Call for Panels

The Call for Panels is now OPEN until 5 November 2026!

DSA2027 conference will take place as a hybrid conference, organised and co-hosted by the University of Sussex and Institute of Development Studies (IDS) with the support of NomadIT.

DSA2027 invites proposals for panels and workshops that engage critically with dimensions of this year’s theme: Development between hope and critique. 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 DSA2027 are encouraged, including debates, roundtables, ‘speed-meetings’, fireside 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 4-5 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: Development between hope and critique.

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-side 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.

Submissions from all social science disciplines are welcome. The past few years have seen exciting debates on the identity of development studies as an interdisciplinary field, as well as calls to decolonise both development and economics. The Call for Panels is open until 5 November 2026.

Decisions over panel proposals will be made by the Scientific Committee and communicated to all proposing convenors by 24 November 2026 in time for the opening of the call for papers on 26 November 2026.

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 physical event in Sussex. This way, if the worst happens and the primary convenor is unable to lead the panel, the co-convenor can take over.

If you’d like to check your computer setup or internet connection in advance, we’d be happy to arrange a tech test during the preparation period — just let us know as soon as possible.

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The DSA recognises that in some cases panel convenors may wish to invite individuals from outside the discipline or academic community to contribute to and enrich a panel discussion with their lived experience.

Panel convenors wishing to do so should contact the DSA conference team by the close of paper submissions (7 January 2027) to discuss how this might be supported by a fee waiver for online or -in-person attendance at their panel only. This applies to individuals who are local to the conference venue or can participate online as we are unable to reimburse travel or accommodation costs. Any arrangements will be considered on a case-by-case basis and will be subject to approval by the DSA conference organisers and Scientific Committee. These arrangements will be limited to two named individuals per panel as the venue will count them as conference attendees and charge us accordingly. They are intended to facilitate meaningful contributions from individuals whose participation would otherwise be excluded. Regrettably, as the DSA does not have funds to support all requests nor can we support beyond fee waivers for a specific panel, convenors are encouraged to look for alternative funding early in the panel conception process – a list of opportunities will be posted here in due course.