Final CFA: Crisis! Life in the 21st century (South African Society for Critical Theory)

[Kayleigh Timmer]

SASCT

South African Society for Critical Theory 7^th Annual Conference 

20 to 22 November 2025

 

Nelson Mandela University 

Crisis! Life in the 21st century – Critical approaches to challenges facing the contemporary world.

The South African Society for Critical Theory (SASCT) is pleased to announce its upcoming 7th Annual Conference, which will take place at the Nelson Mandela University from the 20th to the 22nd of November 2025, on the theme of Crisis! Life in the 21st century – Critical approaches to challenges facing the contemporary world. This will be an in-person attendance conference with the option of online participation for international participants. 

The keynote speaker is Vishwas Satgar, a democratic ecosocialist and associate professor of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is the editor of the Democratic Marxism book series, and a co-founder of the Climate Justice Charter Movement – a South African social movement that advocates for socio-ecological transformation through grassroots activism and mobilisation.   

The conference will focus on global challenges that are threatening the continued creative evolution of life on the planet in all its forms. These challenges range from ecological breakdown, socio-economic inequalities, political instability, and mass migration (including climate-related displacement) to obstacles to education, crises in health, uncritical technological optimism, and the marginalisation of art’s catalytic role in social regeneration. Such challenges often inform and exacerbate each other, creating a complex and pressing series of crises (or polycrisis) for the planet and both its human and nonhuman inhabitants.

Submissions that engage with the overall conference theme are invited.

Possible sub-themes include (but are not limited to):

 ·Ecology and the rights of nature

· Ecology and the multipolar world

· A critical theory of space: Safe space, hostile space, and creating space

· Social accountability in the digital age

· Critical theory, political discourse, and contemporary media

·Digital empire and national sovereignty

·Migration, displacement, and nationality/nationalisms

· Climate change and climate refugees

·Emancipation and education

·The biopsychosocial pitfalls of digital education

·Trauma, health, and healing in a digital age

·The politics of pandemics

·Techno-optimism and techno-dystopia

·Modern technology and contemporary existence: Challenges, critiques, and opportunities

· Art and the critical imagining of alternative futures

· Building lives through architecture and art

 

The conference welcomes approaches from all aspects of Critical Theory, broadly construed. In particular, the conference welcomes papers that address challenges relating to: Critical environmental theory, African critical theory, critical digital studies, Frankfurt School critical theory, critical feminism, critical masculine studies, critical film studies, critical race theory, critical theory of technology, critical legal studies, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, critical hermeneutics, liberation theory, critical pedagogy, critical theology, and critical anthropology.

The conference would also consider papers that draw on the work of thinkers outside of the ‘canon’ of Critical Theory, but that nevertheless extend current research in Critical Theory or embody alternative forms of Critical Theory.

Submission

Please submit a 250 to 300-word abstract to  sas...@gmail.com by the 31^st of August 2025. Abstracts will be refereed, and acceptance letters will be sent out by the 20^th of September at the latest. Conference participants will have 20 minutes to present their papers, followed by a 10-minute question-and-answer session.

Accommodation

As the conference will be held at the Business School situated on the 2^nd Avenue Campus of the Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, South Africa, participants are advised to arrange their accommodation at one of the many locations along the Summerstrand beachfront or in the Summerstrand neighbourhood for the sake of convenience. A list of possible accommodation options will be distributed to attendees closer to the date.

Conference fees

The fee for the three-day conference (including teas and lunches) is R1800 (including VAT).

The fee for participating Honours, Masters and Doctoral students is R1000.

International speakers may participate online for a fee of R1500.

Special issue

Note also that a special issue on the theme of the conference will be published by Acta Academica: Critical Views on Society, Culture and Politics, a DHET-accredited journal. Submitted papers will be subject to the usual double-blind peer review process.

Contact us

Should you have queries regarding any aspect of the conference, please do not hesitate to contact the conference organising committee:

Lungelo Manona: lungelo...@mandela.ac.za
Kayleigh Timmer: kayleig...@gmail.com
Anusha Sewchurran: anush...@dut.ac.za
Mark Amiradakis: amirad...@ufs.ac.za

Jean du Toit:  jdu...@ufh.ac.za