Texten activate archaeology for just futures written on a brick wall

6 May 2026 - 10 May 2026 4:00 PM

Conference

Nordic TAG 2026

The Nordic TAG (Nordic Theoretical Archaeology Group) Conference 2026 will be held at Linnaeus University in Kalmar, Sweden on 6-9 May. It is organized by the Department of Cultural Sciences at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

As an interdisciplinary field, archaeology offers unique perspectives on humanity’s deep history, entanglement with the environment, and unique capacity for culture, communication, technology, and change. How can this perspective be mobilized to affect how we handle the contemporary and future challenges of climate emergency, social inequality, political polarization, and human suffering caused by conflict, food insecurity, forced displacement, and health disparities that follow in their wake? This conference explores the interface between research and activism and the potential for archaeology as a practice - from the contract archaeology trenches to the university lecture halls - to be an active and engaged partner in building just futures. We also seek to problematize the boundaries between scholarship and activism and discuss what our roles as archaeologists can be.

The call for papers is open! Find the full list of sessions below and submit your abstract by October 15.

Call for Papers

To engage with the main theme of the conference we welcome papers and sessions that focus on exploring themes connecting archaeological knowledge production with other knowledge systems (e.g. indigenous methodologies, public engagement, activism, artistic research…), but also more traditional archaeological themes that provide a theoretical archaeological understanding of the complexity of humanity and our future challenges (e.g. migration, displacement, violence, environmental change, but also collaboration, justice, hospitality, inclusion, and care), and theoretical themes such as decoloniality and posthumanism.

Of course, we also welcome sessions and papers on other themes as we know that our Nordic TAG community has wide interests. In addition to sessions we will also offer workshops and field trips relating to the main theme of the conference.

Timeline:

Call for sessions opens March 1, 2025. Deadline May 31.
Call for papers opens June 15, 2025. Deadline October 15.
Publication of final program December 1 2025.
Registration opens October 15 2025.

Please note that all session/panel discussion/workshop orgnizers and presenting authors have to be registered by January 31, 2026. Attendees who are not presenting can register until March 15, 2026.

Instructions for authors

Please submit your paper abstract of maximum 300 words to the individual session organizers, see the attached pdf listing the full details of all Nordic TAG sessions and workshops below. If you have any general questions or if you would like to submit to the general paper session, please contact nordictag2026@lnu.se.

Session and workshop list

Nordic TAG 2026 Sessions (PDF)

Sessions

1. Reaching out - calling upon archaeology for a habitable future
2. She was here: Echoes of forgotten women in Nordic archaeology
2. Past Tensions, Present Challenges: Cold War Heritage in an Uncertain Future
3. Excavation – still in progress? A panel discussion about sexism in Archaeology in the Nordics since #metoo
4. Association of Poor Archaeologists (TAPA)
5. Commoning the digital and public space: Activism for sustainable preservation
6. Un(Common) Grounds: Places and practices for solidarity and difference
7. The return of the dead: Living ancestors, active corpses and death as a source of power
8. Tracing transformations – scientific perspectives on the Nordic past
9. Exploring contested landscapes: viewpoints from different knowledge systems
10. Interdisciplinary and Creative Approaches to Marine Energy Transitions – Past, Present, and Future
11. Make Archaeology Great Again': Archaeological Responsibilities and Responses to Unfolding Crisis
12. Emotional Realities: Between Archaeology and Activism
13. Reconceptualizing Heritage for Lasting Peace
14. The practice of Skeuomorphism, or how knowledge moves through materials
15. Nordic Death Matters. Crafting Just Narratives and Visualisations of the Dead in the Contemporary
16. Activating Pedagogy in Archaeology Courses for Just Futures
17. Disability and Cultural Heritage: What Role for Digital Tools in Accessible and Inclusive Cultural Landscapes and Heritage Institutions?
18. Soil as archive, actor and ally: Rewilding archaeological practice
19. Heritage and Art/Archaeologies of and as Activism
20. General session

Workshops

W1. Hopeful pasts for hopeful futures
W2. Archaeology in the 21st century: the new ethical challenges
W3. Imagining novel futures for Archaeology
W4. Could studies of past time dwelling act as an inspiration for sustainable architecture today?
W5. Illustrations in Archaeology – A Dying Art or a Prosperous Future?

Keynote speaker and Keynote roundtable

Keynote speaker

Yannis Hamilakis is Joukowsky Family Professor of Archaeology and Professor of Modern Greek Studies at Brown University, and has taught previously at the University of Wales Lampeter (1996-2000) and the University of Southampton (2000-2016). His main research and teaching interests are the senses and bodily memory, multi-temporarily, archaeological ethnography, the socio-politics of the past, archaeology beyond the human, decolonial archaeology, critical pedagogy, and the archaeology of contemporary migration. Current fieldwork projects include the Koutroulou Magoula Archaeology and Archaeological Ethnography Project in Thessaly and the Lesvos Transient Matter project.

Keynote roundtable

Eva Mol (chair of the roundtable) is lecturer in Roman Archaeology at the University of York specialised in myth and religion in Mediterranean and Roman slavery. She has published on slow archaeology and new materialism, and is generally interested in using theory to reflect on how we query the past and to destabilise normalised practices but also how we can use such reflections to create (historical) empathy, stand against social injustices, and unite in activism. Theory should lead to action. Archaeological theoretical side-quests contain research into heritage and ghosts and the ontology of holes.

Aris Politopoulos is an Assistant Professor of Archaeology and Cultural Politics at Leiden University. His research focuses on play in past societies, the archaeological study of video games, as well as archaeology and anarchism. Aris is a co-founder of the VALUE Foundation a foundation that works at the intersection of video games and the past. Currently he is working, together with Sybille Lammes, Angus Mol, and Csilla Ariese, the Past❤️Play project. He has published extensively on archaeology, video games, and play.

Anna Wessman is a Professor in Iron Age Archaeology at the University Museum of Bergen (UiB), Norway, with scientific responsibility for the Viking Age collections. She is an expert in ancient mortuary practices and the study of death in Finland and Scandinavia. Her other research interests deal with non-professional engagements with archaeological heritage, particularly hobby metal detectorists, archaeological finder-collectors, and other Heritage Practice Communities. Anna is one of the founding members of the European Public Finds Recording Network (EPFRN).

Artur Ribeiro is an archaeologist based in Kiel. He obtained a BA in Lisbon, MA in London, and PhD in Kiel. He started his career as a contract archaeologist, working in Portugal, Spain, and Ireland. He writes on several theoretical topics – scientific methods and their validity, Big Data and the use of technology in research, narrative and history in archaeology, Carlo Ginzburg and microhistory, Hegel and social dialectics, Marxist processes in history, intentionality in the past, and the limitations of posthumanist approaches. In recent years he has been revisiting the idea of postmodernity and writing about late capitalism and its effects on the archaeological community and their research.

Preliminary program

Wednesday, May 6
2:00-6:00pm: Conference Registration
6:00-7:00pm: Conference Keynote
7:00pm: Conference Reception

Thursday, May 7
Parallel sessions with a conference excursion and special arranged events in the afternoon.

Friday, May 8
Parallel sessions
5:00-6:00pm: Keynote panel
7:00pm: Conference dinner & party

Saturday, May 9
Parallel sessions
4:30pm: Conference closing

Sunday, May 10
For those interested we will organize an excursion to Öland for an additional cost. More information will follow.

Registration

Call for sessions opens March 1, 2025. Deadline May 31.

Call for papers opens June 15, 2025. Deadline October 15.

Publication of final program December 1, 2025.

Registration to the conference opens October 15, 2025.

Travel to Kalmar

There are daily trains, buses and air connections to and from Kalmar from a number of different destinations, for instance, Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Copenhagen. The train between Stockholm Central and Kalmar Central takes roughly 5 hours.

You can reach Kalmar by direct flights from Stockholm Arlanda Airport to Kalmar Airport, or from other destinations, with a layover in Stockholm Arlanda.

You can also reach Kalmar via flights to Copenhagen Airport/Kastrup and a connecting direct train to Kalmar station (approximately 4 hours). Travelling by train will take you to Kalmar station situated in the city centre. From Kalmar station it is just a couple of minutes’ walk to Linnaeus University at Universitetskajen.

Bus from Kalmar Öland Airport to Kalmar city centre
Kalmar Öland Airport is located about 5 km from the city centre. Shuttle bus number 402 takes you to Kalmar center. Buses are operated by Kalmar Länstrafik, see link for timetable.

About Linnaeus University

Linnaeus University is a creative and international knowledge environment that promotes curiosity, creativity, companionship and utility. More than 44,000 students are registered at Linnaeus University.

Linnaeus University is located in Växjö and Kalmar and offers 150 degree programmes and 1,300 single-subject courses. Linnaeus University was established in 2010 through a merger between Växjö University and Kalmar University College.

With some 2,100 employees and 44,000 students it is a modern university with Småland as its base and the world as its arena. Studying and working at Linnaeus University involves being part of an environment that is characterised by knowledge and development. Students acquire new knowledge and learn to have a critical approach. Researchers make new discoveries that can bring change to our society. Employees share stories of a workplace with both challenges and opportunities. Linnaeus University is a university where people can reach their full potential.

Learn more about Linnaeus University.

Organizing committee

Liv Nilsson Stutz, Department of Cultural Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Terje Östigård, Department of Cultural Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Emily Hanscam, Department of Cultural Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Gustav Wollenz, Department of Cultural Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Humanities

A sustainable event

This conference is a sustainability-assured meeting in accordance with Linnaeus University’s guidelines for sustainable events. These guidelines are linked to the 17 global goals in Agenda 2030 and comprise the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, the social, and the environmental. Learn more about Linnaeus University’s sustainable events here.