central European University, Vienna. Keynote Speaker: Andrew Williams Abstract Submission Deadline: Feb.26, 2026 Paper submission deadline: April 8, 2026. All documents please send to: [email protected]This conference takes “Humanity at a Turning Point: Reaffirming or Reimagining Political Common Sense?” as its background concern, but focuses on a set of concrete philosophical puzzles that have become increasingly difficult to answer with familiar ideas of justice, responsibility, and fairness. Across different domains of political life, views that once seemed obvious or stable are now under pressure, not because of theoretical fashion, but because social and technological conditions have changed in ways our inherited frameworks struggle to capture. We invite contributions in political philosophy that engage with such points of tension, possible areas of interest include (but are by no means limited to):

• Distributive justice and the allocation of social benefits and burdens
• Work, labour, and the ethics of employment in future
• Child-rearing, parenting, and responsibilities across family and society
• Global justice, transnational obligations, and cross-border inequality
• Gender, care, and social reproduction
• Education, opportunity, and fairness in access to social goods
• Artificial intelligence, automation, and emerging technologies in relation to justice

We welcome paper proposals from political philosophy and closely related normative fields. If you have any questions, please contact us at: [email protected]