The 2026 ALPA Annual Conference will be held on October 17 and 18 at American University in Washington, DC. Organized in a hybrid format, the conference will bring together Afghan scholars in exile, scholars inside Afghanistan, and international experts to continue serious academic engagement on Afghanistan and the wider region. Building on the success of the 2024 conference at American University and the 2025 conference at the University of Pittsburgh, the 2026 gathering aims to further strengthen ALPA’s role as one of the most important academic spaces for Afghanistan studies outside the country. More than one hundred abstracts have already been received, and most of them are expected to be presented in person or virtually during the conference.

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The conference will include panels across a wide range of topics that reflect the complexity of Afghanistan’s current condition and its connections to the wider region. Planned panels will address immigration and diaspora, Afghanistan and the region, international relations, economy and security in Afghanistan, women’s rights and minority rights, social resilience and resistance, history, arts, novels and culture, and law and politics in Afghanistan. Together, these panels will create space for interdisciplinary discussion among scholars of law, political science, history, sociology, education, gender studies, economics, international relations, arts, and cultural studies.

 

Theme I. Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan​

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The first theme of the Conference, Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan, focuses on the Taliban’s systematic exclusion of women from education, employment, public life, and social visibility. This theme allows the conference to examine gender oppression not as an accidental result of Taliban rule, but as a governing structure that shapes law, politics, society, and everyday life in Afghanistan.

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The keynote speaker for this theme will be Heather Barr, Associate Director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. A Plenary Panel of established scholars and women rights activists will also examine the issue of Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan.

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Theme II. Afghanistan & the Region​​

 

The second theme, Regimes at War, Societies in Crisis: The Interconnectedness of Wars and Legitimacy Crises in the Region, places Afghanistan within a wider regional context. It examines how wars, religious extremism, legitimacy crises, and the collapse of social trust reinforce one another across Afghanistan and neighboring regions. This theme invites scholars to move beyond isolated explanations and to study Afghanistan as part of broader patterns of conflict, authoritarian governance, and regional instability.

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The keynote speaker for this theme will be Mirwais Balkhi, former Minister of Education and the Director of Kabul School of International Relations. A Plenary Session with prominent experts of regional studies will also engage this very timely topic.