Call for papers

June 4 - 5, 2026 

Forlì Campus of the University of Bologna

This conference aims to shed light on the complex nature of migratory movements and contribute to the difficult explanation of past and future challenges. We envisage a multidisciplinary approach capable of enriching the academic debate on this topic, professors and researchers dealing with migration studies from different perspectives and interested in confronting migration challenges are welcome. We want to raise questions and provide answers that might refute conventional wisdom and believe that this cross-cultural multidisciplinary conference can be extremely fertile for stimulating intellectual confrontation on the migration phenomenon among the international community of scholars in the EU and abroad. The idea is also to identify and share best practices in EU member states in order to encourage significant strategic and quality improvement in EU immigration policies relating to different issues, with particular attention to the education of immigrant children. Hopefully, the conference will stimulate a constructive reflection on what were and are the migration challenges and the positive role the EU can play as a collective actor.

The members of the Scientific Committee are Francesca Fauri (University of Bologna, Italy), Giancarlo Gasperoni (University of Bologna, Italy), Debora Mantovani (University of Bologna, Italy), Mark McQuinn (SOAS University of London), Donatella Strangio (La Sapienza University Rome, Italy) and Eleonora Vlach (Goethe University Frankfurt - Germany).

The conference will be held in English. There is no conference fee. Work lunches are provided by the organizers. Travel and accommodation costs must be borne by participants themselves. If you wish to submit a paper, please send – no later than January 30th, 2026 – an abstract (maximum 500 words) and a short biographical note to: francesca.fauri@unibo.it or paolo.galassi3@unibo.it. The scientific committee will select accepted papers. Selected proposals may be considered for inclusion in a future edited volume. The conference will take place in the Forlì Campus of the University of Bologna within the framework of professor Fauri’s EUMCHA Erasmus+ Project won in August 2023 and the support of CeSIPE - Centro Studi Interdipartimentale Punto Europa, and its General Manager Fabio Casini.