30 August – 1 September 2026 Derry~Londonderry Campus 2026 INCORE Annual Conference
This in-person event will convene scholars, practitioners, policymakers, artists, families of the disappeared, and advocacy organisations to explore the socio-political, cultural, legal, and economic dimensions of disappearance worldwide.
About the Conference
The International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE), in collaboration with the Journal of Disappearance Studies, invites contributions to its 2026 conference, taking place from 30 August to 1 September 2026 at the Derry~Londonderry campus of Ulster University.
This in-person event will convene scholars, practitioners, policymakers, artists, families of the disappeared, and advocacy organisations to explore the socio-political, cultural, legal, and economic dimensions of disappearance worldwide.
About INCORE
Established in 1993 as an associated centre of the United Nations University, INCORE has, over the past 30 years, made a vital contribution to peacebuilding in Northern Ireland and internationally. By linking rigorous research with policy engagement and practice on the ground, and by adopting a genuinely global perspective, INCORE has advanced both knowledge and action in conflict transformation and peace processes.
Through ground-breaking research, digital resources, policy initiatives, teaching and PhD programmes, conferences, study visits and international peace-oriented work, INCORE has developed a significant global public footprint.
About the Journal of Disappearance Studies
Published since 2025 by Bristol University Press, and edited by scholars affiliated with University of Bristol, Durham University and Ulster University, the Journal of Disappearance Studies provides an interdisciplinary platform for examining disappearance as a global phenomenon.
Conference Themes
The conference will cover the following themes:
- Disappearances as a Human Rights Violation
- State Responsibility for Disappearances by Non-State Actors
- Legal Frameworks: Domestic regimes, International Humanitarian Law, and International Human Rights Law
- Forensic techniques in the search for the disappeared
- Transitional justice and victims’ rights to justice, truth, and reparation
- Historical and contemporary perspectives on disappearances
- Psychological, social, and political impacts
- International solidarity, activism, and resistance
- Gender and feminist perspectives
- Emerging dynamics and technologies of disappearance
- Artistic and philosophical approaches to understanding disappearances
Join us in shaping the evolving field of disappearance studies and contributing to the collective search for justice, truth, and memory.
A detailed programme will be published by mid-June 2026.
Important Dates
- Abstract submission deadline: 20 March 2026
- Acceptance notifications & registration opens: 10 April 2026
- Registration closes: 31 May 2026
- Final programme published: 15 June 2026
- Conference dates: 30 August – 1 September 2026
Day 1 - Sunday 30 August
| Time | Academic Programme - International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances |
|---|---|
| 2pm to 2:25pm | Opening of the Conference Élise Féron, Director of INCORE (International Conflict Research Institute), Ulster University, and co-editor in chief of the Journal of Disappearance Studies Colin Davidson, Chancellor of Ulster University (tbc) Great Hall |
| 2:15pm to 2:45pm | Opening Keynote Lecture Geoff Knupfer, Former Lead Forensic Scientist & Head of Investigation Team, Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains, Northern Ireland Great Hall |
| 2:45pm to 3:30pm | Panel with Families of the Disappeared of Northern Ireland Great Hall |
| 3:30pm to 4:30pm | Launch of Conflict Textiles Exhibition: “Disappeared” Ulster University Library |
| 5pm to 6pm | Reception The Guildhall, Derry~Londonderry |
| 7:30pm | REWIND, Theatre Play by Ephemeral Ensemble The Playhouse, Derry~Londonderry |
Day 2 - Monday 31 August
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 9:30am to 11am | Panel 1: Disappearances, Loss, and Trauma Paolo Boccagni On vicarious presence: multilevel struggles to "fill up" disappearance and their promise for a sociological research agenda Pamela Favre and Lisa Ott Local Communitarian Psychosocial Accompaniment: Learning with Families of the Disappeared in El Salvador Mariat Imaeva When the researcher is also a victim: surviving field research on enforced disappearances in Chechnya |
| 11am to 11:15am | Coffee Break |
| 11:15am to 12:45pm | Panel 4: Disappearances, Necropolitics, and Political Theory Bincy Sebastian Unmarked Graves as Necropolitical Archives: Buried Evidence and Militarised Death(scapes) in Indian-Administered Kashmir Nousheen Sharmila Ritu and Muhammad Asadullah Carceral Archipelago of the Disappeared: Architecture of Enforced Disappearances under the Awami League Regime in Bangladesh Ana López Godoy The Necropolitics of the Disappeared: The Subversive Body in Argentina's Military Junta (1976-1984) Sabrina Villenave Indifference as Power: Necropolitics, Grievability, and the Making of Disappearable Lives |
| 12:45pm | Lunch |
| 2pm to 3:30pm | Panel 7: Disappearances, Families, and Activism (Part One) Bilgesu Sümer Intergenerational family-based repression as a method of counterinsurgency: An Ethnographic Exposition of Turkish Security Practices Yasmine Bennis "Nothing For Us Without Us": Syrian Victim-Led Mobilisation on Enforced Disappearance (2016–2024) Elma Hadžić, Selma Hadžić, and Behzad Hadžić Changes after the identification and burial of a missing family member |
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 9:30am to 11am | Panel 2: Disappearances, Forensics, and AI Liliia Korostelova and Volodymyr Krasnopolsky Modern Tech and Medical Solutions Speed Up Identifying and Returning Missing Persons Shari Eppel Unearthing the past in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe Alejandra Blanco, Angel Serrano Galvez, and Thomas Favennec Artificial Intelligence applied to Mexico's Forensic Crisis: Automated Image Analysis for Human Identification Lauren Dempster and Beatrice Canossi Forensic Scientists and Knowledge Production in Transitional Justice: Key Findings and Potential Relevance for Policy and Practice |
| 11am to 11:15am | Coffee break |
| 11:15am to 12:45pm | Panel 5: Gender and Minority Harms Chulani Kodikara A continuum of violence from those forcibly disappeared to their women next-of-kin in Sri Lanka Rebekka Friedman and Diana Florez 'I couldn't take a day to grieve': Fatherhood and state enforced disappearances in Northern Sri Lanka Phoebe Martin and Rebekka Friedman Relational harm: Family separation as a reproductive justice issue (in Peru and Sri Lanka) Yajna Sanguhan Legacies of enforced disappearances in Northeast Sri Lanka: Household impact and the intersection of multiple harms Elizabeth Barnert Trauma, identity, and healing: Families' experiences with DNA-based reunification in post-war El Salvador |
| 12:45pm | Lunch |
| 2pm to 3:30pm | Panel 8: Institutional Logics of Disappearances Emiliano Alba Vivanco Forced recruitment as forced disappearance: how weak states react to a humanitarian crisis Judi Aldalati The Architecture of Disappearance: Institutionalized Enforced Disappearance in the Anwar Raslan Trial Cian Cooney Missing French Military Personnel during the Algerian War: A Logic of Forced Disappearances? Marco Castillo Disappearances, identifications, and the Archives of Terror. Transnational networks of violence and solidarity |
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 9:30am to 11am | Panel 3: Disappearances and International Law Ayesha Jawad Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan: Constitutional Breakdown, State Silence, and the Militarisation of Accountability Salvador Leyva Morelos Zaragoza Enforced disappearances committed by non-state actors: Developments in the Inter-American human rights jurisprudence Elvina Sanje The contribution of the European Court of Human Rights to the construction of a legal status for victims of enforced disappearances Ester Nergis Canefe Critical Debates on State Criminality and Responsibility for Addressing Disappearance as an Act of Violation |
| 11am to 11:15am | Coffee Break |
| 11:15am to 12:45pm | Panel 6: Disappearances in the Irish Context Sandra Peake Orchestrated Loss Faye Donnelly Disappearing Acts: Securitization and Missing People Niamh McCullagh The Institutional Burials Act (2022) as a Response to the Liminal Disappeared |
| 12:45pm | Lunch |
| 2pm to 3:30pm | Panel 9: Indigenous and More-Than-Human Approaches to Disappearances Anna Charlton and Michael Charlton Yindjibarndi Not gone walkabout! Aboriginal disappearance in remote Western Australia Livia Daza Paris Remaining in Relation: Ecologies of Poetic Forensics and the Disappeared in 1960s Venezuela Daniela Suárez Vargas The Cauca River as a 'Mass Grave': Socio-Environmental Perspectives on Enforced Disappearances and Transitional Justice in Colombia Amaranta Espinoza and Rodrigo Suárez What Has the Desert Witnessed? Artistic and investigative experiences in the search for the detained-disappeared in Chile |
| 3:30pm | Short Film Festival |
Day 3 - Tuesday 1 September
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 9:30am to 11am | Panel 10: Disappearances, Families, and Activism (Part Two) Giorgia Foti and Michela Lovato Parentalizing Disappearance: Maternal Identity and Epistemic Violence at European Borders Luis Orlando Pérez Jiménez and Par Engstrom Mexico's Disappeared and Colectivos: Collective Mobilisation Amidst Violence and Impunity Emily Fisher Conceptualising and Testing the Utility of the Enforced Disappearance Cause Field Charlotte McMackin "Calladita te ves más bonita": Counter-Archives of Disappearance and the Madres Buscadoras' Struggle for Truth and Justice in Mexico |
| 11am to 11:15am | Coffee Break |
| 11:15am to 12:45pm | Panel 13: Borders and Disappearances Giulia Sezzi The Disappearing Multitude: For a Politics of Re/Appearance in the Central Mediterranean Michela Lovato Contested Restitution: Necropolitics and the Political Work of Grieving at Europe's Borders Phevos Simeonidis On Frozen Assets: Attributions of value and significance to missing, disappeared, and recovered human remains across different actors and stakeholders in the Greek-Turkish border |
| 12:45pm | Lunch |
| 2pm to 3:30pm | Round Table: Addressing Enforced Disappearance: A Task for Multidisciplinary Teams Pamela Favre (Psychologist, Program Officer at swisspeace (previously at Pro Búsqueda, El Salvador) Nisren Habib (Manager of the Feminist Research Unit at Women Now) Shari Eppel (Director, Ukuthula Forensic Anthropology Team, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) Lisa Ott (Head of Dealing with the Past Program, swisspeace) |
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 9:30am to 11am | Panel 11: Disappearances in the Syrian Context Chantal Youssef Waiting as Rule: Gendered Temporalities of War and Disappearance Julie Bernath The things we were able to hold onto – Affective Archives of Syria's Disappeared in the Context of Displacement Kholoud Barakat Activism as a Coping Mechanism to deal with Ambiguous Loss: Benefits, Challenges, and Psychological Risks Nisren Habib Participatory Action Research on Ambiguous Loss: Critical Reflections on Methods and Ethics from a Project with Syrian Women in Syria, Lebanon |
| 11am to 11:15am | Coffee Break |
| 11:15am to 12:45pm | Panel 14: Missing Bodies and Postwar Reconciliation Stipe Odak Found and Lost Again: Reinscribing the Bodies of the Disappeared into the Collective Body Vadim Romashov Reconciliation Through Recovery? Transborder Engagement with the Wartime Missing Aso Piri Disappeared Husbands, Resilient Widows: Gendered Agency Reconfiguration among Female Survivors of the Barzani and Anfal Genocides Anush Petrosyan The Missing and the Politics of Disappearance in Armenia: Re-Embodying the Armenian-Azerbaijani Conflict |
| 12:45pm | Lunch |
| 2pm to 3:30pm | Panel 17: Gender, Women, and Feminist Approaches Gerard Maguire Colonial Disappearance and Legacy of Harm: Addressing the MMIWG2S Crisis in Canada Helena Rodríguez-Bronchú Who May Reproduce? Enforced Disappearance and Reproductive Violence Aruni Samarakoon Binary of Appearance–Disappearance: Narrative Agency of Women's Collective Movement in Post-War Sri Lanka Valentina Mendez Höcherl Bodies That Do Not Count: Gendered Regimes of Enforced Disappearance Along the Mexican Migration Corridor Aimée Baker Restoring Presence: Art, Witness, and the Lives of Missing Women |
| 3:30pm to 4:30pm | Closing Workshop Roberta Bacic, Conflict Textiles curator, will lead a hands-on closing workshop using scraps of materials. Textile and Text will leave a creative tactile and visual trail; testimony of our participation and engagement during the conference. Materials will be provided, though participants are welcome to bring along a small textile scrap that has a personal sentimental value. |
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 9:30am to 11am | Panel 12: Art and Memorialization Paulina Trejo Mendez Voluntary blindness: art and memory-making in the context of disappearance in Mexico Myriam Dalal Participatory Action Research in Disappearance Studies: A Proposal for the Missing of the Lebanese Civil War Marina Wondrich, Sara Al-Taeshi, and Spede Mizuri Being.Lost: Exploring Disappearance through Public Art in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq Robert Lunday The Anatomy of Missingness: Tropes of Space and Place in Writing Disappearance Blerina Këllezi and Gazmend Bajri Documentary Film: Blood in the blackbirds' field. A story of war, justice and resilience |
| 11am to 11:15am | Coffee Break |
| 11:15am to 12:45pm | Panel 15: Cultural Lives of the Disappeared Cheryl Lawther 'In absentia': Relocating Northern Ireland's 'missing' and 'disappeared' Alison Ribeiro de Menezes Embodied Frictions: Spain's Civil-War Disappeared Elizabeth Rosales Martínez We are all missing the disappeared: translation as extended kinship Nuala Finnegan Encrypting pain: an ethics of hope in storytelling about enforced disappearance in Mexico Katie Taylor Heartlands and beyond: Creative practice as a method for exploring absence, memory and conflict |
| 12:45pm | Lunch |
| 2pm to 3:30pm | Panel 18: Transitional Justice and Aftermaths of Disappearances Abiramy Sivalogananthan The Right to Truth and the Right to Know: The Missing Persons in the Context of Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka Elil Rajendram The Geopolitics of the accountability mechanism (on enforced disappearance) in Sri Lanka Brandon Hamber Echoes of Absence: The Symbolic Power of Political Loss Anna Reißig Temporalities of disappearance |
Registration
Standard registration rates apply from 11 May through 31 May 2026.
Fees are:
- £40 for early-career researchers and Global South scholars.
- £80 for all other participants, including non-presenting attendees.
As of 31 May 2026, registration will only be open for non-presenting attendees (£80 per person).
The fees cover two lunches, coffee breaks, and organisational costs.
All participants need to register, even when co-presenting a paper.
Accommodation
The conference committee has secured preferential rates at a selection of hotels for registered participants. We strongly encourage you to book as early as possible, as these rates are subject to availability and some have a booking deadline.
Rate
£129.00 per night (Bed & Breakfast)
How to Book
You can book in one of three ways:
- Book the Holiday Inn Express online
- Email reservations@hixderry.com quoting 'Ulster University INCORE Conference'
Rooms must be reserved by 31 July 2026 to access this rate. Free cancellation available up to 7 days before arrival.
Rate
£100.00 per night (Bed & Breakfast, single room)
How to Book
To access the conference rate:
- Call the hotel and quote "INCORE"
- Email reservations@davincishotel.com with "INCORE" in the subject line
Rate
£140.00 per night (Bed & Breakfast, single room)
How to Book
Please contact Amanda Doherty directly at revenue.derry@maldronhotels.com — no booking code required, simply mention you are attending the INCORE Conference.
Rate
£135.00 per night (Bed & Breakfast)
How to Book
To access the conference rate, email reservations@theebrington.com and mention that you are attending the INCORE Conference.
Rate
£150.00 per night (based on a 2-night stay)
How to Book
Book directly via the dedicated booking link:
Rate
£110.00 per night (Bed & Cooked Breakfast)
How to Book
To access the conference rate, simply reference "INCORE Ulster University Conference" when booking. No dedicated room block is held, but reception staff have been informed and availability is currently good.
Visit the Walled City Hotel website
Email: info@walledcityhotel.com
Rate
£85 per night (Bed & Continental Breakfast)
How to Book
To access the conference rate, simply reference "INCORE Ulster University Conference" when booking.
Visit the Maiden City Hotel website
Email: info@maidencityhotel.com
Additional Options
Please note that the following hotels are located further away from the Derry~Londonderry campus. We are sharing these options for participants who may be interested, but encourage you to consider the transport connections to the venue when booking.
Rate
£100.00 per night
How to Book
To access the conference rate, please call or email the hotel mentioning you are attending the INCORE Conference.
Email: reception@waterfoothotel.com
Rates
- 30 August: £130.00 per night
- 31 August: £170.00 per night
- 1 September: On request
How to Book
To access the conference rate, please contact the hotel directly. Email: sales@whitehorsehotel.biz
Partners
This conference is organised in collaboration with:
Contact
For all enquiries regarding submissions, registration or general information:
We look forward to welcoming you to Derry~Londonderry in August 2026.
