The Institute’s 2026 PhD Conference took place on 28-29 April, on the subject of ‘Critical Crossroads? A criminology that confronts’.
Over two days, 49 PhD students from both Cambridge and other institutions gave presentations and took part in panel discussions about how criminologists could approach issues such as displacement, colonialism, violence, and injustice proactively. Rather than simply responding when these issues become prominent, they explored how their research could challenge them on a systemic level.
“We hoped to encourage researchers think about how, if research argues for something all the time, what might it also be arguing against?”, explained Mark Yin, one of the PhD students who organised the conference. “And by that extent, what powers are shaping that orientation?”
New kinds of approach
Yin believes that criminology can sometimes be very conservative in its approach, and certain perspectives are overlooked due to policy choices made by governments of the day, and criminological thinking that aligned only with those choices. The conference encouraged researchers to think about what outcomes have been produced by dominant perspectives within their subjects of interest, and what other perspectives might exist. This led to panels as diverse as emancipatory criminology, institutional accountability, gendered policing, and colonialism through space and time.
Accompanying these discussions was a keynote speech by Dr Lynne Copson from the Open University. Dr Copson interrogated prevailing criminological perspectives on harm and justice and their effectiveness, as well as their consequences. In contrast, she also considered the role of hope and of utopian perspectives in the discipline, asking whether these might help scholars reorient their thinking.
A play for our times
Tying into the theme of confronting systemic injustice, the conference also invited Trybe House Theatre to perform excerpts of their play ‘Ego’s Killing the Mandem’. This play explored the relationship between the police and Black British communities, and how these interactions can shape their sense of self.
“It activated a lot of interesting criminological themes, about policing, systemic bias, and how things always look different from inside a community,” said Yin. “These questions are very relevant for criminologists, because those topics touch on what we work with, even if we aren't working with topics such as youth crime or race directly. These broader questions about bias, and what communities are most affected by the law, are questions criminologists should be thinking about.”
A conference for all
This year, the organisers made a conscious decision to make the conference free, allow hybrid and online presentation, and offer bursaries to cover travel costs.
Yin explains that these were important in making the conference accessible to everyone. The travel bursaries and online presentations were particularly important for encouraging researchers from the Global South to participate. Their inclusion was crucial for a conference about confronting systemic injustice.
Yin also praised the conference as an excellent event for academics to network.
“For PhD students, I think it can feel like you're doing your own work a lot of the time,” he said. “So, it really helps to be able to connect with people who have similar experiences to you or are doing research which is similar or might overlap with yours. It's always good to learn from others.”
This was the fourth annual PhD Conference, and many more will hopefully follow.
“It’s so important that there are student-led events such as this,” Yin reflected. “PhD students should have a place to talk about their own research, on their own terms.”