Post-Progressivism?: Toward a New Social Science
Heterodox Social Science conference 2026 23–25 July 2026
The Vinson Centre, University of Buckingham
The Centre for Heterodox Social Science is delighted to host the second annual Heterodox Social Science Conference at the University of Buckingham from 23–25 July 2026.
We are entering a post-progressive era in which sixty years of cultural left intellectual hegemony is in question. Populism, polarisation, progressive illiberalism and the fraying of social capital have produced an intellectual crisis and a loss of confidence in our progressive-dominated meaning-making institutions.
Traditional leftists, classical liberals and conservatives have all rendered pointed critiques of the cultural left episteme. A shift away from ‘woke’ excess is evident in new media, social media and even established media and organisations, but is being steadfastly resisted in academia.
Academic research is vital for building theories which frame, organise and systematise smaller-scale insights from think tanks, the media and empirical scholars. We need high theory and intellectual depth alongside analysis and commentary. This requires networks, conferences, journals, associations, canonical texts, graduate programmes and courses. This conference is both an intellectual and an organisational endeavour.
The conference continues to address a major problem: our knowledge-production system is heavily swayed by its cultural left weltanschauung, directing attention to progressive topics and viewpoints while using carrots and sticks to constrain the pursuit of truth. As a result, today’s social science conceals as much as it reveals about the world.
The conference’s intellectual aims remain twofold: a) to institutionalise the study of woke, arguably a dominant high-cultural ideology of our episteme; and b) to research omitted topics and perspectives, rebalancing social scientific knowledge.
We need a New Social Science for an emerging post-progressive era.
Plenary and parallel sessions will bring heterodox scholars together to debate and collaborate, with the aim of institutionalising alternative social science. The conference is about conferring, but also about focused results. The event will be recorded and disseminated online, and will support the development of new research networks, publications and institutional initiatives in heterodox social science.
Speakers and sessions in 2026 will address themes including the end of woke, critical woke studies, higher education policy, unsettled debates around settler colonialism, populism and the nation, psychotherapy and psychology, gender, family, social cohesion, academic freedom and the future of heterodox social science.
Confirmed speakers include Eric Kaufmann, Musa al-Gharbi, Alan Sokal, Frank Furedi, Helen Pluckrose, Razib Khan, Jukka Savolainen, Chris Rufo, Frances Widdowson, Elizabeth Weiss, Nigel Biggar, James Manzi, Ashley Rubin, Helen Joyce, Michael Biggs, David Goodhart, Harrison Pitt, Richard McNally, Adam Omary, Pamela Paresky, Val Thomas, Lawrence Patihis, Andrew Hartz, Robert Maranto, Kevin McCaffree, Richard Hanania, Gad Saad, Lee Jussim, Kevin Waldman, W. Bradford Wilcox, Jonathan Anomaly, Francesca Minerva and Edward Skidelsky.
Attendance is free, but places are limited and registration is required so please register here. The organisers reserve the right to manage attendance in line with venue capacity, speaker requirements and conference logistics.
THEMES WILL INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO, THE FOLLOWING:
CRITICAL WOKE STUDIES
The intellectual origins of woke: Protestant, liberal, neo-Marxist or postmodernist?
Are woke ideas downstream of equality law, or are laws and institutions downstream of culture?
Is woke a result of self-interest, status distinction and ‘luxury beliefs’, or genuine belief?
Bottom-up versus top-down: did woke beliefs spread epidemiologically through the media and social media, or through a more deliberate ‘march through the institutions’?
The politics of woke: how important is the culture war for deciding elections? Can public policy roll it back?
The psychology of woke: how important are hyperparenting, fragility, therapeutic concept creep, psychopathology and personal victimhood in spurring the rise of this ideology?
The political theory of woke: is there a case for limiting speech, mandating equal outcomes or deconstructing a majority tradition?
NEGLECTED PERSPECTIVES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
- Alternative explanations for racial, sexual or gender inequality
- Positive sociology
- The effect of diversity on social cohesion and social capital
- Anomie, sexual orientation and mental health
- Family structure and social outcomes
- The effects of DEI on minorities, majorities and organisational performance
- Anti-conservative, anti-male, anti-white or anti-Asian discrimination in elite institutions
- Attitudes to free speech and objective truth
- Correlates of left-wing authoritarianism
- Distortion in the public understanding of historical events
- The social construction of trauma and harm
- The social construction of systemic discrimination
- The social construction of disinformation and hate speech
- Negative effects of low skilled immigration
- Innumeracy and police violence
- The effects of heredity and evolutionary psychology on social behaviour
- How can we reform the social sciences, and the academy more broadly?
CONFERENCE INFORMATION
Date: 23–25 July 2026
Venue: The Vinson Centre, University of Buckingham
Registration: Free, with limited places
Website: heterodoxconference.com
Conference logistics: David Moore, Alderbourne Advisors — david@alderbourne.co.uk