Nation
Race
Religion

Against the backdrop of a renewed nationalist wave in Europe and beyond – recurrently tied to notions of religious or ethnic belonging – there is an urgent need to analyse how nation, race, and religion function as boundary-making concepts that justify both exclusion and inclusion. These categories have historically shaped hierarchies and persecution, while also at times being invoked to articulate visions of community, equality, and justice. They are not fixed but continually interpreted, contested, and reconfigured across different contexts.

The conference Nation, Race, Religion aims to bring together scholars across disciplinary and thematic confines to discuss how these categories appear and operate in both historical and contemporary settings. By fostering dialogue across diverse fields, the conference seeks to advance theoretical and methodological development and provide space for the presentation of new empirical research.

The conference will take place over three days in September 2026 and is organized by the Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism at Uppsala University in collaboration with the Unit of Research and Analysis at the Church of Sweden.

We welcome all proposals related to the conference theme that engage with both historical and contemporary perspectives. The list below is indicative rather than exhaustive and not ordered by priority:

• Methodological and theoretical developments in studying race, nation, and religion

• The concepts race, nation, and religion in relation to various forms of racialisation

• Researcher positionality, reflexivity, and vulnerability in this field

• Mass violence and genocide in relation to religion, racism, and nationalism

• Christian nationalism and evangelicalism in global and local settings

• Indigenous knowledge vs settler colonialism

• Colonialism, racism(s), and decolonial struggles

• Hegemonic whiteness in relation to race, nation and religion 

• Antiracist practices in relation to religion and nationalism

• Religious nationalism, racialisation, and identity formation

• Media, popular culture, and digital spheres as sites for negotiating race, nation, and religion

• Theology in the construction of nation, race, religion

• Law, citizenship, and the governance of race, nation, and religion 

• Interreligious relations, conflict, and racism  

The final date for submitting abstracts is 15 March, 2026.