Our Aims and Objectives

We are the UK association for all those who research, study and teach global development issues

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What is Development Studies

What is development studies and decolonising development.

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Our Members

We have around 1,000 members, made up of individuals and around 40 institutions

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Governance

Find out about our constitution, how we are run and meet our Council

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People

Meet our Council members and other staff who support the running of DSA

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About

The DSA Conference is an annual event which brings together the development studies community

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DSA2025

Our conference this year is themed "Navigating crisis: dangers and opportunities in development"

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Past Conferences

Find out about our previous conferences

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Study Groups

Our Study Groups offer a chance to connect with others who share your areas of interest

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Students and ECRs

Students and early career researchers are an important part of our community

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Publications

Our book series with OUP and our relationship with other publishers

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Decolonising Development

The initiatives we are undertaking that work towards decolonising development studies

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Membership Directory

Find out who our members are, where they are based and the issues they work on

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New book: The Transitional Justice Citizen: From Justice Receiver to Justice Seeker

WICID Director Dr Briony Jones has published her new book The Transitional Justice Citizen: From Justice Receiver to Justice Seeker (Edward Elgar Publishing). The book addresses contemporary criticism of transitional justice theory and practice in order to improve our understanding of the agency of people at times of transition.

Drawing on three diverse case studies from across the globe, chapters demonstrate how the transitional justice citizen is defined by transitional justice discourse, policy and practice, and through acts of claiming justice such as protests and political violence. Combining in-depth theorization with empirical insights, this perceptive book positions the concept of citizenship within the context of long-term historical political struggle and the contemporary importance of justice.

You can find more information about the book here and access the official online e-book version here.

New papers

  • Professor Vicki Squire (WICID Steering Committee) has published a new article with Dr Modesta Alozie in Big Data and Society, on “Coloniality and Frictions: Data Driven Humanitarianism in North-Eastern Nigeria and South Sudan”. The article draws on qualitative interviews carried out as part of the AHRC Data and Displacement project to examine epistemic injustices perpetuated through the humanitarian ‘data revolution’ and the frictions that these generate. You can read the article here.
  • Dr Mouzayian Khalil (WICID Management Team) has co-authored an open access publication titled Challenges of cooperation for development: A case-study analysis of Cuban health solidarity programmes in Nigeria that explores Cuban-Nigerian bilateral cooperation on health sector development. The paper uses the case study to problematise conceptualisation of development and its praxis, particularly capability and willingness to explore alternative approaches or partnerships for development. We argue that what occurs between rhetoric and reality in this case, is characteristic of entrenched layers of institutionalised development agenda-setting sustained by international development policy regimes. This research highlights the need to explore alternative development approaches, especially those that engender mutually beneficial and equitable partnerships.

WICID Annual Lecture with the Critical South Asia Group (CSAG)

On 7 March 2023, CSAG and WICID at the University of Warwick co-hosted the Annual Lecture 2022-23 titled “Or It was Time Playing upon Time”: Translation and the Indian Nation by Dr Sadia Abbas. The lecture focused on the writer Qurutulain Hyder’s engagement with Neoclassicism, colonial and nationalist archaeology, and the global history of the picturesque in her two Urdu novels Akhir-i-Shab ke Humsafar and Aag ka Darya, which she substantially rewrote in her own English translations Fireflies in the Mist and River of Fire. Framed through a discussion of translation and “transcreation”, the lecture read Hyder’s ekphrastic treatments of ruins, statues, and frescoes as a critique of teleology and nationalist and Hindutva historiography, while also addressing the contradictions of ostensibly cosmopolitan Europe and the nationalist postcolonial state. The recording of this Lecture is available here on our YouTube channel. Please check it out! 

Radio 4 Thinking Allowed: Asylum and ‘home’

On 5 April Professor Vicki Squire (WICID Steering Committee) presented findings on BBC Radio 4 from her British Academy research into Syrian experiences of remaking home. You can catch up via the broadcast here.