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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Women and development

We offer an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to discuss their ongoing research, and professional and political work, relating to women and development.

Our annual meeting is usually themed round a particular topic and is open to all.  The presentations are deliberately kept short to facilitate wide participation and discussion. Presenters typically come from NGOs, national and international women’s organisations as well as universities (both graduate students and academic staff). It is a good networking occasion and in previous years the interest and quality of the presentations have been reflected in a series of edited books published based on initial presentations at the DSA Women and Development meetings.

Recent meetings have included a seminar exploring the challenges of researching ‘sensitive topics’ relating to gender and development  such as sexual violence, trafficking, FGM, and HIV, and most recently a session on measurement, evidence and impact in gender and development research and practice.

Convenors

Mirna Guha (Anglia Ruskin University)
E: [email protected]

Reetika Subramaniam (University of Cambridge)
[email protected]

Dr Sharmila Parmanand (London School of Economics)
[email protected]

Mailing list

If you’d like to receive news and updates from the WAD Study group, please subscribe here.

News

December 2022: Building on the successful reading group from earlier this year, the Women and Development study group have to organised a Special Issue on the ‘Future of Teaching Gender and Development’ with the journal Development in Practice. The CfP has closed and we have contacted all authors. We expect to start (online first) publishing the peer reviewed pieces in Spring 2023, with a full issue aiming for Summer 2023. We’ve had a strong response, including from study group members, and we’re excited for some very strong pieces soon! Related to this, we are planning a workshop with authors in early 2023 – details coming soon!

October 2020: Dr Lata Narayanaswamy and Dr Katy Jenkins stepped down as convenors after successfully running the WAD study group over the last few years. We are very grateful to all their hard work and the excellent activities that they organised. From October 2020, the study group is convened by Dr Mirna Guha, Dr Rishita Nandagiri and Dr Rebecca Gordon. Please bookmark this study group page for ongoing information about the group’s activities.

November 2019: The special issue that the WAD DSA Study group has been working on with the Gender and Development Journal has been published.  This special issue emerged out of a workshop, that was jointly held between DSA WAD Study Group and GAD Journal, to celebrate the Journal’s 25th anniversary. We invited scholars and activists, trying to create space for early-career researchers in particular, to share their insights on the opportunities and challenges of doing feminist research.

Upcoming meetings

Details coming soon.

Previous meetings

Wednesday January 20th – G & D Reading Group (2-3pm): Madhok, S. (2013). Action, agency, coercion: Reformatting agency for oppressive contexts. In Gender, agency, and coercion (pp. 102-121). Palgrave Macmillan, London.Mahmood, S. (2011). Politics of piety: The Islamic revival and the feminist subject. Princeton University Press. (ch 5)Please contact Jasmine Gideon if you don’t have access to a copy of either of the 2 papers – [email protected]

June 2021 – Unsettling ‘Gender’ within Research, Policy and Practice’ Panel at DSA2021Propose a paper to our panel at the DSA2021 online conference hosted and organised by UEA! View the Call for Papers instructions and then read our panel abstracts and propose your paper to our panel here.The Call closes on 8th February 2021.

October 2020, Online: An initial Reading Group meeting ‘Beijing +25: where are we now? (28th October 2020, 2-3pm) to reflect on the Gender and Development ‘canon’ which will become a more regular reading group.

May 2018
, Northumbria University London: Bringing our feminist values to development research, policy and practice: Celebrating 25 years of Gender and Development
Sponsors: Gender & Development Journal, DSA Women and Development Study Group, Oxfam Hosted by Northumbria University’s Centre for International Development
Read the full report.

March 2017, University of Leeds: Interrogating the Nexus of Alternative Knowledges, Evidence and Impact in GAD Research and Practice
DSA Women and Development Study Group and Centre for Global Development (CGD)
Jasmine Gideon, Katy Jenkins and Lata Narayanaswamy