Call for Papers and Panels: Decolonizing Peace Work in Palestine-Israel

22 January 2026 at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Call for papers and panels deadline 30.11.2025.

Sumud – The Finnish Palestine Network, the University of Helsinki and Tampere University invite you to submit abstracts for a seminar entitled Decolonizing peace work in Palestine-Israel, scheduled to take place at the University of Helsinki on January 22, 2026. The seminar brings together scholars working on Palestine-Israel, decolonization, and peace and conflict studies as well as civil society actors and grassroots community organizers.

As the international community has failed to prevent and halt the on-going genocide in Gaza, discussions surrounding post-conflict recovery and governance strategies in the area are increasingly gaining prominence on the global agenda – risking, however, the reinforcement of historical and colonial asymmetries of power. Widely circulated “day after” reconstruction plans for Gaza produced by Israeli and US actors deny Palestinian agency and treat the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip as a means to further economic interests and accelerate the accumulation of capital in the global West. In this context, those engaged in peace work in the region must pose the critical question of whose visions, interests, and conditions prominent peace plans ultimately reflect. What kinds of strategies can truly deconstruct the entrenched hierarchies of power at the root of the colonial violence in Palestine-Israel?

Against this backdrop, the decolonization of peacebuilding and a shift toward a rights-based approach to the Palestinian-Israeli peace process is a pressing matter with far-reaching implications for both the region and the broader international community.

The Decolonising Peace Work in Palestine-Israel seminar centers the themes of sustainable peace, building a just, rights-based society and dismantling settler colonial power structures, such as illegal occupation, apartheid, forced displacement, demographic engineering, surveillance infrastructures, and environmental violence. The seminar focuses on discussing the role of Finland, Finnish actors and the international community in promoting an open, just, and pluralistic peace process in Palestine-Israel. The seminar discusses concrete ways to decolonize peace processes and dismantle and problematize the Western-centric peace mediation model.

Submit the abstract of your paper (approx 400 words) or the description of your panel (approx 400 words) here (Google Forms) by 30.11.2025.

Participation fee for presentors and panelists: 30€ (lower fee for students, pensioners, and other people eligible for a discount: 15€)

The seminar is organized by Sumud – The Finnish Palestine Network, the University of Helsinki, and the University of Tampere.

The keynote speakers will be announced soon.