Mannheim PhD Symposium 2026
Call for Applications
The LSE’s Mannheim Centre for Criminology is pleased to announce the inaugural PhD Symposium on May 18th-19th, 2026. PhD students registered at any university are encouraged to submit an abstract for a paper or chapter that would benefit from interdisciplinary discussion among PhD students, LSE faculty, and the Mannheim Centre community.
The Centre interprets criminology broadly, and projects are enthusiastically welcomed from all manner of topics, approaches, and traditions that might qualify as criminological or criminology-adjacent.
Eligibility is restricted to students who are currently registered in a PhD programme, and who will have not yet submitted their materials for a viva examination before the Symposium on May 18th, 2026.
To apply, please submit a draft title and abstract (~250 words), along with your full name and university affiliation, to Dr Johann Koehler (socialpolicy.mannheim@lse.ac.uk ) before noon (GMT) on December 8th, 2025. Please include “PhD Symposium 2026—[Your surname]” as the subject line.
To promote discussion of pre-circulated papers during the Symposium, there will be no presentations as such. Therefore, submission of an abstract indicates agreement to (i) circulate a draft of your paper to attendees by April 27th, 2026; (ii) prepare reactions to the other submitted papers; and (iii) attend both days of the Symposium, in-person, on the LSE’s campus in London.
Limited funds are available to reimburse travel. Acceptance to the Symposium also includes an invitation to attend the Mannheim Centre’s Annual Lecture on May 19th, 2026. This year’s speaker will be Professor Alison Liebling, who’ll present her forthcoming book Aristotle’s Prison: A Search for Humanity and Justice.