Critical Drone Studies: Drones in Society, Politics, and Culture
updated:
Monday, January 12, 2026 - 3:16pm
Centre for Drones and Culture, University of Cambridge
deadline for submissions:
Saturday, January 31, 2026
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.