Call for Proposals 

Brief Encounters Issue 11 

Architectures of Power 

Brief Encounters issue 11 examines architectures of power and invites considerations of how power can be both a weapon that destroys and a tool that builds; how it corrupts yet energises; how it obliterates yet disrupts.

Hannah Arendt speaks to the generative aspects of power, grounded in collective action, speech, and persuasion as opposed to coercion, and distinguishes it from force and violence. Her relational, action-based power sits against Michel Foucault’s discursive one, where power and knowledge are entwined as a productive force. Power takes spatial form in Gordon Matta-Clark’s anarchitecture movement that reshaped the architectural landscape of 1970s America through acts of cutting, unbuilding, and remaking. In unsettling the built world, Matta-Clark’s work prompts us to consider architectures of power – how structures construct, govern, and enable action, and where, in the making and unmaking, power might reside. 

This call for proposals encourages submissions that interrogate systems, hierarchies and forms of power. Some questions to consider are: How is power acquired and retained? When is it used appropriately or abused? How does power relate to vulnerability – when does vulnerability become an expression of power, and when does it mark powerlessness? What does agency look like within systems of power? What forms does power take when it is not only structural but also algorithmic? How does power shape your own work – how does it frame, disrupt, reconfigure, restrict, and expand its possibilities? This exploration can take place in multiple contexts, draw on multidisciplinary perspectives, use diverse modes of inquiry, and include both critical and practice-based approaches. 

The CFP continues the conversation begun in Autumn Encounters, which explored Agency and Solidarity. We encourage conference participants to consider developing their presentations into articles for this journal issue. The list below offers some potential directions, though we remain open to other topics that speak to the theme or move beyond it. There is always space for other contributions.    

The Editorial Team welcomes contributions in a variety of formats. This includes: 

1. Academically rigorous and original articles (500 to 4,000 words) 
2. Reviews of new publications, films, theatre productions, documentaries, and major exhibitions (500-1,500 words). We are particularly interested in emerging scholarship and innovative or interdisciplinary publications and productions. 
3. Interviews with established academics or authors (500-1500 words). Please structure these pieces with a brief overview of the author’s work, followed by a short interview, and conclude with your own reflection, neatly summarising their insights and key takeaways. 
4. Creative work, such as fiction, poetry, videos, posters and photography. The journal website includes a digital exhibition space for creative work. Creative work featured on the website must be accompanied by a critical commentary (500 to 4,000 words), which will be published in the journal. 

Submission Process 

Kindly submit a 250-word abstract along with a brief biography of 50-100 words to chasedtpjournal@gmail.com. Please note that the acceptance of an abstract does not commit a research paper to inclusion in the journal; only after submission of the full contribution and completion of the peer-review stage will the editors provide a decision. 

Deadlines 

Abstract Submission: January 6, 2026 

Notification of Acceptance: January 26, 2026  

Full paper submission: April 2, 2026 

Who can submit to Brief Encounters?   

• CHASE-funded doctoral researchers  
• Postgraduate students or doctoral researchers at CHASE institutions (regardless of funding status)  
• Alumni of CHASE institutions   
• Staff at CHASE institutions   
• Representatives of  non-HEI CHASE partners 

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IMAGE CREDIT: Gordon Matta Clark, Cutting, 1972 by bianca.maggio is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0