Hybrid, liminal, ambiguous? International politics ‘in-between’
The European International Studies Association (EISA) invites workshop proposals for EWIS 2025, which will take place at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow on 2-4 July 2025. The European Workshops in International Studies (EWIS), launched by the EISA in 2013, have fast established themselves as a spirited place for the European IR community to engage in sustained, in-depth discussion with a diverse range of peers from various institutions, countries, disciplines and career stages. EWIS has proven to be a popular and productive format, perfect for preparing special issues, edited volumes or exploring new ideas, themes and directions in a vibrant and friendly atmosphere.
EWIS 2025 will take place in Krakow, Poland, at a time when global politics is increasingly characterised by multi-scalar and multidimensional challenges that defy neat categorical distinctions. Although International Relations has long grappled with the question of hybridity, today’s key concerns for IR scholars combine questions of sovereignty, territoriality, power, war, capital, the politics of knowledge, and technology in ever more intertwined and elusive ways. International organisations are increasingly compelled to think holistically about the scope of the problems and their solutions. States and non-state actors alike are employing hybrid strategies to deal with formal and informal conflicts, while Artificial Intelligence is touted as both a possible threat to international security and a technological solution to such threats. At the same time, events such as the Russian invasion(s) of Ukraine, the escalation of Israel’s war on Gaza, the spread of far-right movements across the globe, or the many aftermaths of the global financial crisis make it increasingly difficult to delineate clear temporal boundaries between conflict and peace, democracy and authoritarianism, or economic crisis and recovery. Thinking in terms of liminality, alongside hybridity or ambiguity, encourages us to see all these events and processes as in flux, unfinished, and thus offering the potential for reversing hierarchies and power structures.
Hence, the 12th iteration of EWIS at Jagiellonian University invites EISA members to consider the implications of hybrid, transitional, or borderline conditions for the study of international politics. We are particularly interested in workshop proposals that seek to interrogate the meaning of ‘in-between’ at a time when much international politics seem to be happening in spaces, times and matters that can be characterized as such. How does a focus on the ‘in-between’ change our perspective on global issues ranging from war and cooperation to climate change, economic transformation, imperialism, migration, postcoloniality, and patriarchal regimes? What pressing themes in international studies can be productively addressed through such a framework? What can international studies contribute to an interdisciplinary dialogue on hybridity, transition or liminality? What kind of methodologies open space for collaborations in-between paradigms, and disciplines? We invite submissions tackling these and related questions falling under this year’s theme and touching the hybrid, liminal or ambiguous ‘in-between’ texture of current international politics.
