Hi all, This call might be of interest to someone, see below All the best, Lena Lena Sotevik<https://www.su.se/profiles/leso7478-1.811611> Postdok genusvetenskap Institutionen för etnologi, religionshistoria och genusvetenskap Stockholms universitet From: Eleanor Wilkinson &lt;eleanor.wilkinson(a)sheffield.ac.uk&gt; Sent: den 26 november 2025 10:12 To: Ott Ad &lt;ad.ott(a)hevs.ch&gt;; Carri Christiane &lt;christiane.carri(a)hevs.ch&gt;; Malena Gustavsson &lt;malena.gustavson(a)gender.su.se&gt;; Lena Sotevik &lt;lena.sotevik(a)gender.su.se&gt;; Airi-Alina Allaste &lt;alina67(a)tlu.ee&gt;; Anna Ivanova &lt;a1vanova(a)tlu.ee&gt;; Ames Clark &lt;ames.clark(a)sheffield.ac.uk&gt;; Rimoldi Elena &lt;elena.rimoldi(a)hevs.ch&gt;; Justyna Struzik &lt;justyna.struzik(a)uj.edu.pl&gt;; Anna Bednarczyk &lt;anna.bednarczyk(a)uj.edu.pl&gt;; elisa.raichmann(a)tlu.ee Subject: Call for abstracts: ‘Social justice and the crisis of LGBTQI+ young people’s mental health’ (ESHMS Conference, Hamburg, August 2026) Dear all, Please could you share the below call for abstracts around any potentially interested people / networks / mailing lists / or via any of your professional social media accounts? Thanks! Eleanor —— Call for abstracts: ‘Social justice and the crisis of LGBTQI+ young people’s mental health’ (ESHMS Conference, Hamburg, August 2026) 21st Biennial European Society of Health and Medical Sociology Conference: “Mental Health in Times of Uncertainty” 19th August – 21st August 2026, Hamburg, Germany; www.uke.de/eshms2026<http://www.uke.de/eshms2026> Submission deadline February 15th, 2026 Session convenors: Professor Elizabeth McDermott, School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham, UK e.mcdermott.1@bham.ac.uk<mailto:e.mcdermott.1@bham.ac.uk> and Dr Eleanor Wilkinson, School of Geography & Planning, University of Sheffield, UK eleanor.wilkinson@sheffield.ac.uk<mailto:eleanor.wilkinson@sheffield.ac.uk> Young LGBTQI+ people across Europe are growing up in a period of instability and crisis, shaped by a series of intersecting threats: from the backlash against LGBTQI+ rights, populist ‘gender wars’, rising racism and xenophobia, and widespread online queerphobic violence. This session seeks to build interdisciplinary dialogue around LGBTQI+ youth mental health in times of uncertainty and violence, asking how we can better understand the impact that these intersecting crises are having on the mental health of LGBTQI+ youth, and what can be done to promote LGBTQI+ young people’s mental wellbeing, resilience and futures? We are particularly keen to hear from those seeking to move beyond dominant biomedical psychiatric (diagnostic) and psychological (‘minority stress’) frameworks that pathologize LGBTQI+ youth as vulnerable ‘at risk’ subjects. We want instead to think sociologically about the social, economic, cultural, environmental and political conditions that shape LGBTQI+ young people’s mental health. We argue that to address the elevated rates of LGBTQI+ youth poor mental health, we must adopt a youth-rights, social justice approach to mental health that can promote social connection, resilience and collective resistance in times of profound uncertainty. We invite potential contributors to think about the following questions and other relevant topics. Contributions can be empirical, methodological, theoretical: • How might anti-LGBTQI+ political sentiments across Europe limit our capacity to research the lives and mental health of LGBTQI+ youth? • How might the state disinvestment in LGBTQI+ equality initiatives impact our capacity for prevention and intervention? • What forms of LGBTQI+ youth mental health support are already taking place beyond the state through networks of care, friendship and solidarity? • How can we collaborate with multiple minoritised queer youth to generate possibilities to resist pathologization and create queer joy and mental wellness? • Why might we want to think of LGBTQI+ youth mental health beyond dominant framings of ‘positive feeling’ and ‘resilience’, why might we want to hold space for ‘bad feelings’, pessimism, and retreat? • How do our understandings of a social justice approach to queer youth mental health work intersectionally, especially around addressing ableism, racism and white privilege in mental health support services for LGBTQI+ youth. • What are the potentials of de-pathologised mental health support for queer and trans youth? • What are the ethics of researching LGBTQI+ youth mental health at times of crisis and uncertainty? • What are the politics of queer youth co-production in mental health research? • How can we conduct research around LGBTQI+ youth mental health with care? (addressing questions of extraction, exhaustion, and failed promises). Abstract Submission Abstract submission is now open via https://www.conftool.org/eshms2026 Submission deadline is February 15th, 2026 Abstracts should not exceed 350 words and should adhere to the following structure: • Title • Names and affiliations of the authors, please highlight the name of the presenting author • Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion (if applicable) • Keywords, three to five keywords • References are optional • Title, names, affiliations, keywords, and references are not counted in the word limit Please contact the session convenors if you have any questions e.mcdermott.1@bham.ac.uk<mailto:e.mcdermott.1@bham.ac.uk> / eleanor.wilkinson@sheffield.ac.uk<mailto:eleanor.wilkinson@sheffield.ac.uk>