DSAI Autumn School 2026
Skills and Methods for Development Studies and Research in Times of Uncertainty
Date: Thursday, 3 September 2026 |
Each year, during Summer or Autumn, the DSAI invites researchers, NGOs, policymakers and academics to meet and to share research strategies and methodologies for development. This year, we recognise the myriad of issues faced by all stakeholders in an ever-changing and volatile environment. The challenge to development research is very real. Perhaps we require new sets of skills in order to remain relevant? Perhaps we need to revisit well-established research norms and adapt them to the new reality? Therefore, on 3 September, we hope to create a collaborative online space to equip participants to share and co-develop adaptive research strategies to better engage with new and emerging challenges within the global development sphere.
PROGRAMME
| TIME | SESSION |
10.00–11.00 | Facilitated discussion and icebreakers focusing on the Real-Life issues faced by researchers of development today |
11.00–11.30 | Comfort break |
11.30–13.00 | Paul Keating, TUS will engage attendees in co-producing a participatory and active piece on the theme of working and researching development issues in a climate of uncertainty. |
13.00–14.00 | Lunch break |
14.00–16.00 | Stephen Thompson from IDS, University of Sussex will present on New Issues and Themes for Participatory Research |
16.00 | Closing reflections |
Speaker Biographies:
- Dr Stephen Thompson is a social scientist who has worked across the disciplines of geography and international development since 2007. He is a Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK. His research mainly focuses on the themes of disability inclusion and social justice. He is particularly interested in participatory methods. He did his PhD at Dublin University of Technology (formally Dublin Institute of Technology) and his thesis focused on the social and economic impact of avoidable blindness and visual impairment in Mozambique.
- Paul Keating is a Researcher and Lecturer in the Technological University of the Shannon based in Limerick School of Art and Design on the Clonmel Campus. With a background in Civil Engineering and Sustainable Rural Development, he has worked as Community Worker in Ireland, across the EU, East Africa and the Balkans for over 20 years. Paul's current research interest involves the exploration of the extent to which media such as computer games and virtual reality can be used as a space for Critical Pedagogy informed by the work of Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal. In recent years Paul has partnered with the National Youth Council of Ireland and Youth Work Ireland, researching and developing the use of games in youth work practice particularly as it related to development education. He has also partnered with international NGOs such as Trocaire in integrating games into their Global Citizenship Education programmes. Paul is currently completing a Doctorate in the use of Multiplayer Online Computer Games in Critical Pedagogy.