Call for Papers
We invite you to join us for the Twenty-Second International Conference on the Arts in Society, the annual meeting of the Arts in Society Research Network, taking place 9–11 June 2027 at the University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, and online. Hosted by the University of Western Australia, the conference brings together artists, scholars, curators, educators, cultural workers, and policymakers concerned with the roles of the arts in social life, cultural change, and public meaning. The annual conference serves as the Network’s central meeting point for those working across artistic practice, theory, education, and cultural institutions in diverse global contexts.
Special Focus and Themes
In 2027, the conference’s special focus, “Peripheral Visions: Art Beyond the Centre,” challenges traditional geographies of cultural power by examining how artistic innovation emerges outside established art-world centres. Longstanding narratives of cultural authority have tended to privilege metropolitan hubs and institutional gatekeepers, often marginalising creative practices rooted in rural regions, mid-sized cities, post-industrial landscapes, and the Global South. This focus asks how such “peripheral” locations are not sites of absence or delay, but vital spaces of experimentation, hybridity, and renewal within contemporary artistic production.
The theme invites participants to reconsider centre–periphery models in light of shifting social, technological, and economic conditions. Digital connectivity, cultural migration, and changing infrastructures of production and distribution are creating new networks of artistic influence that bypass traditional hierarchies. These developments raise critical questions about visibility, access, and value: how artistic work circulates, how audiences are formed, and how cultural legitimacy is established in a polycentric global arts ecosystem. What happens when we stop viewing art through centre–periphery dynamics and instead recognise the multiple, interconnected sites from which contemporary creative production emerges?
We welcome contributions that explore how artists and cultural communities negotiate place, mobility, and marginality, and how artistic practices respond to local histories, environments, and social conditions while participating in global conversations. Proposals may examine artistic production in rural and regional settings; Indigenous and diasporic practices; community-based and socially engaged art; post-industrial and post-colonial contexts; and alternative infrastructures such as artist-run spaces, digital platforms, informal networks, and grassroots festivals. We are also interested in critical reflections on how institutions, markets, and cultural policy frameworks adapt—or fail to adapt—to increasingly distributed forms of artistic production.
Alongside the special focus, the Arts in Society Research Network welcomes proposals aligned with its ongoing concerns, including arts practice and research; arts education and pedagogy; cultural policy and creative industries; visual, performing, and literary arts; media and multimodal expression; and the social, political, and ethical dimensions of artistic work. Contributions may be theoretical, empirical, practice-based, curatorial, or community-engaged, and may take the form of papers, panels, workshops, performances, or visual and digital presentations.
Knowledge Experience and Format
The conference is organised as a hybrid knowledge experience, integrating in-person and online participation within a unified scholarly environment. All accepted proposals become Presentation Pages, where presenters upload abstracts, media, and reflections, and where delegates can engage in discussion before, during, and after the event.
In-person sessions at the University of Western Australia are interwoven with live online presentations and asynchronous contributions within a single integrated program. Regardless of participation mode, all delegates have access to the full schedule, session media, and a growing digital archive. Across formats, the emphasis is on reciprocal, human-scale exchange—conversation, reflection, and collaborative inquiry rather than one-way presentation.
Publication Pathways
Presenters are invited to develop their conference contributions for possible publication in the journals of the Arts in Society Research Network. These include The International Journal of the Arts in Society, which provides an interdisciplinary forum for examining artistic practices and their roles in social, cultural, and political life, and The International Journal of Social, Political, and Community Agendas in the Arts, which focuses on the arts as sites of social transformation, public engagement, and collective identity.
Presenters may also propose extended works for the Arts in Society Book Imprint, which publishes monographs and edited collections advancing research and practice across visual, performing, literary, and media arts. All journals and book imprints are Hybrid Open Access, offering both traditional and Open Access publication pathways.
Membership and Community
We welcome new and returning members to the Arts in Society Research Network. By purchasing a Presenter Pass, you automatically become—or renew as—a Network Member for the year, with access to the online Knowledge Experience, a shared scholarly space connecting preparation, presentation, reflection, and publication. Members may share work in progress, post updates, browse archives, and participate in peer-facilitated community review.
Membership is also fostered through in-person conferences and events, where participants exchange ideas and build collaborations with host partners and an international community of artists and scholars. Membership sustains the Research Network, ensuring continued access to programs, archives, journals, and books, and supporting a community where belonging is defined by contribution and care.
Join Us
We warmly invite you to submit a proposal and to join us—either in Perth or online—for the Twenty-Second International Conference on the Arts in Society. Together, we will explore how peripheral visions reshape artistic practice and cultural understanding, and how the arts contribute to more diverse, connected, and polycentric cultural futures.
Sincerely,
Daniel Tucker, Research Network Chair, Independent Scholar, United States of America
Dr. Pilar Irala-Hortal, Research Network Chair, Universidad San Jorge, Zaragoza, Spain
Dr. Kate Hislop, Local Conference Committee, University of Western Australia, Australia
Arvi Wattel, Local Conference Committee, University of Western Australia, Australia
Dr. Kim Le, Local Conference Committee, University of Western Australia, Australia
Dr. Phillip Kalantzis-Cope, Chief Social Scientist, Common Ground Research Networks, United States of America