Amazwi is pleased to announce the official Call for Papers for the 9th Annual Amazwi Literature Heritage Ecology (LHE) Conference, taking place in-person in Makhanda on 3 & 4 March 2027.
The theme for this year’s conference is: Indigenous Knowledge Systems for a New Era of Enlightenment.
Conference dates: 3 and 4 March 2027.
The global social-ecological crisis makes it painfully clear that universalised, industrial logic is falling short. To heal these systemic rifts, we must look to frameworks that place humanity inside nature, not apart from it. This conference acts as a collective space to examine how the integration of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) with and within literature, science, and heritage can challenge extractive paradigms and pioneer new pathways to well-being for all living things.
We invite proposals for papers and presentations grounded in at least two of our entangled pillars: Literature, Heritage, and Ecology.
Our 2027 focus areas explore complex contemporary dynamics, including (but not limited to):
- The living nature of IKS in the age of AI:Safeguarding Indigenous knowledge against digital extraction and leveraging AI for language preservation.
- The Blue Humanities:Exploring cosmologies of water and challenging hydro-colonialism.
- Orature as resistance:Oral histories and poetry as social-ecological archives.
- Speculative Afrofuturism:Looking back at ancestral systems to look forward to a healed planet.
Important deadlines:
- Abstract submission deadline:1 November 2026
- Format:This is an in-person event.
- Early-bird offer:Submit your abstract before 1 November 2026 and register at the same time to guarantee your early-bird rate.
- Conference dates:3 and 4 March 2027.
Join us in Makhanda to co-create a restorative, ecological enlightenment.
Conference page on Amazwi website
