Jîna Academy Announces Its First Biennial Conference in Paris
Deconstructing Structures of Power: A Decolonial Re-reading of History and Political Culture in Kurdistan
29–30 October 2026 | Paris, France
Campus Condorcet | In collaboration with EHESS
Jîna Academy for Humanities and Social Research is pleased to announce its First Biennial Conference, taking place in Paris on 29–30 October 2026 in collaboration with the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS).
Over the past century, knowledge about Kurdistan has been deeply shaped by states, dominant academic institutions, colonial histories, and unequal structures of power. These forces have influenced not only how the Kurdish question has been politically defined, but also how Kurdish society, history, culture, and political life have been studied, represented, and narrated.
Under the title “Deconstructing Structures of Power: A Decolonial Re-reading of History and Political Culture in Kurdistan,” the conference seeks to critically revisit these frameworks and create a space for alternative ways of thinking, researching, and narrating Kurdistan.
Bringing together scholars, researchers, educators, intellectuals, and activists from Kurdistan, Europe, and the diaspora, the conference will place critical and decolonial approaches in conversation with Kurdish experiences, histories, and forms of knowledge production.
Conference Program
The two-day gathering will feature an opening keynote lecture, four thematic panels, and a concluding roundtable.
The discussions will address questions including the production and decolonization of knowledge about Kurdistan; the possibilities offered by alternative academies and educational spaces; continuities and ruptures in political and intellectual understandings of the Kurdish question over the past century; the return of Kurdish subjects, experiences, and narratives to the writing of Kurdish history; and women’s struggles to create and transform public spaces.
The conference will conclude with a roundtable on political horizons for Kurdistan, bringing different perspectives into conversation around contemporary transformations and possible futures.
A Multilingual Space
In keeping with Jîna Academy’s commitment to multilingual knowledge production, the conference will take place in Kurdish (Sorani and Kurmanji) and English.
Multilingualism is central to the Academy’s approach. The conference therefore seeks not simply to discuss the decolonization of knowledge, but to practice it by creating space for intellectual exchange in languages that have historically been marginalized within dominant academic institutions.
About the Biennial Conference
The Biennial Conference is part of Jîna Academy’s growing educational, research, and public programming. Alongside our humanities certificate program, public colloquia, summer school, research collaborations, and developing publishing initiatives, the conference is intended to become a recurring international space for critical scholarship and collective intellectual exchange.
Our first gathering in Paris marks an important step in building connections among scholars, students, educators, and movements working across institutional and geographical boundaries.
29–30 October 2026
Campus Condorcet, Paris/Aubervilliers, France
The detailed program, speakers, registration information, and information about online participation will be announced soon.