2025 year in review
Thanks to our individual and institutional members 2025 was a year we could bring together academics, practitioners, and policy makers to advance development studies as a field of study, research and action.
Our annual conference DSA2025 was organised and hosted by the University of Bath. Our third hybrid format conference allowed people to once again attend both in-person and online, allowing for greater inclusion. The conference attracted a high number of delegates, with 625 delegates attending to enjoy 420 paper presentations and three plenary sessions, as well as sessions on publishing and collaborations with new networks. If you missed out you can read the conference highlights. Many thanks as ever to the Journal of Development Studies, Oxford Development Studies and the Journal of International Development, who sponsored the three plenaries. We are also also extremely grateful to the Journal of Development Studies, Development in Practice journal, and the University of Bath, whose generous support enabled us to extend fee waivers and funding to colleagues based in the Global South. Post-conference we received a lot of feedback, suggestions and greater calls for collaboration, some of which were highlighted in delegate blogs and others which will form part of DSA2026.
Other highlights from the past year included:
- Our response to the cuts to the international aid system included hosting two webinars in 2025: What next for a broken aid system? And The future of UK aid.
- We also continued advocacy work on issues relevant to members: we wrote to the UK government about: immigration proposals affecting international students and academics; greater action for Gaza; and support for scholarship holders; and academic freedom of expression.
- The DSA online Decolonising Development Directory already has over 70 members who take decolonised approaches to development studies. Members held their first meeting in October to explore areas for collaboration. The Directory is open access and members are free to contact one another independently regarding potential collaborations. A webinar is planned in the Spring on issues arising from the meeting.
- Our work on ‘equality, diversity and inclusion‘ in development studies . This work was funded by the Academy of Social Sciences and involved a series of workshops with ECRs in London, Edinburgh and Birmingham. It has put forward 5 recommendations including annual race equity dashboards, bridge funding, a cross-institutional database of minoritised mentors, workload credit for decolonisation and institutionalisation of ECR forums. The results from the data collected and several workshops held will be published in 2026.
In terms of business as usual:
- We awarded our PhD thesis and Master’s dissertation prizes at the annual conference, and both prizes are running again this year for our institutional members. This is a great opportunity to increase the profile of graduate students’ work.
- Our Study Groups continue to organise online and in-person events. This past year saw events outside of the annual conference for the study groups focussing on Women; Religion; NGOs; Scotland; and Politics & Political Economy. Do get in touch with any of the study group convenors via the website or join their mailing lists on their webpages if you wish to join a group.
- The DSA held its annual meeting with Heads of Institutional Members online in November. The aim is to create a community amongst Heads of Centres facing similar challenges and opportunities and many have taken part in supporting our equality, diversity and inclusion work.
In terms of publications:
- There have been two further publications within the DSA-OUP book series. Do consider submitting a book proposal to the series if you are interested (see details on the website).
- The DSA has commenced a partnership with the Journal of Development Studies to produce a special issue each year from papers presented at the annual conference, the first issue will come from a selection of papers accepted to the DSA2026 conference.
And in new developments:
- The DSA has a new Global South representative on the DSA Council, Rakiya Mamman, nominated and elected by the Global South membership.
- To improve DSA connectivity with students and ECRs of our institutional members, student representatives from several more of our institutional members were selected in 2025. There are currently 19 reps across 15 institutions liaising with our two Council student representatives to reinvigorate initiatives for students and ECRs.
- Additionally, the DSA has launched a new student/ ECR Activity Fund that DSA student or ECR members can apply to for assistance with costs of student/ ECR led activities and events. Do see all the details on our website if you are interested in applying for financial assistance for an event you are planning.
The new year, 2026, looks set to be just as diverse and interesting for the DSA. A highlight will be the July DSA2026 annual conference in Ireland! This will be a hybrid event again, offering online and in-person attendance and is hosted and organised by University College Dublin, Ireland. All members receive a discounted registration rate, so if you’re not joining hundreds of others taking advantage of this – why not join us now and meet us in Ireland?
DSA members benefit from being part of our connected community, inclusion in our member’s directory, discounted registration to the DSA annual conference, and networking via our Study Groups, and eligibility to the Student/ ECR Fund, to name just a few.