The University of Iceland is pleased to announce the call for papers for a conference „New Frontiers“ on refugees and asylum seekers with a special focus on the experience of children and youth.

The organizers of this conference are a team of inter-disciplinary scholars who received a major, multi-year grant from the Icelandic Research Fund to research the inclusion of resettlement refugees from Syria and Iraq who arrived in Iceland between 2016–2021 with special attention on the children and youth. Among the topics that this project explores are second-language acquisition, education, well-being, social networks, trust, and access to resources and services.

At this conference we would like to explore the comparative dimensions of the refugee experience and evaluate how this question has manifested itself in different settings around the world. We encourage papers that address different aspects from the cultural, political, social, religious, and economic perspectives. We also welcome papers on other relevant themes pertinent to refugees and border crossers from different disciplines including education, history, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, politics, media, the visual arts and literature as well as inter-disciplinary studies.

The conference will be held in Reykjavik on October 31st and November 1st, 2025 and will include keynote talks and pre-organized panels on refugees and border crossers in Iceland.