Call for Participation

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 Mobilities are woven into ‘the plot of the global climate crisis’, and people’s movements are among ‘the most topical and concerning symptoms of planetary transformations’ (Baldwin and Bettini 2017, 10). For this reason, mobility scholarship has produced robust literature discussing mobility in relation with the climate since its earliest period, for example when After the Car (Dennis and Urry 2009) was published. This literature has mainly focused on various but interconnected themes, such as mobility transitions or fossil fuel and energy transitions, climate migrants or refugees, Anthropocene or more-than-human mobilities, alternative mobilities or mobile (social) life, and mobility governance or politics. Recently, many journals have also organised special issues on topics such as ‘Anthropocene Mobilities’ (Mobilities, 2019), ‘Time and Mobility after the Anthropocene’ (Sustainability, 2020), ‘Shapes of Socio-ecologically Sustainable Mobility Regimes’ (Applied Mobilities, 2023), ‘Mobility Justice’ (Australian Geographer, 2023) and ‘Auto/biography, Mobilities and the Climate Emergency’ (Mobilities, 2024). These continuing publications demonstrate the enormous urgency and complexity of climate change today, as well as alluding to the potential topics requiring the attention of mobility scholarship to achieve ‘more just mobility futures’ (Sheller 2021).

 

 Building on the theme of ‘mobility, infrastructure, and the humanities’ which was discussed at the 2022 GMHC, this conference invites scholars to discuss mobility infrastructures in relation to the climate. While mobility infrastructures often have critical impacts on exacerbating today’s climate change through their construction, maintenance, and operation, they are also ‘significantly exposed to the impacts of climate change’ which can lead to ‘widespread infrastructure failure and damages’ (OECD 2024). These impacts result in disproportionate social and environmental consequences based not only on geography but also on factors such as race, class, gender, and age, thus prompting us to attend to ‘climate mobility regimes’ which ‘frame, manage, and regulate the nexus between mobilities and climate change in a particular manner’ (Boas et al. 2022, 3371).

 

 Some of emergent trends in recent times related to the above themes include the competitive development of electric vehicles (sometimes across geopolitical spaces) and the formation of ride-sharing economies. These technological innovations often intersect with deeply troubling Big Tech capitalism and monopolies, both pushing away alternate models of transportation (such as cycling) and doing missionary work for automobility all over again (Liu, 2022). At the same time, the ‘growing importance of datafication and algorithmic culture across diverse (im)mobilities’ shows that ‘hybrid physical and data mobilities’ and data driven mobility infrastructures are becoming increasingly important in addressing climate change (Behrendt and Sheller 2023). Urban Digital Twins (UDTs), for instance, are considered to foster innovation in tackling complex urban challenges, including the climate emergency, by facilitating data-driven decision-making for urban operators (Zhu and Jin 2025). Yet, these technological promises can take on a spectacular dimension, where the promise of technological salvation through smart and green technologies masks and perpetuates ongoing extractive or exclusionary practices.

 

 The conference significantly encourages scholars ‘to intervene epistemologically and politically in an ontology of infrastructure for its transformation, occasionally mobilising creativity and imagination’ (Adey et al. 2024) to create more just mobility futures. That is, this conference is committed to ‘imagining other forms of social life’, what Amitav Ghosh (2016) refers to as ‘the challenge posed by the climate crisis’. This will be achieved more effectively through cross-disciplinary discussions about climate, mobility, and infrastructure, that traverse multiple scales of humans, nonhumans, and more-than-humans, and that attend both physical and hybrid mobility infrastructures and envisioned, speculated, or sensed mobility infrastructures, embedded in literary, cultural, visual, and creative endeavours and works.

 

 This conference invites proposals from different disciplines within climate, 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, science technology studies, AI and data research, 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 climate, mobility infrastructure, 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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• Literary, cultural, and arts studies on climate and mobility infrastructure

• Philosophical research on climate mobility and infrastructure

• Qualitative studies on climate mobilities and infrastructures

• Alternative (im)mobilities and infrastructures

• Political ecology of mobility infrastructures

• Hybrid mobilities and infrastructures studies

• Affects, emotions, and senses of mobility infrastructure

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

• Vital elements of resilient, sustainable and quality infrastructure

• Fantasies, desires, and speculations of (sustainable) mobility infrastructures

• Electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles and other technologies

• Other related issues

 

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.

 

The conference language is only English.

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Key Dates

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1 June 2026          Deadline for the submission of abstracts and full, pre-organised sessions

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29 June 2026         Notification of acceptance for abstracts and sessions

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29 June 2026          Early Bird registration opens

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3 August 2026             Early Bird registration closes

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14 September 2026         Registration closes

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29-31 October 2026       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 14 September 2026.

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

Submit your paper, session proposals, and /or poster to: 2026GMHC@gmail.com

For any questions, send an email to:  2026GMHC@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 4 August 2026

Individual fee: 220 Euros

Reduced fee:  160 Euros

 

Registration after 4 August to 14 September 2026

Individual fee: 280 Euros

Reduced fee: 220 Euros

 

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

 

Please email the Organising Committee (2026GMHC@gmail.com) with the subject heading “2026GMHC 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), Hongsuk Yoon (Konkuk University)

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​Download Application Forms

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