2026 UKABS conference: Buddhism and Emotion

Date and venue:

24^th-26^th June 2026, New College, Edinburgh

Organising committee:

Naomi Appleton, Erica Baffelli, Jan Nicol, and Upali Sraman

Planning schedule:

Abstracts for proposed papers by 30th November 2025.

Paper selection confirmed December 2025.

Programme confirmed and registration opens January 2026.

Registration closes end May 2026

Call for Papers:

UPDATE October 2025: This conference will now form a European regional meeting of the IABS as well as the annual UKABS conference. As such, members of both organisations (which are not formally related to one another) will be able to access the members' registration rate and financial support for ECRs.

The Edinburgh Centre for Buddhist Studies (ECBS) and the UK Association for Buddhist Studies (UKABS) invite abstracts for a conference on the theme of “Buddhism and Emotion” to be held in Edinburgh on 24^th-26^th June 2026. This will also form a European regional meeting of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (IABS).

We are delighted to announce that Professor Maria Heim, author of so many definitive studies of emotion in South Asian Buddhist contexts, has agreed to be our keynote speaker. We welcome submissions on all aspects of the theme, and from all types of disciplinary approach, including (but not limited to) textual, visual, historical and ethnographic studies. 

The deadline for abstracts is the end of November 2025 and we expect to communicate outcomes by 19^th December 2025.

Attendees, including those presenting, will be expected to cover the costs of their attendance. We expect the registration fee (including vegetarian lunch and tea/coffee breaks) to be in the region of £80 with a reduced rate of around £60 for members of either UKABS or IABS; registration will open in January 2026. Attendees will need to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements.

We particularly welcome submissions from early career researchers (ECRs), including postgraduate students, and we will be including ECR development events at the conference. We have two types of financial support available:

1. A small number of late-stage, UK-based PhD students will have their costs of attendance covered by UKABS, and these presenters need not address the conference theme.
2. Up to five ECR presenters (including PhD students or those within five years of completion) from Europe who cannot access institutional funds will be awarded bursaries from IABS to cover their costs. Awardees must be members of IABS.

Presenters will be invited to submit their papers for a special issue of the peer-reviewed UKABS journal Buddhist Studies Review, though inclusion in the journal is neither a requirement for participation, nor guaranteed by acceptance for the conference.

Until the end of October, abstracts were accepted via email. Due to the volume of abstracts, from the end of October until the submission deadline, abstracts should be submitted via this Microsoft Form.

The form will ask for the following:

• Title of paper
• Abstract (up to 200 words)
• Name (including title), affiliation, and email address
• Interest in accessing financial support
• If postgraduate student: title of thesis, anticipated date of completion
• Indication of interest in submitting your paper for the special journal issue

Deadline for abstracts: 30th November 2025.