Call for Participation

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Innovations in mobility infrastructure, such as artificial intelligence databases, global logistics systems, climate technologies, satellite internet constellations and battery charging and swapping systems, carry uncertain, uneven and even cynical promises: augmenting human intelligence, facilitating freedoms beyond physical limits, establishing a sustainable environment on Earth, and moving, mediating, storing, calculating and coordinating life; at the same time, however, rending human thinking abilities be incompetent, disintegrating our societies, and putting all life on Earth, and even Earth itself, in catastrophic situations.  Furthermore, the competition between nations for technological supremacy disseminates speculative imaginations and hopeful affects, which fuel infrastructure innovations. It is important to note that these impacts and side effects occur across multiple scales, from the local to the planetary. This therefore urges us to recognise and critically discuss infrastructure as an essential medium of human, non-human, and more-than-human activity, and, accordingly, as a vital object for addressing the just futures of our society and planet.  

 

Not to mention John Urry’s focus on 'the significance of mobility infrastructures,’ which underpin almost all mobilities and enable ‘the socialities of everyday life’ (Urry 2007), infrastructures have long been of interest to mobility researchers (Adey et al. 2024). In recent years, there has been a considerable increase in infrastructure studies within the social sciences and humanities. This coincides with an expanded understanding of infrastructure as not only ‘a mundane conveyor of mobilities’, but also ‘an inspiring conveyor of fantasies, desires, and speculative futures’ (Sheller 2018). It is also noteworthy that mobilities can be triggered, propelled, delayed, or abandoned by imagination (Salazar 2018), aspirations (Lin et al. 2023), or affects (Boswoth 2023), often mediated by various forms of material or immaterial texts, as well as by habit (Bissell 2015), ethos, climate, weather and environmental or ecological habitats – especially for animals’ worlds. These can thus be addressed in terms of infrastructures.

 

‘More expansive notions of infrastructures’ engage with their symbolic and cultural values, social biases and exclusions, the normativity of their assumed use practice, and how infrastructural systems are ‘grounded’ (Pinnix et al. 2023). More significantly, they must also engage with their expressive and creative potential as they are encountered and lived (Adey et al. 2024), and as they are imagined and speculated. Recognising material and immaterial infrastructures across multiple scales, this conference seeks to address the ontology and ethos of mobility infrastructures for humans, non-humans, and more-than-humans. In doing so, it aims to enable the multifarious theoretical possibilities and creative potential of infrastructure studies, as nuanced by the humanities and social sciences, to emerge and to predict, challenge, and reconfigure our mobility presents and futures.

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This conference invites proposals from different disciplines within mobility and infrastructures studies, including, but not limited to: literary and cultural studies, philosophy, history, art and design studies, anthropology, geography, media and communication, architecture, urban planning, climate and environmental studies, technology, tourism, transportation, education, Black and Indigenous studies, gender and sexuality studies, and others. It will present an opportunity for scholars to share their ideas and inquiries at the intersection of mobilities, infrastructures, and the humanities, transcending the conventional divide between the social sciences and humanities and the arts. We accept proposals for papers and sessions on one or more of the following topics/areas:

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• Mobility infrastructures lived and experienced by individuals 

• Literary and cultural representation of mobility infrastructures

• Philosophical investigations on the ontology of mobility infrastructures

• Ethics and morals of practising mobility infrastructures

• Politics, policies, and laws of infrastructures

• Ethnography of the infrastructures of nonhumans and more-than-humans

• Climate and Planetary infrastructures for just futures  

• Infrastructuralisation of imaginations, aspirations, and affections

• Fantasies, desires, and speculations of Infrastructures  

• Critical approaches to capitalist infrastructures

• Other related issues

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Proposals can be for individual papers, panels, artworks, posters, and other creative formats, as outlined below. We welcome relevant contributions from any academic perspective or discipline. Beyond scholars, this includes professionals, policymakers and practitioners in the transport, traffic, and mobility field, as well as artists and creative professionals, designers, engineers and educationalists in the art and humanities.

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The conference language is only English.

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The conference is organised in a hybrid format.

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Key Dates

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31 August 2025          Deadline for the submission of abstracts and full, pre-organised sessions

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8 September 2025         Notification of acceptance for abstracts and sessions

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8 September 2025          Early Bird registration opens

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13 October 2025             Early Bird registration closes

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10 November 2025         Registration closes

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5-6 December 2025       Conference

 

Submission Formats

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Individual Papers: Individual submission of a paper consists of an abstract (300 words) and a brief biography (100 words), including contact information. Papers will be grouped thematically by the programme committee and may become part of a 7/7, debate, or panel session.

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Sessions: A full, pre-organised 7/7, debate, or panel session. A session submission should include a title, a summary of the session theme and the method chosen for facilitating discussion (300 words), as well as abstracts for each contribution/presentation (300 words). A short biography of each presenter is also required (100 words), with contact information.

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• 7/7 sessions: This means seven slides and seven minutes for each presentation (max 7 papers). The sessions will have plenty of time for discussion. This will be supported by having a chair who might also act as a discussant. Presenters shall focus on their main argument in order to avoid overly complex presentations.​

• Debate sessions: Debate sessions have a maximum of five presenters. Each gives a five-minute focused input to the topic, and this should be followed by a discussion involving the audience. Led by a chair.​

• Panel sessions: Panels consist of a chair, three to four paper presenters, and one discussant (optional). Panels should include time for audience discussion. Each presenter has 20 minutes (15 min + 5 min for questions); papers are grouped thematically.

 

Artworks, Posters, and Other Creative Formats: They are great ways to exhibit artwork and to discuss early, exploratory, or creative work at the conference. A submission consists of an abstract (300 words) and a brief biography (100 words), including contact information. The full artwork, poster, and other creative format are due by 10 November 2025.

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After Acceptance, all abstracts will be published on the conference website.

Submit your paper, session proposals, and /or poster to: 2025GMHC@gmail.com

For any questions, send an email to:  2025GMHC@gmail.com

 

Registration

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All participants must register and pay the registration fee via the conference website (details to follow), with only one submission per person.

 

Individual fee is for regular researchers.

Reduced fee is for PhD students, researchers from the Global South, and retired scholars.

 

Early Bird registration before 13 October 2025

Individual fee: 200 Euros

Reduced fee:  150 Euros

Online participation: 80 Euros

 

Registration after 14 October to 10 November 2025

Individual fee: 250 Euros

Reduced fee: 200 Euros

Online participation: 100 Euros

 

The registration fee will cover the costs for the conference materials, coffee/tea breaks, two lunches (Friday and Saturday), and two dinners (Friday and Saturday)

 

Please email the Organising Committee (2025GMHC@gmail.com) with the subject heading “2025GMHC Inquiry” if you have any questions or concerns.

 

 

Conference Committee

 

Convenor

Inseop Shin (Konkuk University, Director of the Academy of Mobility Humanities)  

 

Programme Committee

Peter Adey (Monash University), Jinhyoung Lee (Konkuk University), Peter Merriman (Aberystwyth University), Lynne Pearce (Lancaster University), Paul Rabé (International Institute for Asian Studies), Tania Rossetto (University of Padua)

 

Organising Committee

Jooyoung Kim (Konkuk University), Ilman Choe (Konkuk University), Eunhye Choung (Konkuk University), Bomi Im (Konkuk University), Taehee Kim (Konkuk University), Miae Lee (Konkuk University), Seungjin Lee (Konkuk University), Haeri Park (Konkuk University), Gijae Seo (Konkuk University), Yeonhee Woo (Konkuk University), Myungsim Yang (Konkuk University)

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