2026 SAHANZ-AUHPH Conference: Call for Sessions and Roundtable Proposals

In 2026, the annual SAHANZ conference will be held in conjunction with the bi-annual Australasian Urban History Planning History conference.

SAHANZ-AUHPH 2026 will be held 7-9 December 2026, hosted by the University of Melbourne, on the following theme:  Absence

Our cities and landscapes are pockmarked by evidence of absence. Architectural, landscape and planning practices and their histories are similarly marked: by the unbuilt and unrealised, by the demolished, by the invisible and by the hidden. Gaps between buildings and unfinished estates are parallels to the spaces we have carved out of nature in order to build. Moreover, the void – the negative space enclosed by an architectural, theoretical, chronological, historiographical or geographical frame – is often as telling as the surrounding structure.

Expressions of interest for sessions and roundtables are now invited. 
Session proposals should seek to address the conference theme and will become part of the general call for papers to be released later in 2025. Sessions will consist of 4-5 papers, with a chair or respondent, centred on a coherent theme or position.

Roundtables will consist of between 5-10 participants, and a chair, with short 5-minute presentations. This may include summaries of working groups; networks; collaborative grants; publishing ventures; or milestones. Roundtables may have an open call for or invite participants.

Please submit your session or roundtable proposal by 5pm Australian Eastern Summer Time on Monday 24 November. Enquiries in the first instance to Julie Willis () or Andrew Murray (); submissions to be made through the conference website (forthcoming).