The Anarchist Studies Network Thrives at the Political Studies Association Conference 2026
Spring 2026 witnessed the most significant anarchist platform presented to-date at a Political Studies Association conference (PSA). Hosted this year in Oxford, England, the PSA depicts itself as ‘a rewarding, and popular event for those researching, teaching, studying, or practicing politics, political studies, international relations, and related disciplines’. For the first time, we, in the U.K. Anarchist Studies Network (ASN), organised three distinct sessions at a PSA conference, representing a diverse array of political perspectives and practical arguments rooted in anarchist politics and actions – rising from single sessions at previous iterations in 2023 (Liverpool, England), 2024 (Glasgow, Scotland), and 2025 (Birmingham, England). Spread across a round table discussion and two paper panels, the three events occurred on Tuesday 31st March, this space offered a micro anarchist gathering in advance of our ‘flagship event’, the ASN conference – the ninth of which will take place in-person at the University of Manchester, England (26th – 28th August 2026 with a further online day on 31st August) on the theme of More Than Human Anarchisms.
With a limited budget made available to our network by the PSA via their membership systems – itself quite a challenging approach in what are often high-cost academic settings – our co-convenor group supported a colleague based in England with transport and conference fees, whilst we also contributed towards another ‘anarchademic’ joining us from Latin America. On the day, colleagues engaged in research and / or teaching from institutions in England, Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, the US, Finland, and Brazil shared investigations into historical anarchist movements and their relevance from contemporary organising; the manifestations of anarchist ideologies in modern popular culture, social movements, and faith-based contexts; as well as discourse on what an ethical approach to anarchist praxis within capitalist culture might actually entail.
Though academic settings constitute a multitude of challenges, morally as much as practically, the positions many of us hold within educational settings afford us highly privileged environments within which we integrate, embed, and align our anarchist perspectives. Just as the PSA conference permitted those unfamiliar with, intrigued in, or even hostile to anarchist and anarchist-adjacent approaches to engage in our hosted spaces, our status within these organisations, at times, facilitates access to institutional funding, teaching environments where we can expose our learners to radical ideas beyond the conventional curriculum, and opportunities to engage diverse audiences in critical discourse. None of us entered these institutions with any illusions over what they represent (profiteering from free-paying students, qualifications serving as barriers to entering the types of work our learners want to do, etc.). Rather, we’re striving to strengthen our own networks so that, in our dedicated spaces, we can continue to promote solidarity, partnerships, and collaboration within a culture that often values the very opposite.
Get in touch: Contact Elke at emf.vdm@gmail.com
Written by the co-convenor team of Dr. Ray Di Marco Campbell, Dr. Elke Van dermijnsbrugge, Dr. Shane Little, and Dr. Laurence Davis. With thanks to Dr. Rhiannon Firth, Dr. Jim Donaghey, Dr. Jon Bigger, Dr. James Willis, Mr. Matti Eskelinen, and Dr. Ivan Thomaz Leite de Oliveira for their contributions.
