Programme

Speakers at The Washington Conference on the Social Sciences (WCSS) will provide a variety of perspectives from different academic and professional backgrounds. This page provides details of featured presentations, the conference schedule and other programming. For more information about presenters, please visit the Speakers page.

Conference Outline#

Wed, April 15, 2026Thu, April 16Fri, April 17Sat, April 18Sun, April 19Mon, April 20

Conference Venue: Walter E. Washington Convention Center

16:00-16:30: Conference Check-in

16:30-17:15: Conference Information Session
This session provides an overview of what to expect at the conference, including guidance on preparing your presentation, publishing opportunities, and ways to engage with IAFOR. You will receive practical tips on setting up your presentation, understanding your role at the conference, including how to attract a larger audience to your session. We will also outline the publishing opportunities available, including how to submit your work to be included in the Conference Proceedings or IAFOR Journals. This session also offers a chance to explore the opportunities for deeper engagement, whether through networking with fellow delegates or getting involved more with IAFOR. Join us, and get ready to present, publish, and participate.

17:30-19:00: Conference Welcome Reception
Join us after the plenaries for the conference dinner at a local restaurant, where you reconvene with fellow delegates and our keynote presenters to continue conversations from the conference over a meal. This is a ticketed event.

Conference Venue: Walter E. Washington Convention Center

12:00-13:00: Conference Check-in | Room 306

13:00-13:30: Welcome Address & Recognition of IAFOR Scholarship Winners
Joseph Haldane, IAFOR, Japan

13:30-13:55: Keynote Presentation
13:55-14:10: Q&A

14:10-14:20: Conference Photograph

14:20-14:50: Networking Coffee Break

14:50-15:10: Keynote Presentation
15:10-15:25: Q&A

15:30-16:30: Panel Presentation

16:30-17:30: Conference Poster Session 1

19:00-21:00: Conference Dinner
Join us after the plenaries for the conference dinner at a local restaurant, where you reconvene with fellow delegates and our keynote presenters to continue conversations from the conference over a meal. This is a ticketed event.
This is an optional ticketed event

Conference Venue: Walter E. Washington Convention Center

08:30-09:20: Conference Check-in

08:45-09:15: Information Session

09:30-11:10: Onsite Session 1 (Parallel Session)

11:10-11:25: Break

11:25-12:25: Onsite Session 2 (Poster Session 2) & Networking

12:25-12:40: Break

12:40-14:20: Onsite Session 3 (Parallel Session)

14:20-14:35: Coffee Break

14:35-16:15: Onsite Session 4 (Parallel Session)

Conference Venue: Walter E. Washington Convention Center

09:00-10:00: Conference Check-in

09:00-10:00: The Forum
This is your opportunity to engage with key themes, connect with speakers and fellow members, and contribute to meaningful interdisciplinary dialogue across borders.

10:00-10:15: Coffee Break

10:15-11:55: Onsite Parallel Session 1

11:55-13:10: Extended Break

13:10-14:50: Onsite Parallel Session 2

14:50-15:05: Coffee Break

15:05-16:20: Onsite Parallel Session 3

Conference Venue: Walter E. Washington Convention Center

09:00-09:30: Check-in

09:15-12:35: Knowledge Exchange Hubs
This is an interactive session designed to shift from passive learning to active participation. The session provides a space for delegates to connect, collaborate, and shape ideas that drive IAFOR forward.
- Further Information

    09:15-09:35: Opening and Groups Formation
    09:35-10:05: Session 1: Group Discussion
    10:05-10:35: Session 2: Multi-topic Group Discussion
    10:35-11:05: Networking Coffee Break
    11:05-11:35: Session 3: Regrouping and Discussion
    11:35-12:05: Creative Reflection & Storytelling (with optional AI support)
    12:05-12:35: Group Presentations

12:40-13:00: Closing Session

Venue: Online via Zoom
All streamed presentation times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)
Use the time converter tool to show times in your timezone.

17:50-18:00: Message from IAFOR

18:00-19:15: Online Parallel Session 1

19:15-19:25: Break

19:25-20:40: Online Parallel Session 2

20:40-20:50: Break

20:50-22:05: Online Parallel Session 3

22:05-22:10: Closing Message from IAFOR

The above schedule may be subject to change.

Featured Speakers#

  • Anne Boddington
    Anne Boddington
    IAFOR, Japan
  • Donald E. Hall
    Donald E. Hall
    Binghamton University, United States
  • Ira Harkavy
    Ira Harkavy
    University of Pennsylvania, United States
  • James W. McNally
    James W. McNally
    University of Michigan & NACDA Program on Aging, United States
  • James M Pitarresi
    James M Pitarresi
    Binghamton University, United States

Featured Presentations#

To be announced

  • Creating the Democratic Civic University Through Local Engagement in a Time of Crisis
    Creating the Democratic Civic University Through Local Engagement in a Time of Crisis
    Keynote Presentation: Ira Harkavy

Accepted Presentations#

One of the greatest strengths of IAFOR’s international conferences is their international and intercultural diversity.
As of December 3, 2025, the conference has received over 200 submissions from 47 countries and territories - including: the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

View Accepted Presentations

Conference Programme#

The draft version of the Conference Programme will be available online on March 09, 2026. All registered delegates will be notified of this publication by email. The Conference Programme contains access information, session information and a detailed day-to-day presentation schedule.

Important Information Emails#

All registered attendees will receive an Important Information email and updates in the run-up to the conference. Please check your email inbox for something from "iafor.org". If you can not find these emails in your normal inbox, it is worth checking in your spam or junk mail folders as many programs filter out emails this way. If these did end up in one of these folders, please add the address to your acceptable senders' folder by whatever method your email program can do this.

Anne Boddington
IAFOR, Japan

Biography

Professor Anne Boddington is Executive Vice-President and Provost of IAFOR, and oversees the academic programs, research and policies of the forum.

Anne Boddington is Professor Emerita of Design Innovation and has held executive and senior leadership roles in Higher Education including as Dean of Arts & Humanities at the University of Brighton, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research, Business & Innovation at Kingston and Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange at Middlesex University.

In 2022 she concluded chairing the Sub Panel (32) for Art & Design: History, Practice & Theory as part of the Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) and has extensive experience in the governance and conduct of peer review, research evaluation and assessment in REF2014 (Sub Panel Deputy Chair and Equality Diversity Advisory Panel [EDAP]) and RAE2008. A former member of AHRC’s Advisory Board, she is the current Chair of the Advisory Board for the UKRI’s National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Research (NICER) programme (£30M), Deputy Chair and a Trustee of the Design Council, the government’s strategic advisor for design, and a member of both the InnoHK Scientific Committee (Hong Kong) and the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ).

Since the 1990’s Anne has worked across the UK and internationally with a wide range of quality assurance, professional, statutory, and regulatory bodies in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Hong Kong, and India.

As an independent consultant she now works as a strategic advisor and mentor and is committed to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in practice, developing effective governance, supporting career development, reducing bureaucracy, and improving organisational design, integrity, and productivity in the changing workplace.

Workshop Presentation (2026) | Senior Academic Leadership
Donald E. Hall
Binghamton University, United States

Biography

Donald E. Hall is Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at Binghamton University (SUNY), United States. He was formerly Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering at the University of Rochester, United States, and held a previous position as Dean of Arts and Sciences at Lehigh University, United States. Provost Hall has published widely in the fields of British Studies, Gender Theory, Cultural Studies, and Professional Studies. Over the course of his career, he served as Jackson Distinguished Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English (and previously Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages) at West Virginia University. Before that, he was Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English at California State University, Northridge, where he taught for 13 years. He is a recipient of the University Distinguished Teaching Award at CSUN, was a visiting professor at the National University of Rwanda, was Lansdowne Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Victoria (Canada), was Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Cultural Studies at Karl Franzens University in Graz, Austria, and was Fulbright Specialist at the University of Helsinki. He has also taught in Sweden, Romania, Hungary, and China. He served on numerous panels and committees for the Modern Language Association (MLA), including the Task Force on Evaluating Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion, and the Convention Program Committee. In 2012, he served as national President of the Association of Departments of English. From 2013-2017, he served on the Executive Council of the MLA.

His current and forthcoming work examines issues such as professional responsibility and academic community-building, the dialogics of social change and activist intellectualism, and the Victorian (and our continuing) interest in the deployment of instrumental agency over our social, vocational, and sexual selves. Among his many books and editions are the influential faculty development guides, The Academic Self and The Academic Community, both published by Ohio State University Press. Subjectivity and Reading Sexualities: Hermeneutic Theory and the Future of Queer Studies were both published by Routledge Press. Most recently he and Annamarie Jagose, of the University of Auckland, co-edited a volume titled The Routledge Queer Studies Reader. Though he is a full-time administrator, he continues to lecture worldwide on the value of a liberal arts education and the need for nurturing global competencies in students and interdisciplinary dialogue in and beyond the classroom.

Professor Donald E. Hall is a member of IAFOR’s International Academic Board.

Workshop Presentation (2026) | Senior Academic Leadership
Ira Harkavy
University of Pennsylvania, United States

Biography

Professor Ira Harkavy is the founder and Barbara and Edward Netter Director of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania, United States. As director of the Netter Center since 1992, Professor Harkavy has helped develop academically-based community service courses and community-engaged research projects that involve creating university-community partnerships and university-assisted community schools with The University of Pennsylvania’s local community of West Philadelphia. He teaches courses in history, urban studies, and Africana studies, as well as in the university’s Graduate School of Education.

Professor Harkavy received his BA, MA, and PhD in History from the University of Pennsylvania and has written and lectured widely on the history and current practice of urban university-community-school partnerships and the democratic and civic missions of higher education. He has co-authored and co-edited thirteen books, including Higher Education Leadership for Democracy, Sustainability, and Social Justice (2023), Higher Education’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Building a More Sustainable and Democratic Future (2021), and Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy, and the Future of Democracy (2020). He is also Executive Editor of Universities and Community Schools.

Professor Harkavy is involved in a number of education initiatives, currently serving as the Chair of the International Consortium for Higher Education, Civic Responsibility, and Democracy; Chair of the Anchor Institutions Task Force; Chair of the Paul Robeson House and Museum, and Chair Emeritus of the Coalition for Community Schools. He is founder and member of the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND) Steering Committee.

Among other honours, Harkavy is the recipient of the University of Pennsylvania’s Alumni Award of Merit, Campus Compact’s Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service Learning, New American Colleges and Universities’ Ernest L. Boyer Award, a Fulbright Senior Specialist Grant, and three honorary degrees. Under his directorship, the Netter Center for Community Partnerships received the inaugural William T. Grant Foundation Youth Development Prize awarded by The National Academies and a Best Practices/Outstanding Achievement Award from HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research.

Keynote Presentation (2026) | TBA
James W. McNally
University of Michigan & NACDA Program on Aging, United States

Biography

Dr James W. McNally is the Director of the NACDA Program on Aging, a data archive containing over 1,500 studies related to health and the aging life course. He is also a Senior Advisor for the National Institute on Aging (NIA), Division of Behavioral and Social Science (DBSR/ODRA). He currently does methodological research on the improvement and enhancement of secondary research data and has been cited as an expert authority on data imputation. Dr McNally has directed the NACDA Program on Aging since 1998 and has seen the archive significantly increase its holdings with a growing collection of seminal studies on the aging life course, health, retirement and international aspects of aging. He has spent much of his career addressing methodological issues with a specific focus on specialised application of incomplete or deficient data and the enhancement of secondary data for research applications. Dr McNally has also worked extensively on issues related to international aging and changing perspectives on the role of family support in the later stages of the aging life course.

Workshop Presentation (2026) | Writing a Successful Grant Application
James M Pitarresi
Binghamton University, United States

Biography

TBA

Keynote Presentation (2026) | TBA
Creating the Democratic Civic University Through Local Engagement in a Time of Crisis
Keynote Presentation: Ira Harkavy

Democracy is seriously threatened throughout the world today. Given their intellectual and societal roles, universities have an increased and pressing responsibility to contribute to both the education of informed democratic citizens and the advancement of knowledge for the continuous betterment of the human condition. In spite of important civic and community engagement efforts, universities in the United States have for decades insufficiently focused on their democratic purposes and their contributions to their communities and society. They have overemphasised their economic purposes, amplifying that students are in a university exclusively to gain career-related skills and credentials. Instead, higher education institutions need to become democratic civic universities that advance democracy through democratic means on campus, in the community, and across the wider society.

One difficult hurdle is identifying best practices on how to successfully create and operate a democratic civic university. Dr Harkavy identifies local democratic community engagement as perhaps the core approach for doing just that. Drawing on the history of US higher education, 40 years’ experience developing place-based partnerships between the University of Pennsylvania and its neighbourhood of West Philadelphia, and work with higher educational institutions across the United States and around the world, Dr Harkavy will discuss how local engagement can help universities increase their contributions to knowledge, improve the quality of life in their geographic community, and advance the development of just and fair democratic societies through democratically-focused local civic engagement.

Read presenter's biography