2025 Special Sessions

2025 Microsymposiums Organized by the Athens Institute

(A microsymposium is one or more special sessions which are thematic and are organized as part of one of our general (non-thematic) conferences. If you want to organize such a thematic event, please review our policy and guidelines, for more details)

14-18 April 2025
The Mediterranean: Cradle of Civilization and World Economic Center
as part of the 18th Annual International Conference on Mediterranean Studies
Academics Responsible:
Dr. Pedro Fernández Sánchez, Associate Professor, Universidad San Pablo-CEU, CEU Universities, Spain.
Dr. María del Carmen García Centeno, Associate Professor, Universidad San Pablo-CEU, CEU Universities, Spain.

This micro symposium aims to explore the historical, economic, cultural, and social relevance of the Mediterranean Sea (Mare Nostrum) from the onset of the Neolithic Revolution to the present day. It will highlight how, for millennia, this region was a key axis for human development, hosting the first urban civilizations and maintaining its influence throughout history, even after the shift of the economic center towards the Atlantic in the 17th century.
Deadline: 17 December 2024
Abstract Submitting Form
5-8 May 2025
Uncoding Cardiac and Vascular Pathologies in Premature Aging and Metabolic Disorders
as part of the 13th Annual International Conference on Health & Medical Sciences
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Mitra Esfandiarei, Professor, Midwestern University, USA.
Dr. Roshanak Rahimian, Professor, University of the Pacific, USA.

Cardiovascular and metabolic disorders are leading causes of global morbidity and mortality, affecting men and women differently. Premature aging and metabolic disturbances, including obesity, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia, heighten risks for cardiac and vascular health, accelerating conditions such as atherosclerosis, arterial stiffness, and heart failure. Key mechanisms include inflammatory signaling, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and endothelial dysfunction, which collectively drive premature vascular aging and its complications. Emerging research highlights the influence of sex differences, epigenetic modifications, and the interplay between metabolic and cardiovascular systems on disease variability and therapeutic responses. This micro-symposium will address these gaps, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue on the molecular and cellular pathways underpinning premature cardiac and vascular aging in metabolic disorders. Discussions will emphasize innovative therapeutic strategies, including pharmacological interventions, lifestyle changes, and advanced biotechnologies, with a focus on the critical role of biological sex as a determinant of disease pathogenesis and outcomes. By uniting diverse expertise, this session seeks to advance understanding and treatment of these interconnected health challenges.
Keywords: Premature Aging; Metabolic Disorders; Cardiovascular Diseases; Endothelial Dysfunction; Inflammation; Oxidative Stress; Atherosclerosis; Arterial Stiffness; Insulin Resistance; Sex Differences
Deadline: 25 March 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
5-8 May 2025
Healthcare, Life Sciences & Biopharma Management
as part of the 12th Annual International Conference on Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Frederic Jallat, Deputy Director, Business, Economics and Law Division & Professor, ESCP Business School, France

This session aims to explore the latest research, innovative strategies, and practical solutions in the management of healthcare systems, life sciences advancements, and biopharmaceutical enterprises.
Deadline: 25 March 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
5-8 May 2025
Productive Entrepreneurship for Economic Growth
as part of the 12th Annual International Conference on Business, Law & Economics
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Chux Gervase Family Name Iwu, Professor & SBDG Chair Entrepreneurship in Higher Education, University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Productive entrepreneurship remains an urgent concern for both government and practitioners, including employers in the developing nations. In addition to fostering the entrepreneurial capacity of students, and academics, it is imperative that students become economically active during and after their studies and pursue self-employment rather than paid employment. The evidence of the need to strengthen productive entrepreneurship can be found in extant literature many of which pose the following questions:
At what level should entrepreneurship education start?
To what extent has the current curriculum facilitated entrepreneurial uptake?
What opportunities exist to make entrepreneurship education an attractive field of study?
https://www.atiner.gr/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Productive-entrepreneurship-for-economic-growth.webp
Other pertinent questions are:
(1) what pedagogical stance should entrepreneurship education take?
(2) In what ways would entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship uptake be advanced?
(3) What are the necessary ingredients to advance entrepreneurship development in higher education?

Other pertinent questions are (1) what pedagogical stance should entrepreneurship education take? (2) In what ways would entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship uptake be advanced? (3) What are the necessary ingredients to advance entrepreneurship development in higher education?

Deadline: 25 March 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
5-8 May 2025
AI for Human Longevity and Well-Being: Addressing Ethics and Human Rights
as part of the 8th Annual International Forum on Ethics
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Marzia Coltri, Professor Extraodinarious, University of South Africa (UNISA), Taxation Department and GUS Fellow and Lecturer, Arden University, UK.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents substantial opportunities and complex ethical challenges in society, particularly in education, healthcare, human relationships and well-being. As AI technologies revolutionise society, we should consider their implications for human rights, equity and ethics. This conference aims to create a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue on how AI can ethically enhance human health and well-being while ensuring inclusive access to its benefits across all demographics.
Deadline: 25 March 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
5-8 May 2025
Protein Therapeutics and Biomarkers: Advances and Applications
as part of the 12th Annual International Conference on Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Jun Qu, Professor, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA.

Protein therapeutics—particularly antibody-based therapies—have revolutionized the treatment of diseases, offering new avenues for patient care and management. Also critical are protein biomarkers, which can indicate therapeutic safety and efficacy as well as aid in diagnosis and disease staging within clinical and pharmaceutical contexts. This session invites abstracts focusing on the discovery, development, and bioanalysis of protein drugs, including strategies for characterizing efficacy and safety, as well as research on the identification and validation of protein biomarkers. Submissions incorporating bioinformatics, proteomics, or genomics approaches to advance these fields are also highly encouraged.
Deadline: 25 March 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
12-15 May 2025
Communicating War and Peace: Application of Scholarship to Global Crises
as part of the 23rd Annual International Conference on Communication and Mass Media
Academic Responsible: Dr. Festus Eribo, Professor, East Carolina University, USA.
With the invention of more deadly weapons and the ubiquity of violence, scholars should be more involved in preventing, deterring, de-escalating, and mitigating wars, drums of wars, and messages of wars through constructive, impactful, and progressive communication and the media. The global picture of human toll and misery perpetrated by warriors of all stripes is alarming. It is imperative that scholars harness new ideas, propagate crystallized intelligence, and use new technologies in a frontal intellectual battle with the primitive legacy of bellicosity inherited over time. The historicity and universality of aggression, conflicts, and wars are well documented. It is embarrassing in the 21st century, that homo sapiens are refusing to evolve beyond the basal inclination to fight one another. It is time to deconstruct the ancestral and archaic toga of armament, rearmament, and killings of fellow humans. The disruption of peace and the destructiveness in wars are indescribably barbaric, monstrous, and mischievous. The theater is a challenge to civilization. This Micro-symposium is significant because it offers additional opportunity to leverage various branches of communication, including human communication, organizational communication, media ethics, and mass communication in the discourse on war and peace.
Deadline: 25 March 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
12-15 May 2025
Media and Olympic Games
as part of the 23rd Annual International Conference on Communication and Mass Media
& the 25th Annual International Conference on Sports: Economic, Management, Marketing & Social Aspects
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Mario Nicoliello, Academic Member, ATINER & Researcher, University of Brescia, Italy.

We welcome abstracts in any area dealing with the link between media coverage and the Olympic Games. In particular, the session intends to investigate on the one hand how organisers of the Olympic Games have changed their communications style and on the other how the Olympic Games appear on the mass media.
Deadline: 1 April 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
12-15 May 2025
Media and Climate Change: Call to Action
as part of the 23rd Annual International Conference on Communication and Mass Media
Academic Responsible:
Dr. I. Arul Aram, Chairperson, Faculty of Science and Humanities, Anna University, Chennai, India
The microsymposium explores the relationship between the media and climate change. How the media shapes public understanding of climate change, and motivates the public towards climate action is the focal area. Varied media outlets, from traditional journalism to digital platforms, highlight issues such as carbon footprints, deforestation, and finding alternatives to carbon emissions. Development, which is the driver of progress, often has environmental consequences. The media looks for stories of sustainable practices and climate change. Diverse spheres of media coverage such as politics, economy, education, tourism, and civic amenities can mainstream climate coverage by interweaving climate science into the story. The media amplifies the voices of climate scientists and activists, by contexualising the scientific literature and happenings in a language understandable by the common people. Here, we will look into the challenges the media faces in combating climate change. Collaboration among journalists, environmentalists, and policymakers is needed for communicating climate change. This dialogue on the media and climate change will drive sustainable development, and help protect the earth for future generations.
Keywords: Carbon footprints, communicating climate change, sustainable development, environmentalists
Deadline: 1 April 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
12-15 May 2025
The Economic Effects of a Marathon
as part of the 25th Annual International Conference on Sports: Economic, Management, Marketing & Social Aspects
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Gregory T. Papanikos, President of the Athens Institute.

The micro symposium explores the economic impact of marathons, including their effect on local economies, tourism, employment, and infrastructure.
Deadline: 1 April 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
26-29 May 2025
Business Ethics and Human Rights in the Age of Globalization
as part of the 20th Annual International Conference on Philosophy
Academic Responsible:

Dr. Oidinposha Imamkhodjaeva, Deputy Head, Philosophy Unit, Athens Institute & Teaching Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania State University, USA

We welcome submissions that offer innovative perspectives, case studies, theoretical frameworks, and practical solutions to address the ethical dilemmas faced by global businesses today. Topics of interest include but are not limited to corporate social responsibility, ethical supply chain management, labor rights, environmental sustainability, and the role of international regulations in shaping ethical business practices.
Deadline: 15 April 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
2-5 June 2025
Romanticism
as part of the 18th Annual International Conference on Literature
Academic Responsible:
Dr. William Davis, Deputy Head, Literature Unit, Athens Institute & Professor, The Colorado College, USA.

The session on Romanticism will take place within the larger Athens Institute’s Literature Conference. Our hope is to create an international discussion on current topics, approaches, and theories related to the study of literary, historical, philosophical, and political Romanticism. Our call for papers is thus broad: we encourage proposals on any aspect of literary Romanticism, including comparative studies, national Romanticisms, trans-Atlantic, papers on single authors or texts, as well as papers that reflect current trends in Romantic studies, i.e., Romanticism and gender studies, new materialism, posthuman, etc.
Deadline: 22 April 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
2-5 June 2025
Drawing: De-Sign Environment Landscape City
as part of the 15th Annual International Conference on Urban Studies & Planning
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Giulia Pellegri, Head, Environment & Landscape Unit, Athens Institute and Rector & Associate Professor, Architecture-Polytechnic School, University of Genoa, Italy.

The theme of the session, Representation of Resilient Communities, is to share, compare, debate and disseminate research and thought that is open to all disciplines that involve responsibility to cultural approach, analysis, study, evaluation, project, design, color, of the “Human environment”. Papers on the theme of Representation and the scientific implications of all those disciplinary sectors that involve the environment we live, look at, imagine, design could include the following topics: Survey and Representation of Architecture and the Environment; Drawing for the Landscape, De-signs for Project traces – visions and pre-visions; signs of memory and the city in progress; Visual culture and communication: from idea to project; Architectural emergencies; Color and the environment; Perception and territorial identity; Landscape cultural iconographic heritage: art, literature and design implications; Signs and Drawings for Design; Advanced Representation.
Deadline: 22 April 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
9-12 June 2025
The Transmission and Maintenance of Diaspora Identity Through time and Generation
as part of the 16th Annual International Conference on Visual and Performing Arts
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Maria-Irini Avgoulas, Academic Member, Athens Institute & Casual Academic, School of Health, Medical & Applied Sciences, CQUniversity Australia and Cultural Counselling and Consultancy, Australia

Diaspora communities with their specific cultural identity are found throughout the world and exist on a continuum of redevelopment as they evolve. The experience of diaspora identity and the transmission of memory culture that supports identity maintenance may vary by generation, the original migrants and their descendants born in diaspora. Diaspora community members of all generations may maintain a sense of nostalgia but also negative emotions of not belonging to either their original homeland or the host community. This may be expressed as having two homelands and, in a sense, belonging to both. While potentially enriching, diaspora identity may in fact be more like belonging nowhere and being a stranger in both cultures. This may represent a negative emotion associated with the experience of migration and acculturation despite the generation of membership. This session will explore the transmission and maintenance of diaspora identity through time and generation and consider how associated psychosocial factors and the recreated social environment of the culture of origin may influence wellbeing and the experience of illness that are significant factors in overall health as well as the promotion of health and wellbeing in diaspora.
Deadline: 18 February 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
9-12 June 2025
Historical Metamorphoses of the Mystery: From Delphi and Eleusis to the Modern Art of Europe
as part of the 16th Annual International Conference on Visual and Performing Arts
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Elena Rovenko, Academic Member, Athens Institute & Researcher, Strasbourg University, France.

The history of mystery as an area of study (taking into account all the changes in the meaning of this word over the centuries) can be understood as the history of the highest synthesis of all creative manifestations of the human spirit. There are three major forms of mystery: Ancient Greek in terms of religious actions, medieval areal performances and synthetic artistic works of the 19th – 21st centuries, representing the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk in a religious aspect. This third form, in which art itself tends to return to ritual, requires a particularly careful analysis of the confessional or non-confessional meaning and its artistic transformation. We propose to reveal the ‘mysteric’ potential of various forms of art, as well as hidden forms of representation of mystery (mysteric tendencies) in individual arts (music, dance, painting, cinema, etc.) in their semantic interrelations and interaction.
Deadline: 18 February 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
9-12 June 2025
Cultural Expressions: Women, Femme, Queer, and Gender Non-Conforming Voices in Music and Arts
as part of the 16th Annual International Conference on Visual and Performing Arts
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Rachel Yvonne Cruz, Assistant Professor, The University of Texas at San Antonio, USA.

This theme explores the rich cultural perspectives and contributions of women, femme, queer, and gender non-conforming individuals in music and the arts, focusing on both pre-colonial and modern contexts, inviting papers/presenters that examine how these voices reflect, challenge, and shape cultural identities and narratives. Topics may include the impact of colonialism on sexuality, culture, and music and arts practices, the resilience and transformation of indigenous traditions, and the role of the arts in preserving and evolving cultural heritage within diverse communities.
Deadline: 18 February 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
23-26 June 2025
Sustainable Supply Chain Management for the Circular Economy
as part of the 13th Annual International Conference on Industrial, Systems and Design Engineering
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Mohammad Shbool, Academic Member, Athens Institute & Associate Professor, The University of Jordan, Jordan

This topic would explore how supply chain practices can be optimized to support circular economy principles, focusing on sustainability, resource efficiency, and reducing waste. This would complement existing sessions on marketing, economics, and environmental studies while addressing a critical area of growing interest in global research and industry.
Deadline: 3 March 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
30 June & 1-3 July 2025
Macromarketing
as part of the 23rd Annual International Conference on Marketing
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Frederic Jallat, Deputy Director, Business, Economics and Law Division & Professor, ESCP Business School, France

Macromarketing emphasizes how marketing concepts, methodologies, theories, practices, and activities affect societies, cultures, and the economy as a whole. Marketing is primarily a concept that deals with private and public organizations. Macromarketing addresses the wider implications of marketing practices and theories at the social, national, and even global levels..
Deadline: 26 November 2024
Abstract Submitting Form
7-10 July 2025
TAM (Tense-Aspect-Modality) in and across Languages
as part of the 18th International Conference on Languages & Linguistics
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Krasimir Kabakciev, Deputy Director, Arts, Humanities and Education Division, ATINER

Papers from all areas of TAM (tense-aspect-modality) in and across languages are welcomed.
Deadline: 18 March 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
7-10 July 2025
Living Off-Grid: Self-sufficiency towards A New Cultural Model
as part of the 15th Annual International Conference on Architecture
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Susanna Pisciella, Assistant Professor, University IUAV of Venice, Italy

The microsymposium reflects on the significance of detachment from the vast distribution network, which represents not only the fossil fuel system but also a particular cultural model, a specific way of knowing and designing that has shaped the territory over the last century. Self-sufficiency is not a new idea; rather, it is the way in which all architectural heritage has been constructed over the millennia, connecting to the landscape in various ways across different latitudes and altitudes, awakening the deeper laws of building and generating unique places, where the network operates through abstract space. Autarky is an ancient tactic that is now relevant for future needs, ranging from climate change to the fragility of the geopolitical landscape and the vulnerabilities of the network itself. The call focuses on the ecological transition of the European Green Deal, addressing the intrinsic challenges of a program whose standards are required to function from the North Sea to the Ionian Sea. A distance that encompasses hundreds of different building types, the result of centuries of internal codifications and refinements, a constructive and thermophysical acuity that cannot be ignored today but rather needs to be recovered and valued. This is crucial for a new form of territorialization, countering the processes of de-territorialization carried out by technological capital over the last century. The micro symposium, which arises from a study conducted on the built residential landscape of northeastern Italy based on local energy, water, and food resources, as well as the thermophysical properties of the buildings themselves, seeks a similar dialogue with other European territories to bring forth a heritage that cannot be neutralized and treated according to standards, but that, in each case and in different ways, constitutes the fundamental starting point on the path of transforming the territory in response to climate change.
Deadline: 25 March 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
14-17 July 2025
Contracts between Ancient Practices and Modern Dogmas
as part of the 22ndAnnual International Conference on Law
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Lucia Di Cintio, Associate Professor, University of Salerno, Italy.

The archaeological discoveries of the last few decades have made it possible to completely revise ancient contract law; in fact, the results of research have revealed a very complex reality that is very close to our own today. Thus, some theoretical solutions created in the past for the correct interpretation and application of contracts may also be functional to our needs. Among these discoveries, I would like to bring to your attention the so-called Babatha Archive, consisting of a series of papyri, known as Yadin, during the ‘principato’ of Trajan and Hadrian. Of interest are contractual acts between individuals belonging to the Jewish community but residing in the Arabian Province. It also seems to me very interesting to understand how several rights, Hellenistic, Jewish and Roman, could coexist and how some peculiar negotiations could be protected by the relevant legal system. Yesterday as today, in the global world, several legal systems meet, thus the need to make connections between the various legal systems. At the same time, constant and rapid technological evolution makes it necessary to qualify and protect new situations that often take place only in the virtual world. How did the ancients solve the problems that the new, the atypical, one might say, raised? One solution was offered by the self-defence typical of the Greek and later Judeo-Hellenistic worlds: individual contracts were very detailed, had constitutive and enforceable value, and were endowed with self-defence such as a pledge or mortgage; this avoided the adjudicating courts. Certainly, there remained the substantial problem, which still arises today, of identifying a cause, i.e. a socio-economic function worthy of protection; well, the solution of the Romans is causal abstraction. The Roman rulers, faced with such novelties, poured the content of lawful transactions into schemes with an abstract cause stipulatio, in the sense that the cause existed and was lawful but not immediately qualifiable under a known type, granting generic legal actions. In the global world, where common law and civil law intersect, could a similar solution be envisaged, i.e. the idea of a predefined formal scheme but going beyond the problem of typicality?
Deadline: 25 March 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
14-17 July 2025
Policing in Times of Crisis
as part of the 22ndAnnual International Conference on Law
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Jamelia Morgan, Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, USA.

This microsymposium brings together leading scholars in the fields of disability law, health law, criminal procedure, and fields at the intersection to discuss the nature of crisis and its relationship to the institution of policing. Participants will examine how crisis is formed by and is itself shaped by policing and criminal legal systems more broadly. How do moments of crisis create opportunities for expansions of state power and the production of new forms of state power? How might critical approaches to policing examine and assess the various technologies of social control targeted at criminalized subjects? Examining crisis response, abortion criminalization, and the aftermath of the COVID-19 responses, each participant will explore how the frame of “crisis” at once has the potential to create either conditions for radical transformative change or pathways to retrenchment and the maintenance of the status quo. Drawing from legal doctrine, case law, critical theory, and more, participants will aim to consider how moments of crisis should be examined within law and legal theory.
Deadline: 3 June 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
21-24 July 2025
Foundational Philosophical Issues in Physics
as part of the 13th Annual International Conference on Physics
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Robert Bishop, Head, Philosophy Unit, Athens Institute & Professor, Wheaton College, USA

This session aims to explore the deep philosophical questions underlying modern physics, including the nature of space and time, the interpretation of quantum mechanics, the role of symmetry in physical laws, and the philosophical implications of cosmology. We welcome papers from philosophers, physicists, and interdisciplinary researchers.
Deadline: 1 April 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
28-31 July 2025
Integrating Oral Society Globally, Innovation and Contemporary Library Trends and Practice
as part of the 12th Annual International Conference on Library and Information Science
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Nkhangweni Mahwasane, Information Librarian, University of Venda, South Africa.

Libraries are regarded as the backbone of their parent bodies in which they exist in. As a result, no institution can operate quite well without the library, from schools, colleges, universities, research institutions, companies, hospitals governments departments as well as non-governmental organizations etc. All the above-mentioned institutions need information at their disposal to succeed. Learners, students, teachers, doctors, researchers, just a few to mention, also need information to have breakthroughs.
Deadline: 8 April 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
28-31 July 2025
Critical Visual Literacy and Global Media
as part of the 12th Annual International Conference on Library and Information Science
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Yan Ma, Professor, University of Rhode Island, USA.

Since the movable printing, technological advances have made media in many forms reaching out to all corners of the globe in this digital world. This special session provides an interdisciplinary platform to critically analyze visual messages and the social construction of meaning in global media through visual literacy. It presents global media through the lens of visual literacy; the social construction of meaning of global media by applying visual literacy theories; the interdisciplinary nature of global media; a variety of global media for its liberating power of democracy; different types of global media and their social messages on race, gender, class, and cultural dimensions; and the converged global media cultural and visual competencies for diverse communities in this global age.
Each presentation will use theories of visual literacy to critically analyze the selected media to present how this type of media enhances/changes work or life or society for its liberating power of democracy, social construction of meaning/messages of race, gender, class, social, cultural, and other dimensions. In a sense, all signs are information. In all media, the position of the subject is situated differently. This condition provides us with the basis for critical analysis of global media.
Keywords: visual literacy, global media, social construction of meaning
Deadline: 8 April 2025
Abstract Submitting Form
28-31 July 2025
Gender Equality in the Social and Business Global World
as part of the 12th Annual International Conference on Social Sciences
Academic Responsible:
Dr. Codruta Simona Stoica, Head, Mathematics & Statistics Unit, Athens Institute & Professor and Vice-Rector, Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad, Romania

This microsymposium seeks to explore gender equality’s impact on social and business landscapes worldwide. We welcome papers on topics such as workplace diversity, gender pay gap, women in leadership, social norms, policy interventions, and intersectionality. Submissions from various disciplines, including sociology, business, and gender studies, are encouraged.
Deadline: 8 April 2025
Abstract Submitting Form