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Overview

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WCE2026

April 15-20, 2026 | Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington DC, United States, & Online

Welcome to The Washington DC Conference on Education!

The International Academic Forum, in partnership with the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, Japan, is very happy to return to Washington, DC and to the United States’ mainland in 2026. This dual conference event will complement those we hold in other cities throughout the world.

IAFOR conferences offer a crucial and critical space for scholarship and creativity, attracting thousands of delegates annually, and from more than a hundred different countries, in events that are celebrations of the international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary. The Washington DC Conference on Education (WCE2026) will be held alongside its sister conference, The Washington DC Conference on the Social Sciences (WCSS2026). Both conferences build upon The IAFOR Conference on Educational Research and Innovation, held with our global partner, Virginia Tech, in 2019, 2022, and 2023.

Washington, DC is an important historical and cultural centre, with world class museums and iconic monuments. It is also a prominent intellectual and academic hub, with great universities and numerous think tanks; not only the nation’s capital, but given the outsized role of the United States in world affairs, DC is central to global dynamics. It is in DC that many discussions are had, ideas are shaped, decisions are made, and policies are crafted, that impact not only the furthest corners of the Union, but that are felt across the world. In these challenging times, it is a fitting physical and intellectual place to host our International Academic Forum.

We have a lot to learn from each other. Join us in DC in 2026!

For and on behalf of the IAFOR International Academic Board and the Conference Programme Committees,

Dr Joseph Haldane, Osaka University, Japan & University College London, United Kingdom
Chairman and CEO, IAFOR

Professor Jun Arima, University of Tokyo, Japan
President, IAFOR

Professor Anne Boddington
Executive Vice-President and Provost, IAFOR

Key Information
  • Location & Venue: Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington DC & Online
  • Dates: Wednesday, April 15, 2026 ​to Monday, April 20, 2026
  • Early Bird Abstract Submission Deadline: November 07, 2025*
  • Final Abstract Submission Deadline: January 16, 2026
  • Registration Deadline for Presenters: February 20, 2026

*Submit early to take advantage of the discounted registration rates. Learn more about our registration options.

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Programme

  • 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

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Speakers

To be announced

  • Ira Harkavy
    Ira Harkavy
    University of Pennsylvania, United States

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Conference Committees

The International Academic Board (IAB)

Professor Anne Boddington, IAFOR, Japan (IAB Chair)
Dr Joseph Haldane, IAFOR & Osaka University, Japan, & University College London, United Kingdom
Professor Jun Arima, IAFOR & University of Tokyo, Japan
Professor Virgil Hawkins, IAFOR Research Centre & Osaka University, Japan
Mr Lowell Sheppard, IAFOR & Never Too Late Academy, Japan

Dr Susana Barreto, University of Porto, Portugal
Professor Grant Black, Chuo University, Japan
Dr Evangelia Chrysikou, Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London, United Kingdom
Professor Donald E. Hall, Binghamton University, United States
Professor Brendan Howe, Ewha Womans University, South Korea & The Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA)
Dr James W. McNally, University of Michigan, United States & NACDA Program on Aging

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Conference Programme Committee

Professor Laura Bronstein, Binghamton University, United States
Dr Thomas G. Endres, University of Northern Colorado, United States
Dr Joseph Haldane, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
Professor Donald E. Hall, Binghamton University, United States
Professor Barbara B. Lockee, Virginia Tech, United States
Dr James W. McNally, University of Michigan, United States & NACDA Program on Aging

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WCE2026 Conference Review Committee

To be announced

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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
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