Last year was the first year since the inception of the section that we were not able to hold an annual section conference.  The pandemic continues to disrupt our plans, and we continue to adapt. This year, we are planning to renew our annual section conference this summer with a virtual conference: DevSoc Link 2021! The call for papers and details are below. The due date of April 20, 2021! You can email your applications (here is the form) to socdevlink@gmail.com.

The Conference Organizing Committee is: Sam Cohn, Robert Clark, Rita Jalal, Karin Johnson, Amber Blazek, Barbara Wejnert, Tuba Agartan, Fauzia Ahmed, Heidi Rademacher, and Anthony Roberts. We thank them for their hard work organizing this wonderful event!

GOOD NEWS!

THERE WILL BE A SOCIOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE THIS SUMMER!

IT IS CALLED DEVSOC LINK 2021!

IT WILL BE ON ZOOM!

IT WILL BE ZOOM PAIN FREE!

IT WILL BE LOW PRESSURE LOW INTENSE!

AND YOU GET TO MEET A TON OF OTHER DEVELOPMENT SOCIOLOGISTS

 WHO ARE INTO THE SAME THINGS YOU ARE!

OKAY HERE ARE THE SPECS FOR DEVSOC LINK 2021

WITH THE TIMING THE DEADLINES AND

THE COOL STUFF WE HAVE NEVER DONE BEFORE!

When: The Six Weeks Between June 15 and August 1

Intensity: No More Than One or Two Sessions a Day

Do As Many or As Few As You Like

Deadline for Submitting Proposals/Materials: April 20.

Level of Effort Required To Put In A Proposal: Pretty Minimal

Possibilities For Connecting With Other Development Sociologists and Having Intellectual Conversations You Like: High

We will be running all sorts of Zoom Sessions

Between June 15 and August 1.

These will be at different times of day to accommodate different people with different real world responsibilities. (Child care, Teaching Classes, Sleep, Survival)

The number of sessions per day will be kept minimal to keep people from having to take whole days off to attend a conference.

What Will Be At Devsoc Link 2021:

Ranging From the Most Orthodox to the Least Orthodox

1) Keynotes By Famous Sociologists

2) Traditional Paper Sessions

(You only need to submit an abstract. We Are Open To Both Receiving Preconstructed Sessions of Papers and To Receiving Proposals For Individual Papers To Be Put In a Session )

3) Open Topic Tables For Free Discussion

YOU Choose the Topic

(You Send Us a Topic. We Schedule a Zoom Room Where Anyone Who Wants To Discuss the Topic Can Show Up)

4) Soulmate/Wild Combo One-on-One Dialogues

The Biggest Attraction of Going to Conferences Is Having One on One Discussions Over Dinner, Coffee or Beer With Someone You Never Would Have Met At Home. This Person Often Unblocks Your Research Or Sets You In A Direction You Never Would Have Thought Of Yourself.

We Are Going To Try to Replicate This On Zoom.

We Are Asking People Who Want To Have High Quality Discussions On Their Research To Send Us A Mini-Briefing On What They Are Working On.

We Will Match Them Up with TWO Different People.

One of them will be a SOULMATE. This is the person doing work most similar to your own. The two of you can have a conversation on subjects the two of you understand better than anyone else at the conference. Your partner really really “gets it”.

A different conversation will be set up for you in a WILD COMBO.

This is some one working on something radically different than what you work on and in a radically different way. The purpose of Wild Combos is cross-fertilization. Often we are stuck because we are in the rut implied by one tiny literature. Someone from a completely different perspective can throw something into your mix you never would have come up with any other way.

HOW DO YOU GET IN?

DEVSOC LINK 2021 is Open To All Members of the ASA Development Sociology Section.

The Conference is Free.

You Do Have to Register For the Conference.

We Will Open Up Registration After We Publish the Program So You Can Decide If This Is Worth Your While.

There Is No Minimum Attendance Rule For Registrants – So There Is No Downside To Registering.

To Get On the Program – Either For Giving a Paper, For Organizing a Fully Constituted Paper Session, For Nominating a Topic for the Open Table Discussions or For Getting Matched Up in a Soulmate/Wild Combo Duo – You Have To Send in an Application.

There are Separate Applications for Individual Papers, Full Paper Sessions, Open Table Topics and for Soulmate/Wild Combo Duos.

All Four Types of Application are Due APRIL 20

You email them to socdevlink@gmail.com.

We will be notifying people of the results by MAY 20.