Call for Papers: International Conference on Child Marriage at the Crossroads of Law and Societal Dynamics (Morogoro, Tanzania)

The Law and Development Research Group at the University of Antwerp, the Faculty of Law at Mzumbe University (Tanzania) and Hogeschool Gent (HOGENT) invite abstracts for an international conference on "Pathways to resilience and empowerment: child marriage at the crossroads of law and societal dynamics", to be held from 16-18 June 2027 in Morogoro, Tanzania. The conference is organised as part of the Re-Empower Project, funded through VLIR-UOS.

The conference invites forward-looking contributions on child marriage across different African contexts that foreground pathways to resilience and empowerment through legal approaches. While the conference has a primarily legal orientation, interdisciplinary contributions (in particular from social work and the social sciences) are also welcome. It is intended as a platform for scholars and practitioners in law (especially human rights and climate law), anthropology, social work and the broader social sciences to present papers and share perspectives.

• Rethinking domestic law on child marriage as a resilience-enhancing and empowering vehicle
• Rethinking regional and international human rights law on child marriage
• Rethinking human rights-based approaches to child marriage
• Rethinking climate law (and other areas of law) as a resilience-enhancing vehicle
• Rethinking law on child marriage through customs and traditions
• Empirical studies on resilience and empowerment through legal and non-legal approaches
• Resilience-enhancing and empowering approaches to child marriage in social work
• Strengthening girls' agency, voice and pathways to empowerment
• Community-grounded pathways to changing child marriage practices

Interested contributors should submit an abstract of maximum 300 words outlining the proposed contribution, accompanied by a bio of maximum 500 words indicating the author's background and how their experience relates to the conference topics. Abstracts must be submitted via the official Microsoft Forms link. The call closes on 15 September 2026 and accepted participants will be informed by 20 October 2026 at the latest.

Participation in the conference is free of charge and catering is provided. Participants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation costs. Limited funding (a fixed bursary) is available to support early-career researchers based on the African continent who do not have access to institutional funding; interested applicants may apply via the same link with a short motivation letter of up to 2,000 characters.

Discussions and insights from the conference will be developed into a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary African Legal Studies (JCALS), tentatively titled "Gender, Law and Positive Changes regarding Child Marriage in Africa". Participants wishing to be considered for publication must be prepared to submit a first draft of their full manuscript by 15 April 2027.

The organising committee comprises Seraphina Bakta, Gamze Erdem Turkelli, Wouter Vandenhole, Sofie Vindevogel, Lukiko Lukiko and Isabelle Zundel. The conference is jointly implemented by the Faculty of Law at Mzumbe University, the Law and Development Research Group at the University of Antwerp and Hogeschool Gent, and is funded through VLIR-UOS.