On 29 and 30 September 2025, the Aurora international academic conference “DUAL – Dichotomies in Urban Agendas and Logics“, an event promoted within the framework of the European Universities Initiative programme Aurora 2030, will be held at the Department of Humanities of the Università Federico II of Naples (UNINA), Italy.
An activity organised within the Aurora educational hub Cultures: Identities and Diversities, the conference is a continuation of the course Challenges in Europe that took place between April and June 2025 at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. It stems from the successful collaboration between the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) and UNINA.
The conference aims to continue to reflect critically and transdisciplinarily on the theme of the city and urban space, exploring the multiple dichotomies that cut across its material, social, political and symbolic dimensions. Centre/periphery, inclusion/exclusion, mobility/immobility, visibility/invisibility, are just some of the dichotomies that can be used as a tool to critically read the past, understand the challenges of the present and imagine a new future for our cities.
The conference is a moment of dialogue between different approaches to the study of the city, welcoming contributions from fields such as Urban Studies, Architecture, Sociology, Geography, Philosophy, History, Political Science, Environmental Studies, Anthropology, Arts, Design, Media and Communication, Digital Humanities and many others.
Call for Abstracts
Currently open, the Call for Abstracts is addressed to:
- Undergraduate students (Bachelor’s and Master’s degree)
- PhD students
- Early-stage researchers.
How to participate:
- Deadline for abstract submission: 31 July 2025
- Conference language: English
- Mode: Hybrid with in-person presence in Naples, and online
- Participation fee: Free
- Recognition: All students attending will receive a Certificate of Attendance equivalent to 3 ECTS.
To apply (or request more information), please send an email to: dual.auroraconference@gmail.com with the following information:
- Title of contribution
- Abstract (maximum 300 words)
- Short biography (maximum 150 words)
Selected contributions will be published in a collective volume planned for 2026.
Download the open call for abstracts: DUAL Conference
If you are interested in attending the conference in person, please contact Aurora mobility coordinator Martina Buráňová in advance at martina.buranova@upol.cz or by phone at 604 949 233.