We are delighted to announce that the 10th Biennial Meeting of the International Association for the Cognitive and Evolutionary Sciences of Religion (IACESR) will be held at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, from July 1st-3rd 2026.
This event has been granted Special IAHR Conference status by the International Association for the History of Religions, recognising its thematic focus and international scholarly contribution.
We will be offering an excellent line-up of keynote speakers, events, John McGraw awards for excellent proposals by student/early career researchers and travel support thanks to a generous funding obtained from the IAHR (International Association for the History of Religions).
Call for proposals:
The Cognitive and Evolutionary Sciences of Religion is an interdisciplinary research area. We therefore encourage empirical and theoretical papers representing state-of-the-art research on religion, evolution, and cognition from all areas of the humanities, social, and natural sciences.
The call for paper and panel proposals is now open. All proposals will be submitted through Microsoft CMT. Note that while the CMT system may ask you for an ID such as ORCID or Google Scholar, these are not necessary to make a submission.
Please submit your talk abstracts here.
The call for both individual presentations and panel proposals will close February 6th, 2026. The individual presentations include individual talks and posters.
Panel abstracts can be up to 500 words while individual abstracts should be between 150 and 200 words.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent by February 28th, 2026.
John McGraw Graduate Student/Early Career Award:
This award recognises outstanding work by early career researchers. Eligibility includes current students and researchers within five years of obtaining their PhD. Awardees will be selected based on the quality of their submitted abstract; to receive the award, recipients must present their work at the conference. Awardees will be given a featured presentation slot in the programme.
Travel support for Students / Early Career Researchers:
Thanks to the support obtained from the IAHR (International Association for the History of Religions), the IACESR will be offering a limited number of scholarships to offset travel costs for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars (within 5 years of PhD). A short justification should be provided when applying for this scholarship (maximum length 200 words).
More details to follow. Information about registration will be available on our website in early 2026: https://iacesr.com/conferences/
We hope to see you in Brno next year!
Registration fees:
$100 USD members / $200 USD non-members
The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.
9th Biennial Meeting of the International Association for the Cognitive and Evolutionary Sciences of Religion 2024
We are very happy to announce that the 9th biennial meeting of the International Association for the Cognitive and Evolutionary Sciences of Religion (IACESR) will take place in Oxford, United Kingdom from 28-30 June, 2024.
The conference will take place at Oxford Brookes University just after the Atheism Explained? Conference (26-28 June) at the Oxford Museum of Natural History and just before the Cognitive Representations in Religion conference (1 July-3 July) at St. Stephen’s House, Oxford.
We are excited to offer an excellent line-up of keynote speakers, events, and support in the form of student/early career awards. Keynote speakers will include:
Jeremy Ginges (London School of Economics)
Neil Van Leeuwen (Georgia State University)
Jesse Preston (University of Warwick)
Manvir Singh (University of California-Davis)
Schedule
The conference will begin with a reception in the afternoon/evening of Friday, 28 June and conclude by 6pm on Sunday, 30 June. A more detailed schedule will be available by the end of May.
Presentation Formats
We are in the process of notifying the outcomes of abstract submissions. Due to the quantity of high quality submissions we received for this conference presentations will include standard presentations, lightning talks and posters.
Poster guidelines and resources are available here.
Registration
Registration fees are paid through PayPal.
Members $50 (USD) Please Register Here (if you are a paid member, please make sure you are logged in before clicking this link)
Non-members $100 (USD) Please Register Here
The combined cost of an annual membership and member’s registration is lower than the non-member registration fee. Please consider becoming a paid members of the IACESR.
Recommendations for Accommodation
Many of the Colleges offer good value self-catering or BnB accommodation. You can search vacancies on Conference Oxford or University Rooms.
Linton Lodge and Cotswold Lodge offer higher-end accommodation, although the price reflects this and transit to the venue would be required.
Accommodation located in Headington tends to be cheaper and is close to the conference venue, but can lack some of the character that Oxford is known for.
The location of the conference (for the most parts) is Oxford Brookes University, Headington Rd, Headington, Oxford OX3 0BP. https://maps.app.goo.gl/XKEo3fe2deppymsE8
Further Information
For questions about the conference content or structure, please get in touch with Jonathan Lanman.
For technical questions about the online submission process, please contact Joseph Watts.
For questions about payment, please contact Jonathan Morgan.