About WCSS

About WCSS About IAFOR’s Conferences on the Social Sciences About IAFOR Ways to Get Involved

About WCSS

IAFOR conferences offer a crucial and critical space for scholarship and creativity, attracting thousands of delegates annually, and from more than a hundred different countries, in events that are celebrations of the international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary. The Washington DC Conference on the Social Sciences (WCSS2026) will be held alongside its sister conference, The Washington DC Conference on Education (WCE2026). Both conferences build upon The IAFOR Conference on Educational Research and Innovation, held with our global partner, Virginia Tech, in 2019, 2022, and 2023.

Washington, DC is an important historical and cultural centre, with world class museums and iconic monuments. It is also a prominent intellectual and academic hub, with great universities and numerous think tanks; not only the nation’s capital, but given the outsized role of the United States in world affairs, DC is central to global dynamics. It is in DC that many discussions are had, ideas are shaped, decisions are made, and policies are crafted, that impact not only the furthest corners of the Union, but that are felt across the world. In these challenging times, it is a fitting physical and intellectual place to host our International Academic Forum.

Dr Joseph Haldane
Chairman and CEO
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR)

I can’t think of another similar opportunity that I have ever had attending a conference to engage with so many people from different countries and different perspectives that have really helped inform my own work, and I find it to be a very valuable and rich experience.

Barbara B. Lockee

About IAFOR’s Social Science Conferences

The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences (ACSS)

IAFOR’s social sciences programme is one of its largest, including large interdisciplinary conferences in social sciences and sustainability, as well as medium-sized events in business, management and public policy. We also hold a number of smaller, more concentrated events such as those focusing on areas like Asia-Pacific security, or the fields associated with gerontology.

IAFOR’s social sciences programme is developed by leading scholars, and in partnership with some of the world’s leading academic institutions, including University of Michigan, Nihon University, University of Tokyo, Birkbeck, University of London, Lehigh University, University of Indonesia, Virginia Tech, Waseda and Duke-NUS Medical School.

The academic programmes are developed with care, and considerable attention is given to developing a platform that is worthy of the presentation of great ideas and to their subsequent dissemination, as scholars come together to find new research synergies to address some of the world’s most pressing issues.

Our conferences have included featured addresses by teachers and academics, university presidents, business leaders, government ministers, journalists, and policy makers, and we look forward to welcoming you to enjoy this global club of exceptional individuals, and invite you to use the IAFOR platform to share and test your ideas with scholars around the world.

The Washington DC Conference on the Social Sciences (WCSS) is a multidisciplinary conference held concurrently with The Washington DC Conference on Education (WCE).

Previous Speakers

The speakers below, among others, have presented their research at IAFOR's social sciences conferences.

Yozo Yokota, internationally renowned human rights lawyer and former UN Special Envoy to Myanmar; Don Brash, former Governor of the New Zealand Federal Reserve; Michael Cusumano, Sloan School Professor of Management at MIT; Sir Kenneth Calman, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, and former UK chief medical office and Chairman of the World Health Organization; Arthur Stockwin OBE, Founding Director of Oxford University’s Nissan Centre sits on a panel with London JETRO Director General, Jun Arima; Amy Sarkowski and Yuki Komine of Harvard University; Andrew Staples, Director of the Economist Corporate Network, Japan; Barry Bozeman, Arizona Centennial Professor of Public Policy; Hiroshi Ishida, former director of the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Social Sciences and IAFOR Gerontology Conference Co-Chair; Linda Toyo-Obayashi, senior mediation officer at the World Bank, Washington DC. Nobuo Sato, Executive Director of Harvard Business School’s Japan Research Center.

About IAFOR

Founded in 2009, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) is a global interdisciplinary scholarly association that brings together scholars from around the world. Through research collaborations, publications, and international conferences, it connects academics across disciplines and regions. IAFOR's main administrative office is in Nagoya, Japan, and its research centre (The IAFOR Research Centre) is in the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), a graduate school of The University of Osaka. Through its international, intercultural and interdisciplinary conferences, research, and publications, IAFOR is a network hub for interdisciplinary discussion across Asia and beyond.

Ways to Get Involved

IAFOR depends on the assistance of a large number of international academics and practitioners who contribute in a variety of ways to our shared mission of promoting international exchange, facilitating intercultural awareness, encouraging interdisciplinary discussion and generating and sharing new knowledge. We are grateful for the time, effort and expertise donated by all our volunteer contributors.

Here are some of the ways you can get involved:

IAFOR Membership

IAFOR membership provides an exceptional opportunity to be a part of a leading global academic organisation, network and platform that is committed to nurturing the very best in interdisciplinary research in the global public interest. Membership is open to all scholars, professionals and policymakers, researchers, or those with a strong professional interest in education.

Learn more about IAFOR membership

Reviewing

With thousands of abstracts submitted each year for presentation at our conferences, IAFOR relies on academics around the world to ensure a fair and timely peer review process in keeping with established international norms of double-blind peer review. Our peer review process, which involves both reciprocal review and the use of Review Committees, is overseen by the Conference Programme Committee under the guidance of the International Academic Board.

If you hold a PhD or another terminal degree in your field, are a current or former faculty member and have previous peer review experience, we encourage you to join the WCSS Review Committee.

Editing

IAFOR publishes four online, Open Access, editorially independent journals across a variety of disciplines, which are associated with IAFOR’s conferences. IAFOR journals are edited by academics who are experts in their fields, and journal submissions are evaluated by Editorial Board members and peer reviewers across the globe who have the relevant qualifications and expertise.

Publishing

Journals

Publish your research in one of IAFOR’s open access, editorially independent journals. Articles may be submitted via open calls for papers. Authors publishing with IAFOR are not required to pay submission or publication fees of any kind, and IAFOR journals are available to a global readership online, completely free of charge and without delay or embargo.

Conference Proceedings

If your abstract has been accepted, and you presented the work at WCSS, you are encouraged to submit a full paper via the online submission system for inclusion in the Conference Proceedings, which will be made available online. For further details of how to submit your paper, please view the Final Paper Submission page. IAFOR Conference Proceedings are Open Access research repositories that act as permanent records of the research generated by IAFOR conferences. Please note that works published in the Conference Proceedings cannot be considered for publication in IAFOR journals.

If you have any questions, or if you would like to suggest additional ways in which you could contribute to IAFOR’s interdisciplinary activities, please feel free to email [email protected].