XV. International Bauhaus Colloquium | Politics of Research: Call for Contributions

Submission deadline: 15 December 2025

Event dates: 4-7 Novemeber 2026

www.bauhaus-kolloquium.de

Research at universities is inherently political, a fact made all the more evident during times of intensifying social and political polarisation when politicians denounce universities as “enemies”. But also within academia itself, the constitution, purposes, and approaches of research are brought into question. The XV. International Bauhaus Colloquium invites researchers from the humanities, arts, and architecture, from across different discourses and geographies to critically examine the politics that underlie, shape, or result from research. As an interdisciplinary academic event, it aims to create a platform for exploring how research deals with power relations, institutional structures, funding systems, epistemologies, socio-cultural contexts, and dynamic publics. Politics of research manifest themselves on the level of specific research projects as well as on the level of procedures and frameworks as such. In addition to issues of access, representation, and ethics, the Colloquium will address critical and criticising practices. It will also highlight the ways in which research may both reinforce and challenge dominant hierarchies.

 

Call for reflections
The XV. International Bauhaus Colloquium seeks to pause daily research routines and common conference formats to reflect on the complex and contingent dynamics guiding research in a multi-perspective world. In line with Bauhaus tradition, the goal is to foster inter- and transdisciplinary exchange between theoretical, creative, and technical/empirical approaches to address the multi-layered politics of research: How do institutional, epistemological, ethical, or aesthetic factors shape research practice? What hegemonial and counter-hegemonial frameworks define research today? How do traditions, structures, and relationships sustain or endanger research? What agency does research still have? And how do these topics manifest themselves differently in philosophically, historically, artistically, or scientifically oriented disciplines?

Contributions may include current and historical case studies, conceptual reflections, and analyses of institutional, social, political, and affective conditions that influence research practices, design, and outcomes. We welcome both traditional and innovative research formats—papers, presentations, panels, design prototypes, installations, performances, audio-visual essays, interactive media, and other practice-based submissions.

 

Historical background
Founded in 1976 at the Hochschule für Architektur und Bauwesen in Weimar (today’s Bauhaus-Universität Weimar), the International Bauhaus Colloquium emerged from a specific politics of research. Within the centrally controlled research system of the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR), it aimed to position academic studies on the historical Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau while connecting them to international discourse beyond the GDR’s borders. This was a bold move in a political climate that—in line with the Formalism Debate—had long disapproved of modern art and architecture. Researchers re-evaluated the Bauhaus legacy despite ideological constraints imposed by the state.

Fifty years on, the academic landscape has changed profoundly. Research now operates globally, shaped by neoliberal funding systems that reward competition and notions of »functionality«. New platforms have transformed the speed and dissemination of research designs and outcomes, while participatory approaches value non-traditional methods and invite voices from outside academia. Long-standing biases—Western, white, male—are increasingly being confronted, prompting shifts in both practice and perspective. In various regions around the world, research remains—or is increasingly—restricted as disciplines are dismantled and institutions are shuttered. Authoritarian regimes control topics, personnel, and international relations, or political instabilities disrupt ongoing work. Furthermore, researchers also face challenges in other contexts: unconventional projects often struggle to secure funding, and the spread of misinformation erodes trust in fact-based inquiry. Higher education is drawn into ideological battles, where »cultural warfare« rhetoric undermines not only research content but also the institutions that produce it. The Colloquium confronts these tensions, asking how research can navigate—and reshape—these entangled pressures.

 

Perspectives/detailed call for contributions
Within this context, the XV. International Bauhaus Colloquium will move beyond its traditional focus on architectural theory and history to an interdisciplinary exploration of research politics through four perspectives: Transformative Research, Research Profits, Proximity and Distance, Cultures of Research

Detailed call for contributions: www.bauhaus-kolloquium.de / Submit abstract: ibhk2026[at]uni-weimar.de / Submission deadline: December 15, 2025.

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