Programme

Speakers at The Paris Conference on Arts & Humanities (PCAH) will provide a variety of perspectives from different academic and professional backgrounds. This page provides details of presentations and other programming. For more information about presenters, please visit the Speakers page.

Monday, June 15 to Thursday, June 18, 2026, will be held at the Sorbonne University International Conference Center (CICSU), Paris, France. Friday, June 19 will be held online.

Conference Outline

Monday, June 15, 2025Tuesday, June 16Wednesday, June 17Thursday, June 18Friday, June 19

All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

Location: Sorbonne University International Conference Center (CICSU)

09:00-10:00: Conference Check-in & Coffee | Auditorium Foyer (B1F)

10:00-10:25: Welcome Addresses & Recognition of IAFOR Scholarship Winners | Auditorium (B1F) & Online
Joseph Haldane, IAFOR, Japan
Georges Depeyrot, French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), France

10:25-10:40: Special Address | Auditorium (B1F) & Online

10:40-11:10: Keynote Presentation | Auditorium (B1F) & Online
11:10-11:20: Q&A

11:20-12:20: Discussion Panel | Auditorium (B1F) & Online

12:20-12:30: Conference Photograph

12:30-14:30: Extended Break

14:30-14:55: Keynote Presentation | Auditorium (B1F) & Online
14:55-15:10: Q&A

15:15-16:30: Keynote Presentation and Discussion Panel | Auditorium (B1F) & Online

16:40-17:40: Welcome Reception & Conference Poster Session | Auditorium Foyer (B1F)

20:00-22:00: Conference Dinner | Bofinger
This is an optional ticketed event

All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

Location: Sorbonne University International Conference Center (CICSU)

08:30-08:45: Conference Check-in | Room 102 (1F)

08:45-09:15: IAFOR Information Session | Room 108 (1F)
This session provides an overview of what to expect at the conference, including guidance on preparing your presentation, publishing opportunities, and ways to engage with IAFOR. You will receive practical tips on setting up your presentation and understanding your role at the conference, including how to attract a larger audience to your session. We will also outline the publishing opportunities available, including how to submit your work to be published in the Conference Proceedings or IAFOR Journals. This session also offers a chance to explore the opportunities for deeper engagement, whether through networking with fellow delegates or getting involved more with IAFOR. Join us, and get ready to present, publish, and participate.

09:20-10:20: The Forum | Room 108 (1F)
Come share your thoughts and experiences as global educators and researchers with other international experts through interdisciplinary discussions designed to engage with on-the-cusp issues. Through this activity, you will be able to contribute to an academic and political debate that potentially holds the key to more peace and harmony among countries and within societies, which has been troubling policy-makers for decades due to its complex nature.

10:20-10:50: Networking Coffee Break

10:50-12:30: Onsite Parallel Session 1

12:30-12:45: Break

12:45-14:00: Onsite Parallel Session 2

14:00-14:30: Networking Coffee Break

14:30-16:10: Onsite Parallel Session 3

16:10-16:25: Break

16:25-17:40: Onsite Parallel Session 4

17:40-18:40: Cultural Workshop | Room 108 (1F)
This is a free event open to all registered delegates

All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

Location: Sorbonne University International Conference Center (CICSU)

09:00-09:30: Conference Check-in | Room 102 (1F)

09:30-10:30: Featured Roundtable | Room 108 (1F)

09:30-10:30: Featured Roundtable | Room 106 (1F)

10:30-11:00: Networking Coffee Break

11:00-12:40: Onsite Parallel Session 1

12:40-12:55: Break

12:55-14:10: Onsite Parallel Session 2

14:10-14:40: Networking Coffee Break

14:40-16:20: Onsite Parallel Session 3

16:20-16:35: Break

16:35-17:50: Onsite Parallel Session 4

All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

Location: Sorbonne University International Conference Center (CICSU)

08:30-09:30: Conference Check-in | Room 102 (1F)

09:30-11:10: Onsite Parallel Session 1

11:10-11:25: Short Coffee Break

11:25-13:05: Onsite Parallel Session 2

13:05-13:35: Extended Break

13:35-15:15: Onsite Parallel Session 3

15:15-15:30: Short Coffee Break

15:30-17:10: Onsite Parallel Session 4

17:15-17:30: Onsite Closing Session | Room 108 (1F)

All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

Conference Venue: Online via Zoom

08:55-09:00: Message from IAFOR

09:00-10:40: Online Parallel Session 1

10:40-10:50: Break

10:50-12:05: Online Parallel Session 2

12:05-12:15: Break

12:15-14:20: Online Parallel Session 3

14:30-15:30: The Forum
Come share your thoughts and experiences as global educators and researchers with other international experts through interdisciplinary discussions designed to engage with on-the-cusp issues. Through this activity, you will be able to contribute to an academic and political debate that potentially holds the key to more peace and harmony among countries and within societies, which has been troubling policy-makers for decades due to its complex nature.

15:30-15:40: Closing Message from IAFOR

*Please be aware that the above schedule may be subject to change.

Accepted Presentations

One of the greatest strengths of IAFOR’s international conferences is their international and intercultural diversity.
As of March 20, 2026, PCE2026 has received over 840 submissions from over 100 countries and territories - including: United States, South Africa, Türkiye, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Canada, Malaysia, Poland, and Spain.

Accepted Presentations

Speakers

To be announced

  • Paolo Benanti
    Paolo Benanti
    Pontifical Gregorian University, Italy
  • Olivier Guillet
    Olivier Guillet
    Institut Supérieur du Droit, France
  • Donald E. Hall
    Donald E. Hall
    Binghamton University, United States
  • Brendan Howe
    Brendan Howe
    Ewha Womans University, South Korea
  • Ljiljana Markovic
    Ljiljana Markovic
    European Centre for Peace and Development (ECPD), Serbia

Featured Presentations

To be announced

  • 250 Years of Rights Promotion and Cooperation
    250 Years of Rights Promotion and Cooperation
    Discussion Panel: Brendan Howe

Conference Programme

The draft version of the Conference Programme will be available online on May 11, 2026. All registered delegates will be notified of this publication by email.

Important Information Emails

All registered attendees will receive an Important Information email and updates in the run-up to the conference. Please check your email inbox for something from "iafor.org". If you can not find these emails in your normal inbox, it is worth checking in your spam or junk mail folders as many programs filter out emails this way. If these did end up in one of these folders, please add the address to your acceptable senders' folder by whatever method your email program can do this.

Previous Programming

View details of programming for past PCAH conferences via the links below.

PCAH2025
PCAH2024 PCAH2023 PCAH2022
Paolo Benanti
Pontifical Gregorian University, Italy

Biography

TBA

Keynote Presentation (2026) | TBA
Olivier Guillet
Institut Supérieur du Droit, France

Biography

Dr Olivier Guillet is Managing Director of the Institut Supérieur de Droit in Paris, France, where he leads the development of innovative programmes at the intersection of law, education, and leadership.

He previously held senior academic and executive roles, including Dean of International Affairs at emlyon business school, France; Vice Dean of the School of Management and Innovation at Sciences Po, France; and International Director at OMNES Education, France. Across these positions, he has contributed to the design and internationalisation of higher education programmes, working with diverse student populations and global institutional partners.

His research and teaching focus on leadership, with a particular emphasis on the dialogue between philosophy and psychology. His work explores how individuals develop inner coherence, ethical responsibility, and the capacity to act in complex environments.

Dr Guillet is the author of Deep Leadership (2025), a work that proposes a human-centred approach to leadership grounded in intellectual rigour and personal transformation. Alongside his academic career, he is also a trained musician, and continues to draw on music as a source of inspiration for his thinking on harmony, structure, and human expression.

Keynote Presentation (2026) | TBA
Donald E. Hall
Binghamton University, United States

Biography

Donald E. Hall is Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at Binghamton University (SUNY), USA. He was formerly Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering at the University of Rochester, USA, and held a previous position as Dean of Arts and Sciences at Lehigh University, USA. Provost Hall has published widely in the fields of British Studies, Gender Theory, Cultural Studies, and Professional Studies. Over the course of his career, he served as Jackson Distinguished Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English (and previously Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages) at West Virginia University. Before that, he was Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English at California State University, Northridge, where he taught for 13 years. He is a recipient of the University Distinguished Teaching Award at CSUN, was a visiting professor at the National University of Rwanda, was Lansdowne Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Victoria (Canada), was Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Cultural Studies at Karl Franzens University in Graz, Austria, and was Fulbright Specialist at the University of Helsinki. He has also taught in Sweden, Romania, Hungary, and China. He served on numerous panels and committees for the Modern Language Association (MLA), including the Task Force on Evaluating Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion, and the Convention Program Committee. In 2012, he served as national President of the Association of Departments of English. From 2013-2017, he served on the Executive Council of the MLA.

His current and forthcoming work examines issues such as professional responsibility and academic community-building, the dialogics of social change and activist intellectualism, and the Victorian (and our continuing) interest in the deployment of instrumental agency over our social, vocational, and sexual selves. Among his many books and editions are the influential faculty development guides, The Academic Self and The Academic Community, both published by Ohio State University Press. Subjectivities and Reading Sexualities: Hermeneutic Theory and the Future of Queer Studies were both published by Routledge Press. Most recently he and Annamarie Jagose, of the University of Auckland, co-edited a volume titled The Routledge Queer Studies Reader. Though he is a full-time administrator, he continues to lecture worldwide on the value of a liberal arts education and the need for nurturing global competencies in students and interdisciplinary dialogue in and beyond the classroom.

Featured Roundtable (2026) | Senior Academic Leadership

Previous Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2023) | There is No New Normal
Brendan Howe
Ewha Womans University, South Korea

Biography

Dr Brendan Howe is Professor of the Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University, South Korea, where he has also served as Dean, Associate Dean, and Department Chair. He is the President of the Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA), and has been elected to serve as the President of the World International Studies Committee from July, 2025. He is currently a Humboldt Foundation Research Fellow at Heidelberg University, Germany, from 2025 through 2026. He has held visiting professorships and research fellowships at the East-West Center as a POSCO Visiting Research Fellow (United States), the Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), De La Salle University (Philippines), The University of Sydney (Australia), Korea National Defence University (South Korea), Georgetown University (United States), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Malaysia), and Beijing Foreign Studies University (China).

Educated at the University of Oxford, the University of Kent at Canterbury (United Kingdom), Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), and Georgetown University (United States), his ongoing research agendas focus on traditional and non-traditional security in East Asia, human security, middle powers, public diplomacy, post-crisis development, comprehensive peacebuilding, and conflict transformation. He has authored, co-authored, or edited around 150 related publications, including Comprehensive Peacebuilding on the Korean Peninsula (Springer, 2023), Society and Democracy in South Korea and Indonesia (Palgrave, 2022), The Niche Diplomacy of Asian Middle Powers (Lexington Books, 2021), UN Governance: Peace and Human Security in Cambodia and Timor-Leste (Springer, 2020), Regional Cooperation for Peace and Development (Routledge, 2018), National Security, State Centricity, and Governance in East Asia (Springer, 2017), Peacekeeping and the Asia-Pacific (Brill, 2016), Democratic Governance in East Asia (Springer, 2015), Post-Conflict Development in East Asia (Ashgate, 2014), and The Protection and Promotion of Human Security in East Asia (Palgrave, 2013).

Discussion Panel (2026) | 250 Years of Rights Promotion and Cooperation
Ljiljana Markovic
European Centre for Peace and Development (ECPD), Serbia

Biography

Ljiljana Markovic is a Professor of Japanese Studies in the European Centre for Peace and Development (ECPD) of the United Nations University for Peace, and Special Advisor to the Executive Director and ECPD Academic Director. She is also a Visiting Professor at Toho University and Osaka University, Japan, and Gabriele d'Annunzio University, Italy.

Professor Markovic is the author of a large number of publications in the fields of Japanese Studies and Economics. She completed her bachelor’s and master's degrees at Cambridge University, United Kingdom, before pursuing her doctorate at Chuo University, Japan. For many years, she was a Professor at the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, with terms as Dean (2016-2020) and Vice Dean of Financial Affairs (2008-2016). She has served as the Chairperson of the International Silk Road Academic Studies Symposium since 2017.

Professor Markovic received the Gaimu Daijin Sho Award from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan in 2010. In the following year, she received the Dositej Obradovic Award for Pedagogical Achievement. Professor Markovic recent accolades include the Medal of Merit by the President of Serbia in 2020, the Isidora Sekulic Medal for Academic Achievement in 2021, and the Order of the Rising Sun (Gold Rays with Rosette) in 2022, an Imperial Decoration awarded by the Government of Japan for her "outstanding contribution to establishing and improving friendly relations with Japan”.

Workshop Presentation (2026) | Senior Academic Leadership

Previous Presentations

Workshop Presentation (2025) | Senior Academic Leadership
Panel Discussion (2024) | International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Global Citizenship in Times of Change and Crisis
250 Years of Rights Promotion and Cooperation
Discussion Panel: Brendan Howe

The year 2026 marks 250 years since the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence of the United States on July 4, 1776. France has been a staunch ally of the US for most of the intervening years, being the first country to recognise American independence, and, in 1778, to sign an alliance with the fledgling country. The impact of the American Revolution against the external rule of the English king, and the subsequent French Revolution against domestic royal tyranny, has done much to shape the nature of principles of governance, both domestic and international. The US was to serve as a ‘shining city on a hill’ – an inspiration for other oppressed peoples, while the Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité motto of the French Revolution and Republic has served as a similar source of inspiration. Importantly, both countries were supportive of each other's revolutions. Yet this 250th anniversary is as much cautionary as it is celebratory.

Are the domestic and international governance principles that made the US a shining city on a hill a thing of the past? The second administration of President Donald Trump has been linked to populist and authoritarian forces that undermine democracy. US unilateralism has led to the demise of the liberal international order, which it did so much to create. While the US and France, jointly and separately, have done much to promote multinationalism, such cooperation is now imperilled. Are we witnessing the end of 250 years of normative leadership by the US? What, if anything, can replace US abdication in an era of contestation and disorder? This session recognizes the unique contributions of the US to domestic and international governance norms, the importance of its partnership with France, as well as challenges to the liberal international order, some of which originate from its greatest champion.

Read presenters' biographies