Plenary speakers line-up announced for the 2026 Annual Conference

This year’s Annual Conference is shaping up to be a packed three days, with keynotes, panel discussions and workshops, thousands of presentations, and more - all engaging with the Chair’s theme of Geographies of inequalities: towards just places.

Anchoring this busy programme are the Chair’s sessions, convened and selected by Professor Peter Hopkins in his role as Chair of Conference. Ahead of submissions for the programme closing on Friday 6 March, we are also delighted to announce the Chair’s sessions for 2026.

The conference will open with a keynote lecture by Professor Susan Smith of the British Academy on the evening of Tuesday 1 September.

Across the three days of the conference, we’ll also feature keynote panel discussions on health inequalities, challenging racism, gender and sexuality inequalities, and migrant justice and border abolition, alongside a fireside chat with Professor Jason Arday of the University of Cambridge.

In a first for the conference, the Chair’s sessions line-up will also feature a Time to Think panel showing how to make space for a 'thinking approach', and how we can support colleagues, students and collaborators with this.

Peter discusses his chosen theme and planned plenary sessions in this short video online and you can also explore the Chair’s session line-up in more detail.