The International Society for Critical Health Psychology's (ISCHP) 12th Biennial Conference, 'Ngā rau matatiki', will bring together scholars and practitioners with an interest in critical health psychology from across the globe. This hybrid conference will allow attendance across time zones, both in person and virtually via 5 conference Hubs, facilitating greater reach and participation, extending contact, meaningful interaction, and of course, greater cost-effectiveness.

Conference features:

- Dynamic virtual conference platform - Virtual networking with colleagues from around the world

- Hubs in multiple time zones - Extensive catalogue of presentations on-demand

- Virtual poster presentation - Post-conference on-demand access

'Re-imagining community'

Together, we are living through a global pandemic that has shaken the way we think about and approach health, illness, wellbeing, and connection. This hybrid conference offers an opportunity to come together in a new way, to think and share about how we might re-imagine various communities.

We invite presentations on the conference theme, 'Reimagining Community', which includes, but is not limited to, the topics below. In addition, presentations on any health-related topic with a critical angle are welcome. Symposia on a chosen theme, or one of the above themes, are also encouraged. We welcome all those living and working in community, teaching, research, policy, and advocacy roles who seek to promote equity and justice in health psychology and other related areas of health.

Thematic topics

  • Honouring Indigenous Voices: De‑colonising perspectives and practices in health research. We prioritise the foregrounding of health research led by Māori, Pacific, and other First Nations peoples. As the conference is hosted in Aotearoa New Zealand, we especially wish to promote the knowledges and practices of Māori as Tangata Whenua (Indigenous people) of Aotearoa, as well as that of our Pacific peoples and communities.

  • Storying community strengths and agency: We invite members of communities, iwi (tribes), hapū (subtribes), whānau/aiga (families), and other groups to share their experiences of working on the ground, in partnership, during COVID-19. We welcome the sharing of ideas on how we can keep building on community strengths and agency to improve our communities’ health during and beyond this pandemic. There will be a later call for Special Issue contributions to a peer-reviewed journal based on stories and discussions.

  • Partnering for better health: We are interested in hearing from researchers, activists, and/or community members about how they are working together to improve the health and wellbeing of people from different minority groups.

  • Innovating and advancing critical health psychology: We encourage new ideas and directions for theoretical and/or methodological work in critical health psychology and other related disciplines.