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Critical Drone Studies: Drones in Society, Politics, and Culture


Critical Drone Studies: Drones in Society, Politics, and Culture

A Conference hosted by the Centre for Drones and Culture
With the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) and the Institute for Technology and Humanity (ITH)

Venue: West Court, Jesus College, University of Cambridge, CB5 8BQ

Dates: Thursday 25th - Friday 26th June 2026

Register here

About the Event

From agriculture to logistics, from journalism to delivery, from war to peacebuilding: drones continue to differently impact the ways we live, work, tell stories, relate to one another, and imagine the future. Although the history of drones dates back to at least the early twentieth century – and, by some accounts, to ballooning in the eighteenth century – it is in the early twenty-first century that their presence became widespread and their impacts transformational. Debates continue to surround more risky drone developments, such as drones’ integration into autonomous, AI-driven warfare, and their illicit use for drugs and weapons delivery into prisons. However, alternative deployments show promise, including unmanned delivery of medicines to remote geographies, surveying of humanitarian crises and environmental disasters, and the creation of fresh visual idioms in photography, cinematography, gaming, and other forms of entertainment. Although the types of drones used in these spaces can be quite different, they often involve imaginaries of situational awareness, technological autonomy, and “distant intimacy” – of humans being physically apart from another person, object, or milieu while robots remain relatively close, at times even enabling affective feelings and cognitive impressions of access and intimacy.

While drone studies has tended to treat the use of drones in these spaces separately, the ambition of this conference is to engage in boundary work which moves the field towards a more heterogeneous, as well as normative, understanding of drones in society, politics, and culture: towards a critical drone studies that acknowledges both how individual motivations and creativity shape what a drone is and does, and how such engagements are also influenced by institutions and power. To this end, this is a reflexively interdisciplinary conference that encourages exploratory perspectives on drone pasts, presents, and futures, with a focus on probing the logics and narratives underpinning drone development, proliferation, and acceptance. Topics covered include:

  • Drone wars

  • Drones and civil liberties

  • Drone humanitarianism

  • Drone ecologies

  • Drones and political economy

  • Drone labour

  • Drone aesthetics

See the original conference call for papers (CFP) here.

Registration Fee

This is an in-person conference sponsored by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). It is free to attend, and we would like to welcome as many people as possible. But we ask that you register only if you can confirm attendance, as refreshments, the conference reception, and conference materials will be provided free of charge. The deadline to register is 10 June 2026.

Note for conference speakers: this registration link refers to the general attendee registration. If you are presenting at the conference, you should already have registered via the link the organisers sent in March.

Conference Programme

Please see the final programme with abstracts and speaker bios here.

Getting to Cambridge

By air:

Of the London airports, Stansted is the most convenient for Cambridge. Heathrow and Gatwick are well connected by train, and London City and Luton are options depending on where you are travelling from.

From Stansted Airport

A direct train runs from the terminal to Cambridge station in around 35 - 40 minutes, with services every 30 minutes approximately.

From Heathrow Airport

Two options:

  1. Take the Heathrow Express from Heathrow to London Paddington (15 minutes), then the Circle or the Hammersmith and City line going eastbound to London Kings Cross St. Pancras, and a train to Cambridge from there (around 50 minutes).

  2. Take the Piccadilly line direct from Heathrow to London Kings Cross St. Pancras (around 50 minutes) and then the train to Cambridge.

From Gatwick Airport

Thameslink runs direct trains from Gatwick Airport to Cambridge, passing through London Bridge and St Pancras International without requiring a change. Journey time is around 2 hours.

By train:

When travelling by train to Cambridge, please get off at Cambridge Stationin the city centre, not Cambridge North, which is outside the city centre.

By Coach:

For coach services to Cambridge, please see the National Express or Stagecoach websites. The Drummer Street coach station is within walking distance of the College, about 500m away. Direct coaches operate from London Victoria, Stansted Airport and Heathrow Airport.

By Car:

Parking is very limited and subject to availability in Cambridge, and not guaranteed at Jesus College. If you intend to drive, please contact us at drones [at] lcfi.cam.ac.uk for parking options.

Conference Venue

The conference venue is West Court, Jesus College, 22 Jesus Lane, Cambridge CB5 8BQ.

Jesus College is located approximately 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) from the railway station. A taxi takes 10-15 minutes and typically costs £8-£12; cabs are available outside the main exit and take credit cards and contactless payment. 

For buses, you can use the Cambridgeshire journey planner for buses running from the station to Jesus Lane. 

Traffic can be slow in Cambridge, so sometimes it is faster to walk. Jesus College is about a 30–40-minute walk from the station.

Please enter Jesus College via the West Court Pedestrian Entrance (outlined in yellow in the map below) on Jesus Lane:

Accommodation

We suggest the following reasonably priced accommodations within distance of Jesus College:

You might also consider staying in one of Cambridge's many guesthouses or bed and breakfasts: https://www.visitcambridge.org/place-categories/bbs-and-guesthouses/

Contact

Centre for Drones and Culture

Email us at: drones [at] lcfi.cam.ac.uk

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November 6

Re-imagining the World from Above: The Semiotics of Drone Visuals