2013 DSA Annual Conference

Saturday 16th November 2013
Venue: University of Birmingham

The DSA Annual Conference 2013 will be co-hosted by the University of Birmingham’s International Development Department and will also be celebrating their 50th Anniversary. It will take the form of a one day Conference with an open call for panels and papers, reflecting a more democratic process of bringing together current research and thinking on development related issues.

The International Development Department is delighted to be hosting the DSA conference on the eve of its 50th anniversary in January 2014. As IDD marks this anniversary, many other development studies departments in the UK have also, or are about to, celebrate similar anniversaries. It is hoped that you’ll join us in marking this occasion by coming along to the key note address on Friday 15th November and for dinner after that. The conference provides a further occasion as we consider post-2015 deliberations to reflect on the direction and contribution of the UK development studies sector to international development theory and practice. Attendance is free for this Keynote Lecture but there will be a charge for dinner and you will need to arrange your own accommodation if you are staying on for the DSA Conference on Saturday.  

Whilst the Conference is based on an open call for papers, we expect that DSA Colleagues and Panel Convenors will bring forward new ideas which may:

• Analyze the changing global context of development – including the weak global recovery, continuing  differentiation of the South, new forms of international interdependence and patterns of vulnerability, new actors and development  partnerships and blocked international multilateralism – and address its implications for international development cooperation and national development policy;
• Link development thinking and practice with wider debates on economic crisis, climate change, sustainability transitions, inequality, human rights, social movements, democratization, security, technological change and new forms of governance;
• Provide inputs for a post-2015 development agenda, including: assessing the process of formulating post-2015 development goals; lessons from MDG implementation; poverty, inequality and global justice; and the nature of sustainable development goals. 

Parallel Sessions—‘Ground rules’

• Only novel and previously unpublished research will be eligible for presentation
• Each scholar can only present one paper at the conference. Co-authorship will be possible but the actual presentation would need to be given by different authors.
• We will have up to 27 slots for panels/study groups (hereafter referred to as ‘panels’): 9 parallel slots across 3 x 1.5 hour sessions.
• Panels can reflect any subject, but its relevance to development must be clearly demonstrated
• The DSA’s remit is to encourage the cross fertilisation of ideas so preference will be given to multi-institutional panels, panels that are issuing open calls for papers and those who will be bringing researchers from developing countries.
• No more than 3 presenters per 1.5 hour panel session to include Q&A, to enable depth of presentation and discussion. Presentations to take up no more than half of the 1.5 hours.
• Due to the high level of applications each panel will be limited to one 1.5 hour slot.
• Quality control will be the responsibility of the panel convenors, who will need to review the abstracts and final papers
• Candidates whose papers are accepted (at all levels) will need to prepare a presentation based on their paper (no more than 15 minutes) to be with the Conference organisers no later than Friday October 31st 2013.
• For those wishing their papers to be considered for publication in the Conference Special Edition of the Journal of International Development FULL PAPERS will need to be received by 20th September 2013. Minor amendments will be possible after the Conference to reflect discussion.

Themed Panels

• The deadline for submission of panel proposals is Monday 15th April 2013
• Those panels that have been chosen will be notified by Friday April 26th 2013 and be given a number. Panel convenors will then need to issue their individual Calls for Papers very shortly after this.
• We suggest that any panel’s Call for Abstracts have a deadline no later than Monday 3rd June 2013
• When issuing individual Calls for Abstracts under the Panels, convenors will need to use the form under Annex I and request that participants adhere to the file naming protocol of their Word documents as follows:
  “DSAconf2012-panelnumber-abs-SA-yourname-papertitle”, keeping the paper title very brief.
  

Individual and Jointly Authored Papers
In addition to ‘themed’ panel sessions, there will be 1 ‘open’ parallel streams (3 slots, 4.5 hrs 1 room) for up to 4 presentations per parallel session (i.e. an additional 12 papers). These may be ‘orphan’ papers, i.e. not panel/theme related and within each session the presentations may not be related to each other. We will, however, attempt to group for a best thematic fit as possible. Abstracts for this category of papers will be quality reviewed by the Conference Review Team.

Assessment Criteria And Process

1. PANELS

To be arranged by an individual, a Study Group, or a group of Panel Convenors. There are 21 slots available and we will give preference to those Panel Concepts that cover more than one slot with no more than three presenters per slot. Key dates are:

• Deadline for Panel Concepts: Monday 15th April 2013
•  Selected panels will be notified by Friday 26th April 2013 and a list of selected open panels will be sent out in a further call for abstracts no later than w/c 29th April 2013
• It is therefore important that each panel concept indicates whether it is closed or open to more papers. Panels that do not state they are closed, will be taken as open and included in the general call for abstracts issued in late April/early May 2013.
• Panels will then need to issue their own call for papers, to be publicised also through the DSA website and bulletin, and coordinate a review process where each paper submitted must be subjected to a minimum of two peer reviews.
• Panel details must be finalised at the latest by Friday 20th September 2013 with all papers ready for uploading onto the website (where there is no copyright conflict).
• We therefore suggest that panels put a deadline for receipt of papers no later than Friday 13th September 2013
• Deadline for Presentations to the DSA by 31st October 2013
• Papers submitted under the standalone category that appear to fit within a Themed Panel will be forwarded to the relevant panel convenor for consideration.

2. INDIVIDUAL AND JOINTLY AUTHORED PAPERS

Written by individuals or more than one person, relevant to one of the panels selected or standalone.

• If you are submitting a paper under one of the panels, you will need to submit your abstract to Panel Convenors by their stated deadline.
• If you wish to have a standalone paper considered, please send an abstract in by Monday 3rd June 2013
• Authors of standalone papers will be notified by Monday 17th June 2013
• Final Deadline for full papers Friday 13th September 2013
• Deadline for presentations 31st October 2013

Additional Information

• All Submissions must adhere to the format given in Annex 1 of the Call for Proposals and Abstracts
• Please submit electronically via email with DSAConf2013 Submission in the Subject line of the email, and save your abstract in a Word document as follows):

o For Panel Concepts: DSAconf2013-PC-yourname-brieftitle
o For standalone paper abstracts: DSAconf2013-abs-SA-yourname-brieftitle

• Given the volume of submissions expected, failure to adhere to the above could result in your submission being mislaid
• Panel Convenors will be expected to take ownership of their Panels in terms of quality and post conference publication. The latter could take several forms.
• Individual papers will be eligible for publication in a Special Edition of the Journal of International Development.
• In some cases, a panel convenor and contributors may wish to write a joint thematic review paper following the conference, for consideration in the Special Issue of JID
• In addition, certain panel topics may be suitable for groups of papers to be published as ‘Policy Fora’ in JID or other journals.
• The organising committee will arrange a post-conference editorial system prior to any publication.

Bursary Awards and Prizes

Please note that there will be no bursary or travel awards for this year’s Annual Conference.
Journal of International Development Prize

Wiley-Blackwell have again kindly offered an award for the best paper presented at the Conference. Specific guidelines for this process will be communicated to the selected Panel Convenors once chosen.

Conference Fee

Standard Individual and Institutional Members £130.00
Concessionary (Student, unwaged & retired) Members £ 60.00
Please note:

• Large Institutional membership entitles organisations to send up to 5 participants under their membership; small institutions can send up to 2 participants. For institutional membership rates please visit http://www.devstud.org.uk/members/registration/ and follow the drop-down menu.
• All participants must be members of the DSA at the time of the Conference. Individual membership is £30 per year, Concessionary membership is £15 per year plus we have a one year free trial membership for students who have not previously been DSA members

Contact

Information, Queries and Submissions should be directed in the first instance to:

Frances Hill
Executive Director
Development Studies Association
POB 108
Bideford
Devon EX39 6ZQ
Telephone: 0845 519 3372
Email: conference@devstud.org.uk