Call for Panels

The Call for Panels is now closed!

We will endeavour to communicate the results of the Scientific Committee review by the 7 December 2023. Once we have the list of accepted panels we will open the Call for Papers on 12 December 2023. Call for Papers will be published on the website and advertised via email and DSA social media channels.

DSA2024 invited proposals for panels and workshops that engage critically with dimensions of this year’s theme Social justice and development in a polarising world. While DSA encourages convenors (those proposing/organising a panel) to address the issues outlined in the theme, this is not a prerequisite for panel acceptance. The conference is also open to submissions outside the conference theme of relevance to current development theory and practice, or topics covered by DSA Study Groups, even if these are not strongly aligned to the conference theme.

Different session formats for DSA2024 are encouraged, including debates, roundtables, ‘speed-meetings’, fire-site meetings and other non-conventional formats. A key aim is for all panels to attempt to combine academic and practitioner work within most panels. The session formats will include:

Paper panels: These sessions will involve one or more sessions that are based around 3-4 papers, perhaps with a discussant. To promote the highest levels of intellectual exchange, we are looking for convenors who can commit to liaising closely with paper-givers in advance of the conference, with a view to securing high-quality papers. This may involve the submission of papers in advance, perhaps incentivised by a post-conference publication plan by panel convenors.

Roundtable panels: These sessions can adopt various formats to achieve the purpose of fostering a high-quality exchange of ideas around the theme of Social justice and development in a polarising world.

Experimental approaches to panels: These might fall outside regular academic paper panels or roundtables. Some possible formats or ideas might be debates, speed-meeting, workshops, asynchronous panels, fire-site etc. It may be possible to go beyond the 90 minute session format if required. The format should be described within the long abstract of the proposal.

Decisions over panel proposals will be made by the Scientific Committee and communicated to all proposing convenors by 7 December in time for the opening of the call for papers on 12 December.

The conference is going to be hybrid and therefore it is crucial to make sure that panel convenors have a stable and fast enough internet access if they will choose to attend virtually.

If your internet connection tends to be unstable and you have been unable to share screen via Zoom (or other types of video calls), please make sure you find a co-convenor who can travel for the face to face event in SOAS, London. This way, if the worst happens and the primary convenor is unable to lead the panel, the co-convenor can take over.

If you do not have previous experience and wish to make sure that your computer and internet connection are enough, please let us know ahead of time, so we can arrange a tech test during the preparation period.