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

09:15-10:00: Conference Check-in & Coffee

10:00-10:10: Announcements

10:10-10:30: Welcome Address & Recognition of IAFOR Scholarship Winners
Joseph Haldane, IAFOR & University College London, United Kingdom

10:30-11:00 Special Welcome Address

11:05-11:25: Keynote Presentation
11:25-11:35: Q&A Session

11:40-12:00: Keynote Presentation
12:00-12:10: Q&A Session

12:10-12:20: Conference Photograph

12:20-13:40: Lunch Break

13:40-14:40: Plenary Panel Discussion

14:45-15:45: Forum Discussion

15:45-16:45: 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

09:30-10:00: Conference Check-in & Coffee

10:00-10:15: Welcome Address

10:15-10:35: Keynote Presentation
10:35-10:45: Q&A Session

10:45-11:00: Coffee Break

11:00-11:20: Keynote Presentation
11:20-11:30: Q&A Session

11:30-12:45: Lunch Break

12:45-13:05: Keynote Presentation
13:05-13:15: Q&A Session

13:20-13:40: Keynote Presentation
13:40-13:50: Q&A Session

13:55-14:15: Keynote Presentation
14:15-14:25: Q&A Session

14:25-14:45: Coffee Break

14:45-15:05: Keynote Presentation
15:05-15:15: Q&A Session

15:20-15:40: Keynote Presentation
15:40-15:50: Q&A Session

15:55-16:55: Conference Poster Session 2

16:00-16:45: Special Seminar Session

Conference Venue: Walter E. Washington Convention Center

09:30-10:00: Conference Check-in

10:00-11:40: Onsite Parallel Session 1

11:40-13:10: 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

09:30-10:00: Conference Check-in

10:00-11:40: Onsite Parallel Session 1

11:40-13:10: Extended Break

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

14:50-15:05: Coffee Break

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

16:25-16:45: Onsite 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

  • Ira Harkavy
    Ira Harkavy
    University of Pennsylvania, 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.

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
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