An IAMCR pre-conference
Communicative Futures: Concepts to Imagine With, invites us to think about imagining both futures and concepts for expressing, making, dreaming and cocreating alternative futures. This event adopts an innovative ‘conceptual hackathon’ format, previously used as part of the production of the 2017 book, Communicating for Change: Concepts to Think With, published by Palgrave.
The aims of this IAMCR Pre-Conference are:
- To engage playfully with futures thinking and methods to rethink and advance theories and concepts in participatory communication and social change
- To collaborate towards an special issue or edited book
- To be inclusive of early career scholars and scholars from low-income economies.
Format of the event: the pre-conference will begin with a future scenario-mapping session to engage with thinking about alternative futures, followed by quick-fire rounds of presentations and workshopping of concepts. Day 2 will be a mini writing retreat, in order to immediately build the concepts into a draft article/ chapter. The aim is that participants have a solid draft working towards publication by the end of the event.
Communicative Futures is a collaboration between IAMCR, led by the Participatory Communication Research (PCR) Section, and by Loughborough University London’s Communication and Social Change Research Hub and Institute for Creative Futures. The event is hosted at Loughborough University’s London campus The lead organisers of the event are Dr Jessica Noske-Turner and Dr Ana Cristina Suzina.
A small number of bursaries of £300 will be made available to support participants with accepted submissions from low-income economies (as per the IAMCR criteria), prioritising early career and precariously employed scholars.
Date and time
09:00-17:00, June 25-26, 2026
Location
Loughborough University London, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, The Broadcast Centre Here East, Lesney Ave, London E20 3BS
Loughborough University’s London campus is located near Stratford in East London. The easiest airports are Heathrow, London City airport or Stansted Airport. There are dIf travelling from Heathrow Airport it is easily accessible via the Elizabeth Line. There is an airport coach that runs between Stansted Airport and Stratford, or by train (one change). City Airport is accessible by train (DLR).
Participation and registration
Submission details
Please submit a 1-page original concept outline, to be workshopped at the event. See Communicating for Change: Concepts to Think With, published by Palgrave/ Springer (2020), for inspiration.
For applicants to the bursaries: please include a short bio, including institutional affiliation/ country of residence, current level of study / employment status.
Submissions via this form
Key dates
- Feb 20 2026 – Early bird deadline submissions (for those applying for bursaries and needing early visa invitation letters)
- Feb 27 2026 – Decisions on early-bird submissions and bursaries
- Mar 27 2026 – Final deadline for submissions
- April 24 – Final decisions announced
- June 25-26 – Pre-Conference Event
Organisers
- Jessica Noske-Turner, Loughborough University London, Co-Chair Participatory Communication Research (PCR) Section
- Ana Suzina, Loughborough University London, IAMCR International Council member
Contact
General inquiries to csc.hub@mailbox.lboro.ac.uk
Urgent inquiries to j.noske-turner@lboro.ac.uk
