2025 Conference Theme: Humanitarianism in Crisis: New Realities in Practices and Knowledges
The 8th IHSA Conference on Humanitarian Studies will take place on 15-17 October 2025 in Istanbul, Turkey and online. Our Academic Partner for this conference is Marmara University, and our Network Partner are the Turkish Red Crescent and the Global Disaster Preparedness Center. Find our conference posts on Facebook and LinkedIn under the hashtags #IHSAConference and #IHSAConference2025.
Humanitarianism is in crisis. Ongoing wars and human catastrophes, such as those in Gaza and Ukraine, alongside disasters across the world—from devastating earthquakes and floods to food insecurity and public health crises—underscore the urgency of humanitarian engagement. Yet the international legal order and humanitarian response itself is under attack. This is most obvious in the war in Gaza, where Israel is able to violate humanitarian law with impunity. The USAID stop work order has sent shockwaves through the humanitarian world, and further questions the future of humanitarian aid as we know it. In parts of the world, such as Sudan, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), it is also clear that geopolitics and national security dominate over the humanitarian imperative. Sudan is facing one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, yet receives little international attention or humanitarian response. The DRC and Myanmar are similarly neglected but severe humanitarian crises that receive insufficient response.
As states seem to retreat from commitments to the humanitarian imperative and to addressing inequality in a globalized world, the very moral standing of humanitarian assistance as a global public good is in jeopardy. Anti-immigration and isolationist rhetoric, as well as a resurgence of racism and nativism, threaten the basic premise of universality that underpins humanitarianism. How are local and international humanitarian actors navigating shifts in funding landscapes, political alliances, and public attitudes toward aid? As economic inequalities widen, how do power dynamics shape the effectiveness and ethics of humanitarian interventions?
The ever-shifting landscapes of global crises and geopolitics coincide with debates on knowledge production, intensifying climate change, economic disruptions, and evolving sociocultural dynamics. At the same time, rapid technological developments, including artificial intelligence, are transforming the ways in which aid is delivered, knowledge is produced, and crises are managed. What are the implications of emerging technologies, decolonial movements, and alternative forms of knowledge in shaping humanitarian responses?
Now more than ever, as conflicts, disasters, and systemic inequalities intensify, both humanitarian work and academic studies play a crucial role in shaping more just, effective, and inclusive responses. Through this collective discussion, we aim to foster a deeper understanding of how humanitarianism is being redefined in theory and practice in response to an increasingly complex and uncertain world.
We welcome submissions from those with lived experience, practitioners, scholars, and others with an interest in humanitarianism. Submissions that focus on particular case studies, either geographic, thematic, technical, and/or programmatic, are welcome, as are submissions that investigate within or across global, regional, or local scales. Across all panel themes, we welcome submissions that interact with key cross-cutting issues including decolonisation, refugees and migration, climate change, technology, formality and informality in humanitarian response, urban humanitarian response, diaspora humanitarianism, and the relationship between knowledges and practices. The conference is inter- and multidisciplinary.
Click here to find out more about the panel themes!