DSA2026 was the first DSA conference outside the UK in more than forty years and both DSA and the conference hosts, the Centre for Sustainable Development, extend their immense gratitude to all those who traveled a little further and with added logistics to be part of this event themed on Reimagining Development: Power, Agency, and Futures in an Uncertain World. 

335 people from 45 countries attended in person at University College Dublin. DSA continues to offer a supported hybrid experience which means that all sessions were available online and a further 256 delegates joined online – together presenting and discussing 421 papers across 89 panels. 

Hosting the event in Ireland was significant to the theme. As conference host Supriya Garikipati said in the conference welcome: “Irish development practice is brilliant!  We do development in a very different way. We focus on a small number of countries and challenges and we go really deep so we don’t just throw money away, we actually throw ourselves at these challenges, and to try and resolve them..” The conference held a number of panels that looked at Irish approaches to development, and highlighted a history of being colonised, facing oppression and poverty which shaped notions of solidarity and respect in development approaches. ”Our approach to development is rooted in solidarity,” said Catriona Dowd, from the Centre for Sustainable Development.

Our conference was supported by a number of wonderful volunteers from the University. Conor Hayes, Politics and History student at UCD volunteered because he thought it was critical to support academia in a climate of rising misinformation and conservatism and was particularly interested in discussions at the conference on aid. Reshona Bernard, a Law student who loves to develop her skills and experience through volunteering was interested in attending sessions on research ethics in Gaza – one of a number of panels looking at conflict, genocide and rebuilding Higher Education in Gaza.  

Every year the DSA aims to support delegates to attend in person or online from the Global south. This year, we were able to support 28 delegates to attend including 5 from Gaza. . Additional funding from Irish Aid and the School of Politics and International Relations supported another 12 delegates to attend. Anjaji Chauhan was one such delegate. She is researching women-only labour chowk in Delhi and explains how vital this support is: “I come from a very conservative family, where women’s education is not supported. I’ve had lots of struggle to reach here. So until and unless I had the full monetary support, I wouldn’t have forged that fight with my father to allow me to come here.” 

Every DSA conference is different because of the contributions from our hosts: “Over the past few days, DSA2026 has shown what is possible when people come together across disciplines, institutions, geographies and forms of practice to think seriously about the future of development. I have been struck by the quality of the engagements, the generosity of the conversations, and the range of stories and experiences shared by colleagues from different parts of the world.” said Centre for Sustainable Development’s Supriya Garikipati. 

“It has also been especially important that this has been a genuinely hybrid conference. Those who joined us online have been an integral part of the discussions, reminding us that meaningful intellectual exchange does not depend only on physical presence, but on the care with which spaces for participation are created.”

“For the Centre for Sustainable Development at UCD, hosting DSA2026 has been a very significant moment. It has allowed us to welcome a global development studies community to Dublin, to showcase the work being done here, and to strengthen the kinds of conversations and collaborations that are central to our mission. We are very grateful to everyone – especially our student volunteers – who have contributed to making the conference such a rich and memorable gathering.”

The conference also hosted the DSA’s AGM which farewelled a number of outgoing Council members and voted in new positions. Watch this space for details on these to follow. DSA members also raised points on how to host conferences with equity at their heart and the need to re-imagine different ways of bringing people together and we look forward to working with members to discuss and test these ideas.

More reports, blogs, reflections and updates from the conference will follow in the weeks to come. If you want to share anything, contact Rowena in Communications.