Call for Proposals: The 30th Biennial IPRA Conference

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

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Celebrating sixty years since International Peace Research Association was first founded in 1964, the 30th IPRA biennial conference, warmly welcomes you to join the largest body of global peace researchers, students, academics and community-based practitioners to Aotearoa New Zealand from 5-8 November 2025.  The conference theme is “Peace, Resistance and Reconciliation | Te Rongo i Tau, Te Riri i Tū and Te Ringa i Kotuia” will gather inspiring thought leaders of activists, artists, community practitioners and researchers to reflect on the intersection of peace, resistance and reconciliation.

 

We welcome all participants to this conference to bring their visionary research and ideas to share with like-minded community.  Māori are the Indigenous Polynesian people of Aotearoa and consider the Māori village of Parihaka Pā to be the birthplace of non-violence resistance.  Here, Māori resistance to colonisation became a genesis of a worldwide, non-violence movement that spread to India, the Americas, and throughout the world. 

 

Almost sixty years of peace advocacy has advanced the struggles of many people who have experienced injustice, genocide, racism and colonization.  We call on students, communities and researchers to ignite the call for peace, cultural, social, psychological, physical and spiritual wellbeing for all beings living on this shared planet. The 2025 IPRA General Conference welcomes leadership change makers and flax/ grass roots initiatives to share in local, national and international wisdom amongst the gathered collective. 

 

Parihaka Pā, was once a thriving village, the seedbed of passive resistance within Aotearoa New Zealand.  This conference will begin at this sacred place of international significance and then move to the Devon Hotel, New Plymouth 5-8 November 2025 for the conference proceedings.  Taranaki is an important region of Aotearoa New Zealand, as it was the place where the New Zealand Land wars began in 1860 between Europeans and Māori.  The land holds both the memory of love, pain and forgiveness – a recipe for reaching our highest selves and known wisdom. 

           

 

TOPICS FOR CONSIDERATION

 

The IPRA 2025 Conference welcomes papers and proposals which explore the following Major Thematic Areas, alongside other Sub-Themes within IPRA’s various Commissions. Applicants are encouraged to creatively link their proposals to one or more of the following themes and/or sub-themes: 

 

Thematic Areas of “Peace, Resistance, Reconciliation | Te Rongo i Tau, Te Riri i Tū, Te Ringa i Kotuia”

 

• Building peace movements for justice: experiences, theory and methods

• Creative spaces to grow peace and justice

• Healing wounds, histories and hearts

• Holistic healing for shared planet stewardship

• Indigenous wisdom and peace

• Interculturality and ethical communities 

• Movements of antiwar and political violence

• Peace, education and justice

• Reconciling past grievances for a shared future

• Regenerating restorative justice and community building

• Rethinking sustainability for peace and justice or

• Transformational non-violence movements

• Youth-led and community peace activism

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IPRA Commission Sub-themes:

• Advancing peace education: theories and history

• Art, music and the culture of creating peace

• Creating alternatives for humanity living in crisis

• Development, political economy and sustainable peace

• Gender and peace

• Human security and society

• Indigenous peacebuilding knowledges and practices

• Lifting out of climate, economic and humanity crisis

• Media, conflicts and journalism

• Memory, museums and peacemaking

• Nonviolence and peace movements

• Peace and ecology in the Anthropocene

• Transformative pathways towards peace and justice (PPJ)

• Youth, sports and peace

 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

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Participants:

IPRA members, independent scholars, and students (graduate and undergraduate) are invited to submit conference presentation proposals. Limit: No more than two presentation proposals per applicant will be considered.
 

• In-Person Presentation: All presenters are expected to deliver their presentations in-person on-site at the Conference venue.  

• Format: Presentation proposals in one of the six formats listed below will be considered.

• Abstract link: Please submit the title and an abstract (no more than 300 words) by 30 NOVEMBER 2024 on the IPRA 2025 PRESENTATION PROPOSAL FORM.

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Presentation Formats:

1. Individual / Co-authored: Papers: 15 minutes for the presentation, 5 minutes for Q&A/Discussion.

2. Panels: Three or four paper presentations on a common topic/theme. The proposal must include 1) a title for the panel and titles of individual papers, and 2) an abstract for the panel theme, and description of each paper. (75-minute session).

3. Roundtable Discussion: These sessions involve interactive discussions of issues pertinent to the Conference Theme(s) led by a Chair/Facilitator and three or four Discussants. The emphasis should be on audience input and participation. (50 -minute session).

4. Poster Presentation / Photo / Art Exhibition: Static posterboard display (maximum 48 in X 60 in, trifold or flat display) and optional looping slideshow on an iPad, tablet or laptop. Author/presenter(s) should be present for Q&A/discussion. (Multiple poster presentations in a single 75-minute session).

5. Workshop / Tutorial / Class: A hands-on lesson, workshop, or tutorial on writing, researching, or teaching a topic pertinent to the Conference Theme led by one, two, or three instructors/leaders. (50-minute session).  

6. Special Performance [e.g. Dance/Music/Poetry or New Film Screening] on the Conference Theme: (Please submit a detailed proposal to the IPRA2025 Program Committee [Email: ipra2025@gmail.com].

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