DEADLINE: 20 April 2026
Organized by: The Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute of International Studies at Birzeit University, and Al Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network
Supporting Partners: The Center for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and the National Pedagogical University of Bogota, Colombia.
October 27–28, 2026
Birzeit University, Palestine
In-person and virtual participation
Conference languages: Arabic, English, and Spanish
Call for Papers
In the midst of the ongoing settler-colonial project and genocide in Palestine, shifting configurations of colonial and neo-colonial power worldwide demand closer examination. What was once justified in the language of a so-called “rules-based order” is increasingly giving way to more overt forms of imperial and colonial domination, reflecting and accelerating the erosion of the international system. Across interconnected sites—from military intervention in Venezuela to expanded sanctions on Cuba, from the genocides in Sudan and Palestine to violence in Yemen and Haiti—we can trace a contingent constellation of colonial and imperial forces that is continuously being reconfigured. Attending to these critical nodes facilitates a more precise analysis of the evolving architecture of imperial power, its legal and institutional infrastructures, and its points of fracture and contestation.
At the same time, transnational formations of solidarity have long emerged in opposition to imperialism, settler-colonialism, racial capitalism, and militarized governance. In recent years, these movements have gained renewed momentum, particularly in response to the Israeli settler-colonial regime’s live-streamed genocide in Palestine. They have brought together scholars, activists, policymakers, and civil society actors committed to challenging domination and hegemony, generating new modalities of coordination, knowledge production, and political intervention.
In this regard, Palestine has functioned not only as a site of acute contemporary urgency but also as a generative locus of analytical and political convergence with other resistance movements and solidarity networks. Struggles organized around land dispossession and Indigenous sovereignty, political imprisonment and carceral regimes, economic exploitation and sanctions, and broader projects of decolonization intersect in and through Palestine.
Building on this understanding, the International Conference on South-South Solidarity and Resistance to Imperialism is conceived as a space for critical engagement, interdisciplinary dialogue, and knowledge exchange. It aims to deepen the understanding of imperialism as both a historical and contemporary constellation of forces while highlighting experiences of resistance and solidarity in Palestine and globally.
The conference addresses a broad and interdisciplinary audience, including academic researchers, political organizers, practitioners, civil society organizations, and representatives of progressive movements. Its distinctive contribution lies in centering transnational solidarities emerging from the Global South and transhemispheric and diasporic communities, positioning these formations not as peripheral to global politics but as generative sites of theory, strategy, and imagination. In doing so, the conference rethinks resistance to contemporary imperial formations beyond conventional North–South paradigms, foregrounding South–South solidarities as foundational to transformative political futures.