HETEROODOX SOCIAL SCIENCE CONFERENCE
Building a New Social Science
The annual international gathering for scholars, researchers and thinkers committed to open inquiry, intellectual pluralism and a more balanced social science.
Hosted by the Centre for Heterodox Social Science at the University of Buckingham, the Heterodox Social Science Conference brings together academics, writers, researchers and public intellectuals from across the world to examine neglected questions, challenge prevailing orthodoxies and build the institutions needed for a genuinely pluralistic social science.
[WATCH THE 2026 CONFERENCE]
The Heterodox Social Science Conference
Modern social science has produced extraordinary insights into human behaviour and society. But important questions, explanations and perspectives can also be neglected when academic inquiry becomes constrained by political assumptions, institutional incentives or intellectual conformity.
The Heterodox Social Science Conference exists to widen that conversation.
Each year, the conference brings together scholars from across disciplines and viewpoints to present new research, scrutinise established assumptions and debate some of the most important questions facing the social sciences.
Our purpose is not simply to criticise existing academic orthodoxies. It is to build.
That means developing new research, encouraging intellectual collaboration and helping create the networks, journals, courses, conferences and institutions required for a flourishing culture of open inquiry.
Courage. Freedom. Truth.
Heterodox Social Science Conference 2026
Post-Progressivism?: Toward a New Social Science
23–25 July 2026 | The University of Buckingham
The second annual Heterodox Social Science Conference was a major success, welcoming more than 200 attendees to Buckingham for three days of lectures, academic presentations, panel discussions, receptions and intellectual exchange.
The international programme brought together leading academics, researchers, writers and public intellectuals to examine the changing intellectual landscape and ask what a post-progressive social science might look like.
Speakers and contributors included Eric Kaufmann, Alan Sokal, Frank Furedi, Helen Pluckrose, Nigel Biggar, Lee Jussim, W. Bradford Wilcox, David Goodhart, Razib Khan, Frances Widdowson, Elizabeth Weiss, Robert Maranto, Richard McNally, Jukka Savolainen, Jonathan Anomaly, Pamela Paresky, Kevin McCaffree, Andrew Hartz and many others.
Across plenary sessions and parallel academic tracks, the programme explored subjects including:
- Critical Woke Studies
- Academic freedom and ideological conformity
- Higher education reform
- Settler colonialism and decolonisation
- Populism, nationhood and social cohesion
- Gender and the social sciences
- Psychology and psychotherapy
- Marriage, family and fertility
- Viewpoint diversity
- The future of heterodox scholarship
- Building new journals, networks and academic institutions
The conference demonstrated both the depth of scholarship already taking place outside conventional intellectual boundaries and the growing appetite for a stronger international heterodox academic community.
[EXPLORE THE 2026 PROGRAMME]
Watch the 2026 Conference
The conversation did not end in Buckingham.
The 2026 conference was professionally filmed, and lectures, panels, interviews and highlights are being released through the Centre for Heterodox Social Science’s digital channels.
Watch full academic presentations, discover shorter highlights and follow the continuing debate.
YouTube
Full lectures, panels, interviews and conference highlights.
[WATCH ON YOUTUBE]
https://www.youtube.com/@heterodox_centre
X
Follow the latest conference clips, research, commentary and announcements.
[FOLLOW ON X]
https://x.com/HeterodoxCentre
Follow the Centre’s research, institutional news, events and conference updates.
[FOLLOW ON LINKEDIN]
https://www.linkedin.com/company/centre-for-heterodox-social-science
Eric Kaufmann’s Substack
Long-form analysis, research and commentary from the Centre’s Director.
[READ ON SUBSTACK]
https://erickaufmann.substack.com/
Two Core Missions
Critical Woke Studies
The conference seeks to develop the serious academic study of the ideology commonly described as “woke”: its intellectual origins, political development, psychology, institutionalisation and social consequences.
Rather than treating the subject simply as a matter of political commentary, the conference encourages researchers to approach it as an important object of scholarly inquiry.
Questions include:
Where did these ideas come from? How did they spread? Why did particular institutions adopt them? What are their psychological and political foundations? What effects have they had?
Recovering Neglected Perspectives
The conference also provides a platform for research questions, hypotheses and perspectives that may receive insufficient attention within mainstream social science.
These can range from alternative explanations of inequality and discrimination to family structure, social cohesion, evolutionary psychology, academic bias, immigration, political extremism, historical interpretation and institutional reform.
The principle is simple:
No serious empirical question should become unaskable because its answer might prove politically inconvenient.
More Than an Annual Event
The conference is designed to produce lasting intellectual relationships and institutions.
Researchers meet collaborators. Young academics encounter established scholars. Editors meet potential contributors. New projects are discussed. Networks are strengthened. Ideas move from individual papers towards publications, research programmes and institutions.
The annual conference forms part of the wider work of the Centre for Heterodox Social Science, including research, teaching, publications, research awards, academic networks and public engagement.
[DISCOVER THE CENTRE]
https://www.heterodoxcentre.com/
Previous Conferences
2026
Post-Progressivism?: Toward a New Social Science
More than 200 attendees joined the second annual conference at the University of Buckingham for three days of international scholarship and debate.
[2026 PROGRAMME]
[WATCH 2026]
[VIEW PHOTOS]
2025
The Inaugural Heterodox Social Science Conference
The first conference established the foundations for an annual gathering dedicated to alternative social-science research, viewpoint diversity and institution-building.
[EXPLORE 2025]
Future Conferences
Join us for the next Heterodox Social Science Conference
Planning for future conferences is already underway.
Future editions will continue to bring together leading and emerging scholars from around the world, expand the range of disciplines represented and provide a platform for important research that deserves serious academic discussion.
Details of the next Heterodox Social Science Conference will be announced here.
Join the Centre’s mailing list and follow our channels to be among the first to hear about:
- Conference dates and venue
- Calls for papers
- Speaker announcements
- Registration
- Research opportunities
- New conference footage and publications
[JOIN THE MAILING LIST]
[FOLLOW THE CENTRE]
Be Part of the Heterodox Community
The future of open inquiry depends upon more than individual dissent. It requires researchers, students, editors, institutions, donors and supporters willing to build an intellectual culture in which evidence can be followed wherever it leads.
Whether you are an established academic, an early-career researcher, a student or simply interested in the future of social science, we invite you to follow the conference and become part of that community.
WATCH. READ. RESEARCH. DEBATE. BUILD.
[WATCH THE CONFERENCE]
[DISCOVER THE CENTRE]
[FUTURE CONFERENCES]
Heterodox Social Science Conference
An initiative of the Centre for Heterodox Social Science
University of Buckingham
Centre: heterodoxcentre.com
YouTube: @heterodox_centre
X: @HeterodoxCentre
LinkedIn: Centre for Heterodox Social Science
