“Anthropology in/of a Decentered World:
Neoliberal Crises and Resistances”

The 3rd International Conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists Greece (SKAE), to be held in Volos on 6–8 November 2026 in collaboration with the Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology at the University of Thessaly, adopts the perspective of a decentered world. In doing so, it proposes an analytical and political shift in perspective: one that challenges the locations from which dominant narratives of history, progress, development, security, community and humanity are produced.

Wars and geopolitical realignments, settler-colonial and genocidal violence, mass displacement, militarisation, border regimes and necropolitics form a landscape of protracted insecurity. At the same time, widening social inequalities, precarious employment and housing, the curtailment of rights, the rise of authoritarian and racist discourses, gendered and sexual hierarchies, ecological destruction and the rapid development of digital technologies are transforming the conditions under which people live, coexist and participate in political life. These processes are not simply a succession of “crises”, but enduring conditions that distribute access to protection, health, housing, mobility and a future unequally.

At a historical moment when centres of economic, political and epistemic power are shifting, and the certainties of Eurocentrism and neoliberalism are being called into question, we are invited to rethink anthropology and our ethnographic practice from the perspectives of the periphery and the Global South, as well as through colonial and postcolonial experiences. We seek to render visible the experiences of those subjected to power, populations deprived of public voice, displaced people, and those rendered vulnerable or marginalised. Anthropology approaches them not merely as objects of inquiry, but as subjects and producers of knowledge, history, resistance and political creativity.

The Conference also aspires to provide an opportunity for anthropological reflexivity. Anthropology’s concepts, methods, institutions, fieldwork relationships and public interventions must themselves become objects of critical inquiry. How can we respond to the wars, disasters, multiple forms of violence, and economic inequalities that characterise our time? What does it mean to speak of crisis when what is defined as exceptional has become an enduring condition of life? How can we bring the everyday, the ordinary and the unexceptional to the fore? What kinds of collaboration—with social movements, communities, the arts and other disciplines—are required? How can ethnography contribute in the age of big data and artificial intelligence? Drawing on its long tradition of critically confronting its own colonial foundations, how might anthropology play a decisive role in problematising the Eurocentrism of Greek academia and the “white innocence” of Greek society? What becomes visible when we observe the world from Greece, treating it as a location from which questions about broader global processes emerge? Who is able to speak, represent others and define what counts as valid knowledge?

We invite social anthropologists, as well as researchers from related disciplines, to submit proposals engaging with these questions. The Conference primarily welcomes proposals for individual papers. However, proposals for pre-formed panels by existing research groups, scholarly collaborations and other collectives may also be submitted. Proposals for parallel events and activities are also welcome.

Indicative conference themes, which may be expanded in response to the proposals received, include:

• Genocidal violence, settler colonialism and white supremacy
• Militarism, police violence and securitisation
• State, bureaucracy and new forms of governance
• The biopolitics of health and kinship, disablism
• Gender-based violence, homophobia/transphobia and “anti-woke” ideologies
• Gender, body and sexuality
• Neoliberalism, platform capitalism, racial capitalism, development and degrowth 
• Mobility, migration, borders and technologies of control; regimes of confinement
• Labour, precarity, work intensification and new forms of trade unionism
• Nationalism, ethnic and racial discrimination, antigypsyism, Islamophobia, antisemitism and Christian nationalism
• Alternative forms of living, interculturality, cosmopolitics, diaspora and the commons
• Religious movements, new spiritualities
• The ethics and politics of ethnography
• Public and experimental anthropology, the speculative turn
• Performance, art and multisensory practices
• Tourism, gentrification and real-estate markets
• Natural disasters, climate collapse, more-than-human worlds and ecological justice
• Digitality, artificial intelligence, algorithmic culture and platformisation
• Crises, the normalisation of emergency and transformations
• Eurocentrism, the decolonisation of anthropology and the university, and epistemologies of the South
• Social movements: feminisms, antiracisms and antimilitarisms

The 3rd SKAE Conference will be held in person.

The working languages of the Conference will be Greek and English. Please note that no simultaneous translation will be provided.

Registration fees

The conference registration fees are:

• €50 for non-members of SKAE
• €40 for SKAE members
• €20 for unemployed people and people in precarious employment who are not SKAE members
• €10 for unemployed people and people in precarious employment who are SKAE members
• Free participation for undergraduate students

Submission guidelines

Proposals should be submitted to the Conference Scientific and Organising Committees through the relevant online form.

Individual papers

Proposals for individual papers should include:

• Full name
• Paper title
• Position and institutional affiliation, where applicable
• Abstract of up to 200 words
• Short bio of up to 150 words
• The conference theme under which the proposal falls
• Contact details

Form: https://forms.gle/huv2wb69vZmsY3co9

Pre-formed panels

Proposals for pre-formed panels of three up to five speakers should include:

• Panel title and description
• Full names of all participants
• Participants’ positions and institutional affiliations, where applicable
• Title and abstract of up to 200 words for each paper
• Full name of the panel convenor
• Short bio of up to 150 words for each participant
• The conference theme under which the proposal falls
• Contact details

Form: https://forms.gle/Bh5668wHE55urzmR7

Parallel events and activities

Proposals may also be submitted for parallel events and activities, including workshops, screenings, art installations, performances and exhibitions. Proposals should include:

• Title and description of the activity
• Coordinators’ position and institutional affiliation, where applicable
• Minimum and maximum number of participants, where applicable
• Technical and spatial requirements for the room or venue in which the activity is to be hosted
• The conference theme under which the proposal falls
• Contact details

Form: https://forms.gle/61iKd6i6q2x642pUA

Scientific Committee

Agelopoulos Giorgos, Associate Professor, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Bonarou Anna, PhD in Social Anthropology; Secondary Education Teacher

Dalakoglou Dimitris, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Dalkavoukis Vasilis, Professor, Democritus University of Thrace

Deltsou Eleutheria, Associate Professor, University of Thessaly

Yiakoumaki Vasiliki, Assistant Professor, University of Thessaly

Kantsa Venetia, Professor, University of the Aegean

Kofti Dimitra, Assistant Professor, Panteion University

Kouros Theodoros, Lecturer, Cyprus University of Technology

Koutsougera Natalia,  Laboratory Teaching Staff, Panteion University

Manos Ioannis, Professor, University of Macedonia

Marinoudi Soula, Assistant Professor, University of Thessaly

Panagiotara Betina, Dance Theorist 

Papachristoforou Marilena, Professor, University of Ioannina

Papailia Pinelopi, Associate Professor, University of Thessaly

Petridis Petros, Assistant Professor, Panteion University

Rakopoulos Theodoros, Professor, University of Oslo

Rozakou Katerina, Assistant Professor, Panteion University

Sideri Eleni, Assistant Professor, University of Macedonia

Tsimouris Giorgos, Professor Emeritus, Panteion University; President of SKAE

Varelaki Falia, Research Fellow, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice; SKAE Board Member

Vasilaki Katerina, PhD Candidate, Department of Primary Education, University of Ioannina

Organising Committee

Christou Virginia, Social Anthropologist; Member of SKAE

Deltsou Eleutheria, Associate Professor, University of Thessaly

Despotopoulou Evi, Social Anthropologist; Member of SKAE

Gatsiou Marilena, PhD Candidate, Panteion University

Kataiftsis Dimitris, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Macedonia

Koutsougera Natalia, Laboratory Teaching Staff, Panteion University

Papailia Pinelopi, Associate Professor, University of Thessaly

Probonas Pantelis, PhD Candidate; SKAE Board Member

Sakkas Giorgos, PhD Candidate, Panteion University

Sarikoudi Georgia, SKAE Board Member

Tigas Panos, PhD Candidate, University of the Aegean

Tsimouris Giorgos, Professor Emeritus, Panteion University; President of SKAE

Varelaki Falia, Research Fellow, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice; SKAE Board Member