The call for panels and other formats for EASST2026 in Krakow is now open and we look forward to receiving your proposals! The deadline for submitting proposals is 31October (23:59 CEST).
We welcome proposals for the following formats:
- Traditional Open Panels: A Traditional Open Panel is composed of typical academic paper presentations, possibly followed by reflections by a discussant. The word “open” refers to all panels being proposed without a list of prospective participants – paper abstracts will be proposed to each accepted panel during the Call for Abstracts and any STS scholar can propose their work to a panel of interest.
- Workshops:Conceptualised as practical events containing collective research activities, guided interactions and free-format exchanges leading to specific public outputs. A workshop may have up to two 90-minute sessions (please note: due to high attendance and capacity restrictions, we may need to reduce this number to one session). Proposals must list the practical requirements of the workshop at the end of the long abstract: specifications for required space, materials, maximum number of participants etc.
- Roundtables: here a group of scholars (usually no more than five) discusses themes/issues of general scholarly interest in front of (and subsequently with) an audience for the duration of a single 90-minute session. While a roundtable can include short (5-10 minute) contributions, the aim is to create a lively debate rather than focus on any one presenter. A roundtable can be open (gathering contributions during the Call for Abstracts phase), it can also be proposed with a full list of contributers listed in your long abstract.
- Combined Format Open Panel: A Combined Format Open Panel consists of a traditional panel with papers followed by either a roundtable or a workshop, or both (it cannot exceed 3 sessions).
- Making & Doing contributions: the Making & Doing program consists of experimental work and exploratory practices that are best presented interactively, outside of a traditional panel format. Making & Doing encourages STS researchers to share work that takes up speculative, participatory, reflexive and/or aesthetic approaches to the study of science, technology and society, as well as projects that experiment with frameworks for producing, sharing, and reconfiguring knowledge. The Making & Doing sessions will all take place in parallel.
- Meet-Ups: meet-ups are gatherings or meetings around research communities, publishing communities (like author meets critics sessions), shared approaches, research topics, or regional foci. Meet-ups will usually last 1 hour and take place during lunch breaks as not to compete with panels.
All proposals must be proposed via an online form. As the first step, you will need to select the panel format: a traditional open panel, a workshop, roundtable, making&doing, combined format open panel or meet-up. As the second step you will you need to provide the following information:
- panel title
- names and email addresses of the panel convenors
- short abstract of <300 characters
- long abstract/description of <300 words. If proposing a Combined Format Open Panel, please briefly describe the types of contributions to be welcomed.
The long abstract should include a brief discussion of its contribution to STS, and, if relevant, to the theme of the 2026 conference. You may add names of any chairs/discussants, although you may also add those at a later stage.
Open Panel topics, once accepted by the Program Committee, will be included in the general Call for Abstracts. Only one proposal per author will be included in the conference programme, while you can propose into several panels, you can keep only one paper.
Convenors of Open Panels must agree to receive abstract proposals during the Call for Abstracts (15 December 2025 to 28 February 2026) if their panel is accepted. After the Call for Abstracts ends, each panel’s convenors will decide which proposals to accept within their panel (28 February-16 March).
Open Panels can extend across a maximum of three 90-minute sessions.
If you have queries, please email the local organising team via conference(at)easst.net.
Participation and convenor guidance
To maximise participation across the conference, the program committee will follow these guidelines in reviewing panel and paper submission:
- An individual may have each conference role only once during the conference:
- convene a Traditional Open Panel OR a Workshop OR a Roundtable OR a Combined Format Open Panel once;
- present once in a Traditional Open Panel OR a Workshop OR a Roundtable OR a Combined Format Open Panel;
- present one contribution to the STS Making & Doing program;
- be a discussant once (either as a Roundtable participant or a discussant in a Workshop or a Traditional Open Panel or a Combined Format Open Panel OR be a chair once (in any of the formats).
- Please note that if a convenor decides to present in their own panel, regardless of the format, that counts as fulfilling the presenter role (as well as their convening role). These presentations must be included in the panel as panel submissions.
- It is assumed a convenor will chair their own panel/combined format panel – unless they name someone else in that role – but this is not counted as chairing once. It is part of the convening role.
- It is allowed to be a co-author on additional papers if you are not the one presenting them.
- Open Panel convenors will decide on the selection of papers/contributions within their panel. However the Program Committee remains the overall arbiter of the programme and reserves the right to make changes if deemed necessary.
- While adherence to the conference theme is not the main criteria for panel selection, EASST encourages conveners (those proposing/organising a panel) to explore if there is a meaningful connection between their panel and the ideas outlined in the theme description.
Conference format and times
The EASST2026 Krakow conference will be a face-to-face (f2f) event with a programme running for four full days, 8-11 September 2026 at the AGH University of Krakow. Plenary sessions will be streamed; other virtual participation will not be facilitated.
How to propose a panel
To propose your panel, click the button below. This takes you to a login page. If you have previously used NomadIT’s conference environment ‘Cocoa’, you will have an account with which to log in. If you do not have a Cocoa account you must create one (link at bottom of that page), during which process you will be sent an automated email (check spam) asking you to click to verify your email address.
Once logged in, you can proceed to complete the open panel proposal form and submit your proposal. After submission, you will receive a confirmation email about the submission. If your proposal included any co-convenors, chairs or discussants, they will receive an email asking them to confirm their role in the panel (and create their Cocoa account if they don’t already have one).
