The panel will bring together development scholars and practitioners active in both fields in order to have a general discussion about the desirability and viability a creating new sub-field of Development Humanities (DH). The central aim would be ask whether there is a value in further extending the multidisciplinary base of Development Studies (DS) by drawing on new and different sets of distinctive humanities-based themes, analytical tools and data sources. This could contribute further to the ‘epistemological pluralism’ of DS, while equipping it with additional tools to engage with today’s urgent and complex issues of development. These include subjective aspects of how ‘development’ is experienced, the imagining of better development futures, and finding new ways to communicate ideas. Aiming for ‘radical interdisciplinarity’ rather than cosiness, this new field of DH would seek to critically challenge mainstream ideas and encourage the co-production of new research questions, as well as building new pedagogies and equipping practitioners with useful skills. Comparable fields such as Environmental Humanities and Medical Humanities offer potentially useful lessons here, as well as highlighting possible risks. The kinds of questions to be discussed include: the extent to which productive conversations are possible across different epistemological and methodological frameworks, the potential of the humanities to bring new thinking to the ongoing dilemmas of decolonising knowledge in the field of DS, the applications of the arts and humanities within development policy and practice, and the potential for creating new pedagogical approaches that might enrich teaching. The discussion would not be limited by any particular geographical focus, but would be aim to be as inclusive as possible, and to focus as far as possible on humanities perspectives from the Global South.

This panel is organised by the EADI Working Group on "Development Humanities"