Oxford Migration Studies Society Conference: Migration, Justice, and the Making of Futures — 2026 Historical Reference
Historical reference for Oxford Migration Studies Society’s 2026 hybrid conference on migration, justice, and collective futures. The abstract call and conference have concluded.
Oxford Migration Studies Society Conference: Migration, Justice, and the Making of Futures — 2026 Historical Reference
This page is a historical reference for the Oxford Migration Studies Society’s 2026 annual conference, Migration, Justice, and the Making of Futures. The abstract call has closed, and the conference itself has passed. It is retained because the event had a clearly documented theme, a public academic and creative brief, and a useful record of how the society invited work on migration, justice, care, and collective futures.
The verified host information is on the University of Oxford’s Queen Elizabeth House event page. That page identifies the event as an Oxford Migration Studies Society conference and describes it as hybrid, with in-person activity at Green Templeton College and St Antony’s College in Oxford and an online participation element. The event dates were 5 and 6 June 2026. The University of Oxford page is the current reference URL for this record; the former Google Form is no longer an application route and is not linked here.
Historical status
There is no open application associated with this page. The 2026 abstract deadline was 13 March 2026 at 12 noon GMT, and the conference dates were 5–6 June 2026. Both milestones have passed. The verified Oxford event page does not announce a 2027 call, a replacement deadline, or another open round, so this record does not invent one.
The historicalReference flag in the front matter is intentional. It allows the page to remain a useful archive entry while making clear that readers should not treat it as a live opportunity. The deadline field retains the real closing date for the 2026 call rather than using a vague phrase or leaving the field empty. There is no current application amount, grant, stipend, prize, or other cash award to report: this was a conference call for abstracts, not a funding programme. The original announcement also described a possible publication consideration in Routed magazine, but that was an editorial opportunity connected to the call, not a guaranteed payment or award.
What the 2026 conference was about
The conference theme joined three ideas that are often separated in migration work: migration, justice, and the making of futures. The Oxford event description asks how refugees, migrants, displaced communities, and their allies reimagine justice, care, and collective futures. It also frames the question against hostile governance institutions, political contexts, and cultural attitudes. That framing matters because it does not reduce migration to movement across a border. It leaves room for questions about who can remain, who is made precarious, whose knowledge counts, and how communities create forms of support when formal systems fail them.
The event page lists panels on alternative infrastructures of care and belonging; climate (im)mobility; community-based research and migration; different migratory outcomes among social subgroups; epistemological justice; the ways states make migrants disappear; indigeneity and migration; and the renegotiation of identity and social position through art. Together, those topics show the breadth of the programme. A proposal could have addressed institutions and policy, but it could also have examined community practice, knowledge production, climate-related mobility, identity, or creative work.
The wording of the original announcement made the same breadth explicit. Oxford Migration Studies Society invited scholars, practitioners, activists, and artists. It welcomed ongoing or completed research, documentary films, poetry, and work from diverse academic fields. The call was therefore not limited to conventional single-author research papers. It presented the conference as an interdisciplinary programme where different forms of evidence and expression could sit beside one another, provided that the work engaged the conference’s central questions.
Historical eligibility profile
Eligibility should be understood as a record of whom the 2026 call invited, not as a current invitation. The intended contributor groups were:
- scholars at different career stages, including researchers with ongoing or completed projects;
- practitioners whose work involved migration, displacement, care, rights, policy, or community institutions;
- activists and organisers working on migrant justice or related forms of collective action; and
- artists, including people proposing documentary film, poetry, or another form that could contribute to the programme.
The announcement also said that the society’s ethos was to promote participation and work regardless of geographic location. It acknowledged that financial, administrative, and accessibility barriers can affect conference participation and said the team would try to accommodate applicants facing significant obstacles. That statement is useful context for understanding the intended audience, but it should not be read as a promise of travel funding, fee waivers, or a guaranteed remote arrangement. No funding amount or financial support package was stated in the verified call information.
The subject matter was broad enough to include work on asylum, refugee protection, border governance, labour, racialisation, climate mobility, diaspora, belonging, community care, legal status, and the politics of knowledge. A strong historical fit would have connected a concrete project to the conference’s concern with how justice is defined or practised and how people make collective futures under constraint. The call did not require every contributor to use the same method, region, or disciplinary vocabulary.
Formats and publication option
The original announcement requested an abstract of up to 250 words. It described possible submissions for conference panel presentation and also invited applicants to have their work considered for publication in a special issue of Routed, an online publication focused on migration and (im)mobility. Applicants could express interest in one or both possibilities, with the warning that applying for both did not mean they would be accepted for both.
That distinction is important for interpreting the opportunity accurately. The conference presentation and the Routed consideration were related but separate outcomes. Neither should be described as an automatic publication, a funded placement, or a guaranteed speaking slot. The call’s publication language indicated consideration by the relevant editors or organisers; it did not promise that every submitted abstract would become an article or other published work.
The range of formats also affected what a useful abstract would need to do. A research proposal could identify its question, material, approach, and expected contribution. A documentary or poetry proposal could explain what the audience would encounter and how the work addressed justice, care, mobility, displacement, or future-making. A practice-based or activist proposal could describe the situation, intervention, or knowledge it wanted to bring into conversation. Across formats, the main requirement was clarity about the work and its connection to the theme.
Historical timeline
The relevant timeline is short and now complete:
- Oxford Migration Studies Society announced its 2026 annual conference and invited abstracts for the theme Migration, Justice, and the Making of Futures.
- Prospective contributors were asked to submit an abstract of no more than 250 words by 13 March 2026 at 12 noon GMT.
- The conference took place in hybrid form on 5 and 6 June 2026, with the Oxford venues identified as Green Templeton College and St Antony’s College.
- The call and event are now closed historical records. No later cycle is stated on the verified Oxford event page.
The date in the front matter is the historical abstract closing date, not a future deadline. Readers looking for a current Oxford migration studies event should use the university page as a starting point for the society’s official event information and confirm any later announcement directly with Oxford Migration Studies Society.
What applicants would have prepared at the time
For archival completeness, the 2026 call required a concise abstract rather than a full paper or completed book-length project. A sensible preparation file would have contained a title, a clear statement of the project, and a description that fit within the 250-word limit. Contributors proposing ongoing research could have explained what was already known and what the conference presentation would add. Contributors proposing creative work could have identified the medium and described how it would be presented or discussed.
The strongest preparation would have focused on one precise question. “Justice” can refer to legal status, access to rights, repair, safety, recognition, care, freedom of movement, the right to stay, or control over how a community is represented. An abstract that named its specific concern would have been easier to place than one that used justice as a general label. The same applied to “futures”: the proposal could have shown a practical alternative, a community strategy, a political demand, a change in public understanding, or a form of art that made another future imaginable.
A concise abstract would also have benefited from concrete material. Examples include interviews, legal cases, policy documents, community-led research, archival sources, visual work, workshops, testimony, or an organising campaign. Naming the material would have helped reviewers understand what the contributor could actually present. It would have been equally important to state whether the proposal was a conventional paper, a panel contribution, a film screening, a poetry performance, or a mixed format.
For anyone reviewing the old call as a model for future conference submissions, the practical lesson is to make the contribution legible within the word limit. A short abstract can still say what problem the work addresses, what it examines or creates, how it approaches the material, and why it matters for the conference theme. It does not need to summarise an entire dissertation or represent every part of a community project.
Application record and current next step
There is no current application step for this 2026 record. The Google Form previously associated with the call is closed, so it has been removed from the page’s metadata and body. Readers should not send an abstract through that form or treat any copied deadline as live. The official reference is now the University of Oxford event page:
Oxford Migration Studies Society 2026 Conference: Migration, Justice, and the Making of Futures
That page confirms the event identity, theme, hybrid format, and conference dates. It does not provide a 2027 call. If Oxford Migration Studies Society announces a later conference, that announcement should be checked separately for its own title, deadline, eligibility, format, and application route rather than inferred from this archived 2026 entry.
Why retain this reference
An expired call can still be useful when its status is explicit and its details are preserved accurately. This record documents an Oxford-based, student-led migration studies event that made room for academic research, practice, activism, and art. It also captures a conference design that combined in-person and online participation and linked panel presentation with a possible route toward public-facing publication.
The value of the archive is not that it tells anyone to apply now. Its value is that it helps a researcher, organiser, teacher, or prospective contributor understand the kinds of questions Oxford Migration Studies Society foregrounded in 2026. The listed themes show an interest in care, belonging, climate (im)mobility, community knowledge, uneven outcomes, epistemic justice, state power, indigeneity, and art. The original contributor profile shows an effort to include people whose work does not fit a single academic format. The closed status and historical flag keep that context from being mistaken for an open call.
For current information, rely on a new official announcement from Oxford Migration Studies Society or a new University of Oxford event listing. This page should remain a reference to the completed 2026 conference and its 13 March 2026 abstract deadline, with no assumed 2027 date and no active submission language.