CfP: Looking for Everyday Security: A Cross-Disciplinary Workshop

The workshop will provide a venue for early-career researchers (ECRs) with an interest in exploring "everyday security" from different disciplinary perspectives. The event aims to create a network of ECRs and encourage exchange, leading to a special issue or future collaboration during conferences. This workshop provides a unique opportunity for participants to network with others both within and beyond UCL, as well as contribute to an emerging interdisciplinary field.

The field of security studies has historically focused on the discourses and practices of states, elites, and their agents, providing little insight into how "ordinary" people think about and practice security. In response to this gap, several research clusters have recently emerged within security studies, each focusing on a slightly different aspect of the matter.

While intradisciplinary integration has been attempted by some (e.g., Nyman 2021), cross-disciplinary interactions are rare. The inspiration for most everyday security clusters can be traced back to a paper authored by an anthropologist. However, there seems to be little interaction between disciplines beyond this point. Everyday security scholars are yet to acknowledge the work done by critical geographers on everyday spaces, including the role of ordinary relations in urban development or destruction, the interest of queer scholars in safe spaces, or decades of anthropological and sociological research on the survival strategies of poor people.

One possible reason for this is the differences in disciplinary vocabularies and ontologies, which make it difficult to recognise the similarities between these studies. Therefore, this workshop aims to gather ECRs from various fields who study security or related phenomena in everyday life. The workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to share and reflect on their work, and explore how cross-disciplinary exchanges could improve research on this topic.

Format

The format of the workshop will consist of two sessions. The morning session will involve eight participants who have circulated their papers beforehand. Each paper will be read by two participants. Each participant will present a piece of work-in-progress (around 6000-8000 words of a thesis chapter, book chapter, journal manuscript etc.) to the group. The short 5–10-minute presentation will be followed by 5-10 minutes of feedback from the specific readers, after which we will open the discussion to questions and answers with the audience. Each participant is allocated 30 minutes.

During the afternoon session, participants will take part in breakout groups to discuss the key themes that emerged in the papers. This will lead to a final whole group discussion on the everyday and overlapping themes and interests, with a potential discussion of a Special Issue.

The workshop will be attended by two co-convenors (David Rypel and Hannah Owens) and one senior discussant.

How to apply

To apply, please send the following to david.rypel.20@ucl.ac.uk and hannah.owens@rhul.ac.uk by 5pm on 12 February 2024. 

• A short bio (name, institutional affiliation, current role)
• How does your work relate to the everyday (broadly defined)? (1-3 short sentences)
• Abstract (max 250 words)

Notification of acceptance will be sent by 16 February 2024. We accept applications from PhDs/ECRs in any discipline across the social sciences and humanities.

Please note that we will be able to provide travel grants to a limited number of participants; state in your application if you would like to be considered and your estimate of travel costs.

Please email us at david.rypel.20@ucl.ac.uk or hannah.owens@rhul.ac.uk if you have any questions or queries.

Organisers: David Rypel (UCL) and Hannah Owens (Royal Holloway)

Image credit: Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash