International Humanitarian Studies Association

The International Humanitarian Studies Association (IHSA) was launched during the first World Conference of Humanitarian Studies, which was held 4-7 February 2009. This press release notes that "Humanitarian studies is much more than the study of humanitarian action. Its field is concerned with how humanitarian crises evolve from societies and in turn how they affect societies. This includes, amongst others international dimensions of crisis, their causes, dynamics and effects, response programmes and experiences of refugees and internally displaced people." Read a reaction to this development on the "Getting Humanitarian Aid Right" blog.

IHSA will be hosted initially by the Disaster Studies department at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Its president is Alex de Waal, who is a program director at the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). The next conference will be held in 2011 and hosted by Tufts University.

Tagged Events & Opportunities.