Annual Conference 2025/2026
DSAI Annual Conference
Development in the Interregnum: Past, Present, and Future(s)
Dates: 15th & 16th January 2026
Venue: Trinity College Dublin - Arts Block - Emmet Theatre
International development is at an inflection point with the current conjuncture defined by a conflation of interacting destructive forces, disruptions, uncertainties, and opportunities for change. Geopolitical tectonic plates are shifting with new actors and institutions now influencing the postwar development cooperation regime. Multilateralism and the liberal international order are crumbling while the rise of China and South-South development cooperation is influencing a profound shift in development thinking. This coincides with a renewed role for the state, state interventionism and the increasing influence of state capitalism in development cooperation. Political convulsions in some of the longest-standing democracies are birthing discourses that actively undermine fundamental democratic principles, commitments to global cooperation and universal values, instead seeing a rise of isolationism and withdrawal from international institutions. As the impacts of climate change unfold, a series of sharp intersecting inequalities fuelled by uneven and combined development continues to accelerate. These interacting, intersecting events and transformations hold profound implications for international development cooperation governance and practices.
This conference examines how, why, and in what ways the contemporary conjuncture can be understood, and what possibilities and future pathways exist for development cooperation. It explores discursive framings, structural features, and agent-based possibilities and mechanisms embedded within the current order that could shift the focus from conflict, crisis, and competition, toward cooperation, consensus, and community.
PROGRAMME OUTLINE
Thursday 15th January
09:15 Registration |
09:30 – 13:30 Transdisciplinary Collaboration for Impact with Máire Brophy Consulting |
14:00 – 15:30 Welcome Address & Conference Opening Plenary Moderator: Assoc. Prof. Susan Murphy KEYNOTE ADDRESSES Prof. Alfredo Saad Filo, Queen's University Belfast ‘Neoliberal Fascism’ Prof. Owen Worth, University of Limerick 'Development in the Interregnum: Tragedy or Farce?' |
15:30 – 16:00 Tea/Coffee |
16:00 – 17:30 Afternoon Parallel Sessions 1. Business & Development Study Group - Chair: Dr. David Nyaluke2. Education Study Group - Chair: Prof. Gerard McCann3. Geopolitics - Chair: Dr. Kelsey Rhude4. Linking Development Studies with the Humanities - Chair: Dr. Susan Murphy5. The Politics of Food Crises: Challenges and Opportunities - Chair: Abdulkadir Mohamed / Heba Elsahn |
17:30 – 18:00 Meet the Authors Padraig Carmody Sinead Walsh |
The Atrium, Dining Hall 18:00 – 19:00 Wine Reception |
Friday 16th January
| 09:15 Arrival & Welcome |
| 09:30 – 10:30 KEYNOTE ADDRESS Moderator: Dr. Sheila Long Assoc. Prof Divine Fuh, University of Cape Town ‘Prosecuting Development: Towards a Decolonial Imperative for Transformative Global Cohabitation |
| 10:30 – 11:00 Tea/Coffee & Refreshments & Poster Presentations |
11:00 – 12:30 Morning Parallel Sessions 1. Climate 1 Study Group - Chairs: Judith Randel and Tony German2. Gender Study Group - Chair: Dr. Nita Mishra3. Reimagining Development - Chair: Dr. Eilish Dillon4. Civilian Targeting - Chair: Dr. Maksym Skrypnyk / Dr. Caitriona Dowd5. Contested Futures of Agriculture: Gender, Digital Technologies and Inequality - Chair: Dr. Tara Bedi |
12:30 – 14:00 Lunch & Tea/Coffee |
13:15 – 14:00 Annual General Meeting (AGM) |
14:00 – 15:30 Afternoon Parallel Sessions 1. Civil Society Study Group - Chair: Dr. Sheila Long2. Climate 2 Study Group - Chairs: Judith Randel and Tony German3. Humanitarian Study Group - Chair: Dr. Kelsey Rhude4. ICT4D Study Group - Chairs: Dr. PJ Wall and Dr. Elizabeth Resor5. New and Emerging Directions for Gender Based Violence: Methods, Findings and Applications - Chairs: Dr. Carol Ballantine and Dr. Tara Bedi6. Disassembling and Reassembling Development: Tracing the Reconfiguration of Governance and Practice in the Current Conjuncture - Chair: Dr. Susan Murphy / Maeve McGandy |
15:30 – 15:45 Tea/Coffee |
| 15:45 – 16:30 KEYNOTE ADDRESS Moderator: Dr. Nita Mishra Prof. Su-ming Khoo, University of Galway ‘Reframing the Anthropocene Educationally - from SDG4 to Human Capabilities to Share the Planet’ Facilitated Discussion |
16:30 – 17:30 Closing Plenary / Reflections |
17:30 Conference Close |
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Prof. Alfredo Saad Filho, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen's University Belfast. Alfredo Saad Filho is Professor of International Political Economy at Queen’s University Belfast, Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa), Visiting Professor at LUT University (Finland), Visiting Professor at Università degli Studi della Campania ‘Luigi Vanvitelli’ (Italy), Senior Associate Researcher at the University of Brasília (Brazil) and Professorial Research Associate at SOAS University of London (UK). He was Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in Geneva. He has taught in universities and research institutions in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mozambique, South Africa, Switzerland and the UK. His publications include 18 books, 80 journal articles, 60 book chapters, and 30 reports for UN and other international agencies. His most recent books include The Age of Crisis: Neoliberalism, the Collapse of Democracy, and the Pandemic (London: PalgraveMacmillan, 2022) and Progressive Policies for Economic Development: Economic Diversification and Social Inclusion after Climate Change (London: Routledge, 2022).
Assoc. Prof. Divine Fuh, Director of the Institute for Humanities Africa (HUMA) at the University of Cape Town where he is also HOD for and associate professor of social anthropology. His research focuses on the politics of suffering and smiling, particularly on how people seek ways of smiling in the midst of their suffering. He is currently interested in the life of ideas, the political economy of African knowledge production, and centring African epistemologies. He has done work in Cameroon, Botswana, Senegal and South Africa.
Prof. Su-ming Khoo, Sociology at the School of Political Science and Sociology, and Chair of the Socio-Economic Impact Research Cluster at the Ryan Institute, at the University of Galway, Ireland. She is Joint Editor-in-Chief (with Sophie Woodward & Harriet Shortt) of the Journal of Creative Research Methods and Visiting Professor (2022-2027) in Critical Studies in Higher Education and Transformation (CriSHET) at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa.
Prof. Owen Worth, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Limerick. He works, teaches and publishes in the wide areas of International Political Economy, Global Politics and has published on class, hegemony, resistance, political movement from both the right and left and on International Relations (IR) and Development theory. He is course leader for the long running MA International Studies and teaches the Graduate Seminar in IR for post-graduate students within the department as well as a number of interchangeable IR/IPE/Politics undergraduate and postgraduate modules. He is the author of 4 books, a co-editor of a number of collections and has published in several journals throughout his career. He has also been a visiting academic at a number of universities across Europe and North America and has sat and continues to sit on the board of a number of networks and academic committees. He is the Managing Editor of the long-standing journal Capital & Class, which is published by Sage.
Note: We advise attendees to arrange accommodation early.
See below options with 10% discount
Travelodge Plus Dublin City Centre, 5 minutes from Trinity College, with 10% discount off best available rate using the dedicated booking link here: https://www.travelodge.ie/about-us/dsai-annual-conference
The Alex Hotel, The Green Hotel, The Davenport Hotel & The Mont Hotel, with 10% discount when book directly via their website: https://www.ocallaghancollection.com/ using promo code SPECIAL10BB