BISA at 50: Reflections and perspectives - Personal takes on #BISA2025

As part of our 50th anniversary reflections and perspectives series, we asked some #BISA2025 delegates to share their reflections of the 50th anniversary conference which took place in Belfast. Here we share reflections from Professor Helena Farrand Carrapico, BISA Secretary and Professor in International Relations and Criminology at Northumbria University, and Juliet Dryden, BISA Director/CEO.

Helena Farrand Carrapico - Surviving and thriving in academia in 2025: My take on BISA’s annual conference in Belfast

As Secretary of BISA, I have the privilege of witnessing firsthand the immense dedication and effort that the BISA team pours into organising the annual conference - and the equally impressive outcome that follows. This year’s annual conference in Belfast was not only one of the largest events BISA has organised, but also one of its most special ones, as it celebrated the journey that BISA has been on over the past 50 years. 

The conference celebrated the numerous academic groups that have found a home within BISA over the years, the grassroot movements and key thinkers that have driven the different schools of thought in International Relations (IR), the arrival of new generations, and the importance of thinking (and rethinking!) critically about IR across different temporalities and geographical locations. This last element was particularly present throughout the conference, not only given Belfast’s history of conflict, but also given the polycrisis context in which the conference took place. In panels, as in informal conversations, our minds often turned to trying to understand how we can best think and practice IR at a time when geopolitical developments around the world give us cause for serious concern for the future of democracy, economic inequality, environmental sustainability, and personal and collective security. In fact, how can we best think and practice IR when the landscape of UK academia is equally being eroded and so many of us fear job insecurity? Yet, among these growing challenges, this year’s conference felt like a powerful reminder of the strength and solidarity that exists within our discipline and academic community. An academic community that has diverse interests, but that is united by a shared commitment to supporting one another, nurturing early career colleagues, and sustaining the intellectual and emotional resilience needed to survive and thrive in academia in 2025. 

Juliet Dryden - Exhaustion to exhilaration: Personal highlights from #BISA2025

There is nothing like the feeling of seeing two years of conference planning coming together seemingly effortlessly as it did at our recent 50th anniversary conference in Belfast. From scouting and securing the venue(s), tech and catering companies, carrying out risk assessments and starting the monumental task of organising a huge academic and extra curricula programme of over 350 panels and roundtables, the BISA team take great pride in watching delegates arrive and interact with each other over their shared love of everything International Relations/Studies. This is what BISA is all about and it is thrilling to observe after so much preparation.

It's no secret to say that by the time the BISA team arrive at the conference, we are all exhausted from two years of planning. But as CEO and Director of BISA, I know how important it is to get the team meeting delegates and attending sessions so they know what makes BISA tick. In between meetings, workshops, hosting receptions, chairing panels, running between venues, handling some surprising twists and turns, and meeting up with new and old friends, I found time to do exactly this - and what a myriad of things to partake in.

With over 28 simultaneous sessions ranging in topic from across International Relations specialisms covered by our 26 working groups and journals, there was a lot for me to choose from. My personal favourites included panels/roundtables on the Middle East, ethics in IR, and I learnt much about Astropolitics! One highlight for me was watching our PG and ECR delegates take on the professional development workshops, which gave them a wonderful insight into life as an academic or as a researcher outside of academia. At the other end of the spectrum was when seven former BISA chairs came together to talk about the changing nature of the discipline. And, who will forget the magnificent reception at the Titanic museum looking over the dockyard where the ship was built!

Watching students, academics and policy makers of all persuasions come together to discuss the issues that matter to them and socialise is in itself what makes BISA so special.

Now on to Brighton 2026!