Australian Night Studies Symposium 2026

Whose Night? Power, Territory and Urban Life After Dark

Friday 6 November 2026, UNSW Sydney

About The Night Studies Symposium

Across the world, cities are increasingly turning their attention to the night. The emergence of night mayors, night commissions and governance of the “night-time economy” reflects a growing recognition that the night is central to urban economic, cultural and political life. At the same time, scholars across disciplines have begun to coalesce around an emerging field of Night Studies.Yet the night remains unevenly understood. For some, it is a site of pleasure, creativity and experimentation; for others, a terrain of labour, surveillance, vulnerability or exclusion. The night is where cities negotiate questions of safety, noise, intoxication, gender, mobility, race, work, culture and public space with particular intensity.Hosted at UNSW Sydney, the Australian Night Studies Symposium brings together researchers, policymakers, artists, workers and practitioners to explore the night not simply as an economy or site of regulation, but as a territory structured by power, care, infrastructure and social conflict.The symposium seeks to contribute to the development of Night Studies as a genuinely interdisciplinary field for understanding contemporary urban life after dark.The symposium is particularly interested in contributions that examine the night as:
__ a territory of governance,
__ a cultural infrastructure,
__ a labour condition,
__ a sensory environment,
__ a political terrain,
__ or a liminal site of inequality, experimentation and social transformation.

Themes:

Governing the Night

  • Night-time governance and policy

  • Licensing, regulation and conflict

  • Night mayors and 24-hour city strategies

  • Gentrification, tourism and urban change

Culture, Music and Nightlife

  • Club cultures and music scenes

  • Unlicenced and underground nightlife

  • Cultural policy and nightlife preservation

  • Creative labour and cultural infrastructure

Territory, Access and the Right to the Night

  • Gendered, racialised and queer experiences of the night

  • Public space, mobility and surveillance

  • Visibility, exclusion and nocturnal citizenship

  • Protest, occupation and political life after dark

Designing and Researching the Nocturnal City

  • Architecture, atmosphere and sensory urbanism

  • Transport, infrastructure and movement

  • Ethnographic, sonic and visual methods

  • Mapping and studying urban life after dark

Labour, Harm and Care After Dark

  • Hospitality and night work

  • Harm reduction and peer-led safety

  • Policing, security and surveillance

  • Sexual harassment, violence and worker safety in nightlife and hospitality settings

  • Public health and community-based approaches to care

Format

The symposium will be held over one day, and will include:
__ academic paper presentations,
__ interdisciplinary panels,
__ practitioner conversations,
__ and discussions between researchers, policymakers and industry participants.We welcome contributions from:
__ academics,
__ postgraduate researchers,
__ policymakers,
__ artists,
__ designers,
__ community organisers,
__ hospitality and nightlife practitioners,
__ and others working on questions relating to urban life after dark.

Call for Papers

Please submit:● a 250-word abstract,
● paper title,
● author name(s) and affiliation(s),
● and a short bio (100 words max).to [email protected]Submission deadline: 1 July 2026
Notification of acceptance: 1 August 2026Panels and alternative formats are also welcome.