Accounting History Review International
Conference 2026

Call for Papers

This international conference aims to foster critical engagement with the evolving landscape of accounting history, offering a vibrant platform for both established and emerging scholars. With a deliberate focus on inclusive historiographies and the diversification of perspectives, we particularly welcome interdisciplinary research that reconsiders established narratives and opens space for marginalized voices in the history of accounting practice and thought.

The 2026 Accounting History Review International Conference will be held from 4th to 5th June 2026 at the Shirokane Campus of Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan. Co-hosted by Tokyo Metropolitan University and Meiji Gakuin University, the conference aims to bring together scholars, researchers, and practitioners to engage in critical dialogue on emerging and diverse perspectives in accounting history.

The theme, “Accounting History Unbound: Challenging Narratives and Redefining Legacies,” reflects our ambition to challenge conventional Western-centric narratives and foster inclusive historical inquiries. Participants are encouraged to explore how accounting practices have been shaped by and embedded within different social, political, cultural, and institutional contexts across time and geography. With particular attention to underrepresented regions, including Japan and Asia more broadly, the conference seeks to reposition accounting as a social and cultural practice, not merely a technical one.

We encourage the submission of papers that engage with empirical studies, theoretical developments, and methodological innovations. Contributions that draw upon archival research, oral histories, ethnographies, or comparative case studies are especially welcomed. By highlighting regional case studies from Asia and other underrepresented areas, the conference aims to build a truly global and inclusive accounting history dialogue.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Traditional bookkeeping practices in Indigenous and local communities
• Accounting and colonial governance
• Accounting, management, and strategic decision making in wartime
• Post-war reconstruction and the evolution of accounting practices
• Household accounts and their social roles in education, morality, and control
• Women in the history of the accounting profession
• Audit practices and the exercise of institutional power
• Historical developments in non-profit accounting and its societal impact
• Religious organisations and their accounting practices
• The history and transformation of bookkeeping education
• Transnational transfer of accounting techniques and institutions

We strongly encourage early submissions from doctoral students and early-career researchers. Submissions will be peer-reviewed, and selected papers may be considered for publication in Accounting History Review or other related academic outlets.

Submissions addressing themes beyond those listed are also welcome, especially those presenting novel theoretical, methodological, or interdisciplinary approaches.