About Us
The International Humanitarian Studies Association is a network engaged with the study of humanitarian crises caused by disaster, conflict or political instability. Humanitarian studies concern how humanitarian crises evolve, how they affect people and their institutions, communities and societies, and the responses they trigger.
We form a platform for the different disciplines that address humanitarian studies. It offers a venue where these scholarly communities can meet and debate their different insights and understanding of humanitarian crises, in dialogue with policy actors and implementing agencies. IHSA equally welcomes academic scholars, consultants, policy researchers, and reflective practitioners among its membership.
If you are not a member already, please join us today! If you want to find out more about IHSA Governance and how we function please have a look at our Governance page.
IHSA Thesis Prize 2024 – submissions closed!
The International Humanitarian Studies Association Thesis Prize is awarded annually to the author of an outstanding thesis in the field of Humanitarian Studies. The prize winner will receive a 500 euro honorarium. The deadline for submission was on 31 August 2024.
The IHSA Thesis Prize is awarded annually to a thesis completed within the period of the call as part of an MA/MSc (or equivalent) degree program. For this call, it referred to theses completed between July 2023 and July 2024. Submissions must have been single-authored academic theses, completed under the auspices of any degree related to Humanitarian Studies (for example: Conflict Studies, Development Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, International Relations, etc). Each thesis may only be submitted for the prize once. Based on the existing linguistic competences of the IHSA Award Committee, theses can be submitted in English, French, Spanish and Italian.
For more information, or to submit your thesis, check out this web page!
Our Biennial Humanitarian Studies Conference
Every two years, the International Humanitarian Studies Association organizes an international conference on humanitarian studies. Our conferences take place in a different part of the world each time. We started in 2009 in Groningen, the Netherlands, and afterwards moved the conference to Boston, Addis Ababa, Istanbul, the Hague and Paris. Our latest eddition of the IHSA conference took place in Dhaka, Bangladesh. For more information click the banner or visit our conference page here.
Our conferences bring together a wide range of academics and practitioners that exchange knowledge on different topics within humanitarian studies. More information about our previous conferences can be found here.
We are now accepting Expressions of Interest to host the 2025 conference: just email info@ihsa.info to register your interest!
Relevant resources
As a part of our efforts to connect the actors in the humanitarian sector, we have created a selection of humanitarian resources for our community.
This selection includes a wide variety of topics and resources like:
- A humanitarian organizations database
- A humanitarian blogs database
- Our weekly humanitarian blog post selection
- We also have created more useful selections of movies, documentaries, and journals among others.
Membership
IHSA offers two types of membership. Individual membership and institutional membership. We equally welcome academic scholars, consultants, policy researchers, and reflective practitioners among our membership. Do you think your institution might be interested in joining IHSA please send us an email. More information about institutional membership can be found here.
The individual membership fee is 25 Euro per year. You can fill in the membership registration form to become a member.
Members:
- Are entitled to elect the officers of the Board of IHSA
- Receive a discount on any book in the IHSA/ Routledge Humanitarian Studies series
- Can participate in IHSA web-based activities
- Can join, or start, IHSA Working Groups
- Are entitled to a discount fee for the IHSA conference on Humanitarian Studies
- Receive a regular IHSA newsletter
