EAUH 2026 Conference

The Seventeenth Conference of the European Association for Urban History (EAUH) will be held in Barcelona from Wednesday 2 September to Saturday 5 September 2026.

The central theme of the conference is ‘City Networks in Europe and Beyond’, although it covers all themes, periods and regions within urban history. City networks have been of as much strategic significance in the past as they are in the present. Although the history of Europe is often identified with states and nations, it is largely the history of its networked cities. This is clearly evident in Barcelona, a major medieval centre in the Mediterranean, which also took the lead in the great leap forward of the industrial age, with crucial links to other cities, and that regained this role in post-Franco period.

Cities and interurban links have contributed as much or more than states to the shaping of Europe and its reach beyond the continent, particularly in terms of colonial relations. The concept of network has become widespread in many disciplines and can create meaningful relationships between the past and the present of Europe and the wider world.

With its focus on cities and the networked urban world, the Seventeenth EAUH Conference also aims to foster cross-fertilisation between history, geography and other social and environmental sciences, all of which are critical sources of knowledge for the preservation of contemporary democratic culture.

EAUH 2026 is hosted by the Facultat de Geografia i Història, University of Barcelona (UB), the Vallès School of Architecture (ESTAV) and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB).

The Call for Sessions opens on 27 January 2025 and closes on 15 April 2025.

You can submit your proposal by using the link below. If you have any questions, please contact the organisers at eauh@uantwerpen.be.

Instructions for the sumbission of session proposals

• The EAUH conference functions on the basis of open calls. Sessions should not be organised on the basis of a preconceived list of paper presenters. There will be a Call of Papers after the assessment of the session proposals. In principle, session organisers do not give their own presentation. Scholars can submit only one session proposal.
• Each session should have at least two organisers. We will give priority to sessions which are co-organised by scholars from different universities and/or countries.
• There are three categories of sessions: a main session (3 hours, max. 6-10 papers), a specialist session (1,5 hours, max. 3-5 papers), or a round table (1,5 hours, 3-6 discussants)
• Session proposals will be assessed by the International Committee of the EAUH, which will accept or reject them or suggest modifications.