24th International Conference on Sustainable Development 2026
October 21, 2026
Event Location
University of Melbourne
Melbourne Business School
200 Leicester Street,
Carlton, Victoria,
Australia.
24th International Conference on Sustainable Development 2026
is jointly presented by
International Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Law (ICIRL),
Centre for Research in Social Justice and Policy (CRSJP) at Laurentian University, Canada;
Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA), Canada;
Important Dates
Last Day to submit Abstract / Paper / Presentation - October 02, 2026
Last date to register - October 10, 2026
Note:
Abstracts/Papers, acceptances issued on a rolling basis until October 07, 2026.
Please submit your Abstract/Paper as early as possible
Major Themes
The International Conference on Sustainable Development consists of following themes.
1. Development, 2. Economics, 3. Environment and Natural Resources, 4. Food and Agriculture, 5. Governance,
6. Health, 7. Information and communication, 8. Science and technology, 9. Social policy. 10. Gender equality
Last Day to submit Abstract / Paper / Presentation - October 02, 2026
Last date to register - October 10, 2026
Note:
Abstracts/Papers, acceptances issued on a rolling basis until October 07, 2026.
Please submit your Abstract/Paper as early as possible
Major Themes
The International Conference on Sustainable Development consists of following themes.
1. Development, 2. Economics, 3. Environment and Natural Resources, 4. Food and Agriculture, 5. Governance,
6. Health, 7. Information and communication, 8. Science and technology, 9. Social policy. 10. Gender equality
Introduction
Call for Papers
Registration
Accepted Papers
FAQs
Program
Visa, Official Invitation, Cancellation and Refund
Travel and Accommodation
Conference Contacts
Detailed Conference Program
Program at a glance
October 21, 2026
8:00 AM Registration Begins
9:30 PM Opening Plenary Session
10:00 AM Tea/Cofee Break
10:30 AM Sessions
12:30 PM Lunch
3:00 PM Sessions (Include Health/Coffee/Tea Break
05:00 PM - End
Conference Co-chair
Dr. Henri Pallard, LL.B., Ph.D.
Canada.
Emeritus Professor Law and Justice
Director, International Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Law
Laurentian University, Canada.
Dr. Henri Pallard is the Director of the International Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Law and Professor emeritus in
the Department of Law and Justice, Laurentian University, Sudbury (Ontario), Canada. He is broadly interested in the
relationship between culture and human rights as it manifests itself in both western and non western cultures. From 1994 to
2005, he was the Director of Persons, Culture and Rights (Personne, culture et droits), an international North/South research
team which was funded by the International Francophone University (Agence universitaire de la Francophonie). During this
period, he worked closely with researchers and academics from Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt distilling the cultural issues
underlying the interpretation and implementation of human rights, the rule of law and democracy in North Africa.
From 2010 to 2016, he was the Associate Director, Poverty, Homelessness and Migration, at Laurentian University, which
received a $1 million grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Working in
partnership with First Nations and northern communities, this five-year project examined the underlying causes of poverty,
poor housing, homelessness, and out-migration in northern Ontario. For its outstanding work under its Director of SSHRC, it
received the SSRHC Impact Partnership Award.
In 2003, Dr. Henri Pallard was invited to present the Vice-President’s Lecture. In 2008, he was awarded the Laurentian
University Research Excellence Award in recognition of his work internationally which contributed significantly to the
reputation and prestige of the university. In 2010 he was the recipient of the 2010 Saint-Jean Award of Merit for Distinguished
Alumni. This award is the most prestigious honour that the Saint-Jean Campus, University of Alberta, bestows upon one
alumnus each year in recognition for demonstrating leadership in her/his profession. In 2022, he received the Order of Merit
of the AJEFO (Franco-Ontarian Association of Jurists) for his contribution to Francophone access to justice.
Dr. Pallard received his PhD in philosophy of law from the University of Nice (France), summa cum laude. He held a doctoral
scholarship from the France-Canada cultural exchange programme (1976-1981). He then obtained his law degree (J.D.)
from McGill University (1984). He is also a member of the Ontario Bar. In 1992-1993, he held a postdoctoral fellowship from
the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie and was a research fellow at the Université de Paris II, France. He has been a
visiting professor at the Faculté des Sciences Juridiques, Politiques et Sociales de Tunis, Tunisia (1997), Université Cadi
Ayyad, Marrakech, Maroc (1998 and 2010), Ain Chams University, Cairo, Egypte (2000), South West University of Science
and Technology (2002), Mianyang, China, Université Grenoble Alpes, France (2005), Institut franco-chinois, Renmin
University of China (2017), British University in Egypt (2019-2022).
He has published five books, edited ten others and published more than 75 articles and chapters in international journals and
books. He has also given more than 150 scholarly presentations.
Special Session
Onsite Session Leader and Presenter
Paul A. Barresi, J.D., M.A.L.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science and Environmental Law and
Chair, Department of Social Sciences,
Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU)
Adjunct Professor of Law (& Fulbright Lecturer in Law, Spring 2016),
Sun Yat-sen University School of Law, Guangzhou, People Republic of China
School of Arts, Sciences, and Education
Southern New Hampshire University
2500 North River Road
Manchester, New Hampshire 03106
USA
Online Presenters
Michael A. Reiter, Ph.D.
Professor, Director, and
Chair Department of Integrated Environmental Science (ret.)
Bethune-Cookman University
Daytona Beach, Florida
USA
Rick Smardon, Ph.D.
Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus
Department of Environmental Studies
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Syracuse, New York
USA
This special session will introduce participants to the Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems (SHES) approach to
sustainability education and practice, which is the work of the SHES Roundtable. Since 2009, the SHES Roundtable has
been a collaborative forum for academics and practitioners from throughout North America and beyond to pursue their
commitment to providing college and university students with the knowledge and skills needed to meet the existential
sustainability challenges that plague the modern world.. Its work has been shaped by a solid grounding in first principles, a
commitment to seeking consensus from all participants at all steps of the process, and the use of lessons learned from
iterative experimentation in the classroom to inform the approach’s fine structure as it has evolved over time.
The result is the SHES approach to sustainability education and practice, which is a living set of recommendations
concerning the pedagogy and administration of interdisciplinary and higher-order sustainability-focused degree programs in
higher education. The SHES approach offers a holistic alternative to current approaches to sustainability education and
practice and embraces the education not only of students per se but also of practitioners, stakeholders, and citizens as a
prerequisite for success in building a world of sustainable societies. It is also both a conception of sustainability education
and a step-by-step cognitive strategy for use by both students in the classroom and practitioners in the field to diagnose and
to prescribe sustainable responses to situations that are inconsistent with a sustainable society. This special session on the
SHES approach will be presented by the SHES Roundtable Co-Chairs.
The Roundtable's edited book— Education for Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems: From Theory to Practice
(Routledge, 2019)--summarized the Roundtable’s first decade of work.
A subsequent paper—"The Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems Approach to Sustainability Education and
Practice: Foundational Principles, Pedagogical Strategies, and Administrative Considerations" (2022), which Dr. Barresi
presented on behalf of all the authors at the OIDA ICSD 2022 in Bangkok, updated and expanded upon the key elements of
the SHES approach.
The special session will be based on five more recent papers—which bear the common title “The Sustainable Human and
Environmental Systems (SHES) Approach to Sustainability Education and Practice” (2026) but with the subtitles
(1) Foundational Thematic Principles;
(2) The Administrative Challenge;
(3) The Pedagogical Challenge;
(4) Program Evaluation, Transformation, and Recognition and
(5) From the Classroom to the Workplace—which update and expand upon the Roundtable’s earlier work and which Dr.
Reiter and Dr. Smardon presented on behalf of all the authors at the OIDA ISCD 2025 in Sri Lanka.
First Sub-Session: Foundational Thematic Principles
(Presenters: Dr. Michael A. Reiter (online) and Dr. Paul A. Barresi (onsite))
This sub-session will set the stage for the others by introducing participants to the SHES vision, mission, and strategic goal
and, in that context, to the seven foundational thematic principles on which the SHES approach to sustainability education
and practice rests.
Second Sub-Session: The Administrative Challenge
(Presenter: Dr. Michael A. Reiter (online))
The adoption of a novel approach to education at any college or university is likely to pose equally novel administrative
challenges. Notwithstanding these challenges, the SHES approach is designed to be universally applicable, regardless of
institutional setting or subject matter context, whether by itself or as a complement to educational approaches that colleges
and universities are using now. With careful planning, patience, and some creativity, any college or university could become
a SHES-friendly institution. This sub-session will show participants how.
Third Sub-Session:
The Pedagogical Challenge (Presenter: Dr. Paul A. Barresi (Onsite))
The SHES approach to sustainability education and practice is suitable for use not only with students who are enrolled in
academic or pre-professional courses and programs in colleges and universities large and small but also by practitioners in
the field. It is also inherently well suited for use across a full spectrum of courses and programs—not just in stand-alone
“sustainability” courses and programs but also in others as a complement to content defined by reference to discipline-
dependent criteria. Yet the SHES approach is not only a conception of sustainability education but also a cognitive strategy.
Given this dual aspect, the SHES approach regards certain competencies and pedagogical strategies as essential. This sub-
session will introduce participants to these essential elements of the SHES approach.
Fourth Sub-Session: Program Evaluation, Transformation, and Recognition
(Presenters: Dr. Michael A. Reiter (Online) and Dr. Paul A. Barresi (Onsite))
The discrepancies between sustainability-focused degree programs as they are and the SHES ideal highlights the need for
tools that proponents of the SHES approach could use in evaluating existing programs; charting strategic pathways for
transforming existing programs along SHES lines or building new SHES programs from scratch; and recognizing progress in
either regard as it occurs. This sub-session will introduce participants to the assessment rubrics developed by the SHES
Roundtable for use in doing so. In the workshop part of this sub-session, the presenters will invite participants to use one of
these rubrics to assess the extent to which their own programs already incorporate SHES-friendly program administrative
and design attributes and thus already lend themselves to implementation of the SHES approach.
Fifth Sub-Session: From the Classroom to the Workplace
(Presenter; Dr. Rick Smardon (Online))
One way of looking at the pedagogical and administrative implications of the SHES approach is as features of the supply
side of a marketplace for SHES professionals. On the demand side of this marketplace are prospective employers of college
and university graduates and the professional associations on which those employers rely to validate the competence of
prospective hires and to guide their workplace activities once they have been hired. Evaluating the current state and future
prospects of the demand side of the marketplace for SHES professionals requires answering certain questions, which are
the focus of this sub-session.
If you require more information, please contact our office.
Conference Secretariat
Ontario International Development Agency
2581 River Mist Road
Ottawa,
Ontario, K2J 6G1
Canada.
Tel: + 1 613 612 7615
e-mail: oida@ontariointernational.org
website: www.ontariointernational.org
Conference Co-chair
Dr. Henri Pallard, LL.B., Ph.D.
Canada.
Emeritus Professor Law and Justice
Director, International Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Law
Laurentian University, Canada.
Dr. Henri Pallard is the Director of the International Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Law and Professor emeritus in
the Department of Law and Justice, Laurentian University, Sudbury (Ontario), Canada. He is broadly interested in the
relationship between culture and human rights as it manifests itself in both western and non western cultures. From 1994 to
2005, he was the Director of Persons, Culture and Rights (Personne, culture et droits), an international North/South research
team which was funded by the International Francophone University (Agence universitaire de la Francophonie). During this
period, he worked closely with researchers and academics from Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt distilling the cultural issues
underlying the interpretation and implementation of human rights, the rule of law and democracy in North Africa.
From 2010 to 2016, he was the Associate Director, Poverty, Homelessness and Migration, at Laurentian University, which
received a $1 million grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Working in
partnership with First Nations and northern communities, this five-year project examined the underlying causes of poverty,
poor housing, homelessness, and out-migration in northern Ontario. For its outstanding work under its Director of SSHRC, it
received the SSRHC Impact Partnership Award.
In 2003, Dr. Henri Pallard was invited to present the Vice-President’s Lecture. In 2008, he was awarded the Laurentian
University Research Excellence Award in recognition of his work internationally which contributed significantly to the
reputation and prestige of the university. In 2010 he was the recipient of the 2010 Saint-Jean Award of Merit for Distinguished
Alumni. This award is the most prestigious honour that the Saint-Jean Campus, University of Alberta, bestows upon one
alumnus each year in recognition for demonstrating leadership in her/his profession. In 2022, he received the Order of Merit
of the AJEFO (Franco-Ontarian Association of Jurists) for his contribution to Francophone access to justice.
Dr. Pallard received his PhD in philosophy of law from the University of Nice (France), summa cum laude. He held a doctoral
scholarship from the France-Canada cultural exchange programme (1976-1981). He then obtained his law degree (J.D.)
from McGill University (1984). He is also a member of the Ontario Bar. In 1992-1993, he held a postdoctoral fellowship from
the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie and was a research fellow at the Université de Paris II, France. He has been a
visiting professor at the Faculté des Sciences Juridiques, Politiques et Sociales de Tunis, Tunisia (1997), Université Cadi
Ayyad, Marrakech, Maroc (1998 and 2010), Ain Chams University, Cairo, Egypte (2000), South West University of Science
and Technology (2002), Mianyang, China, Université Grenoble Alpes, France (2005), Institut franco-chinois, Renmin
University of China (2017), British University in Egypt (2019-2022).
He has published five books, edited ten others and published more than 75 articles and chapters in international journals and
books. He has also given more than 150 scholarly presentations.
Special Session
Onsite Session Leader and Presenter
Paul A. Barresi, J.D., M.A.L.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science and Environmental Law and
Chair, Department of Social Sciences,
Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU)
Adjunct Professor of Law (& Fulbright Lecturer in Law, Spring 2016),
Sun Yat-sen University School of Law, Guangzhou, People Republic of China
School of Arts, Sciences, and Education
Southern New Hampshire University
2500 North River Road
Manchester, New Hampshire 03106
USA
Online Presenters
Michael A. Reiter, Ph.D.
Professor, Director, and
Chair Department of Integrated Environmental Science (ret.)
Bethune-Cookman University
Daytona Beach, Florida
USA
Rick Smardon, Ph.D.
Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus
Department of Environmental Studies
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Syracuse, New York
USA
This special session will introduce participants to the Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems (SHES) approach to
sustainability education and practice, which is the work of the SHES Roundtable. Since 2009, the SHES Roundtable has
been a collaborative forum for academics and practitioners from throughout North America and beyond to pursue their
commitment to providing college and university students with the knowledge and skills needed to meet the existential
sustainability challenges that plague the modern world.. Its work has been shaped by a solid grounding in first principles, a
commitment to seeking consensus from all participants at all steps of the process, and the use of lessons learned from
iterative experimentation in the classroom to inform the approach’s fine structure as it has evolved over time.
The result is the SHES approach to sustainability education and practice, which is a living set of recommendations
concerning the pedagogy and administration of interdisciplinary and higher-order sustainability-focused degree programs in
higher education. The SHES approach offers a holistic alternative to current approaches to sustainability education and
practice and embraces the education not only of students per se but also of practitioners, stakeholders, and citizens as a
prerequisite for success in building a world of sustainable societies. It is also both a conception of sustainability education
and a step-by-step cognitive strategy for use by both students in the classroom and practitioners in the field to diagnose and
to prescribe sustainable responses to situations that are inconsistent with a sustainable society. This special session on the
SHES approach will be presented by the SHES Roundtable Co-Chairs.
The Roundtable's edited book— Education for Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems: From Theory to Practice
(Routledge, 2019)--summarized the Roundtable’s first decade of work.
A subsequent paper—"The Sustainable Human and Environmental Systems Approach to Sustainability Education and
Practice: Foundational Principles, Pedagogical Strategies, and Administrative Considerations" (2022), which Dr. Barresi
presented on behalf of all the authors at the OIDA ICSD 2022 in Bangkok, updated and expanded upon the key elements of
the SHES approach.
The special session will be based on five more recent papers—which bear the common title “The Sustainable Human and
Environmental Systems (SHES) Approach to Sustainability Education and Practice” (2026) but with the subtitles
(1) Foundational Thematic Principles;
(2) The Administrative Challenge;
(3) The Pedagogical Challenge;
(4) Program Evaluation, Transformation, and Recognition and
(5) From the Classroom to the Workplace—which update and expand upon the Roundtable’s earlier work and which Dr.
Reiter and Dr. Smardon presented on behalf of all the authors at the OIDA ISCD 2025 in Sri Lanka.
First Sub-Session: Foundational Thematic Principles
(Presenters: Dr. Michael A. Reiter (online) and Dr. Paul A. Barresi (onsite))
This sub-session will set the stage for the others by introducing participants to the SHES vision, mission, and strategic goal
and, in that context, to the seven foundational thematic principles on which the SHES approach to sustainability education
and practice rests.
Second Sub-Session: The Administrative Challenge
(Presenter: Dr. Michael A. Reiter (online))
The adoption of a novel approach to education at any college or university is likely to pose equally novel administrative
challenges. Notwithstanding these challenges, the SHES approach is designed to be universally applicable, regardless of
institutional setting or subject matter context, whether by itself or as a complement to educational approaches that colleges
and universities are using now. With careful planning, patience, and some creativity, any college or university could become
a SHES-friendly institution. This sub-session will show participants how.
Third Sub-Session:
The Pedagogical Challenge (Presenter: Dr. Paul A. Barresi (Onsite))
The SHES approach to sustainability education and practice is suitable for use not only with students who are enrolled in
academic or pre-professional courses and programs in colleges and universities large and small but also by practitioners in
the field. It is also inherently well suited for use across a full spectrum of courses and programs—not just in stand-alone
“sustainability” courses and programs but also in others as a complement to content defined by reference to discipline-
dependent criteria. Yet the SHES approach is not only a conception of sustainability education but also a cognitive strategy.
Given this dual aspect, the SHES approach regards certain competencies and pedagogical strategies as essential. This sub-
session will introduce participants to these essential elements of the SHES approach.
Fourth Sub-Session: Program Evaluation, Transformation, and Recognition
(Presenters: Dr. Michael A. Reiter (Online) and Dr. Paul A. Barresi (Onsite))
The discrepancies between sustainability-focused degree programs as they are and the SHES ideal highlights the need for
tools that proponents of the SHES approach could use in evaluating existing programs; charting strategic pathways for
transforming existing programs along SHES lines or building new SHES programs from scratch; and recognizing progress in
either regard as it occurs. This sub-session will introduce participants to the assessment rubrics developed by the SHES
Roundtable for use in doing so. In the workshop part of this sub-session, the presenters will invite participants to use one of
these rubrics to assess the extent to which their own programs already incorporate SHES-friendly program administrative
and design attributes and thus already lend themselves to implementation of the SHES approach.
Fifth Sub-Session: From the Classroom to the Workplace
(Presenter; Dr. Rick Smardon (Online))
One way of looking at the pedagogical and administrative implications of the SHES approach is as features of the supply
side of a marketplace for SHES professionals. On the demand side of this marketplace are prospective employers of college
and university graduates and the professional associations on which those employers rely to validate the competence of
prospective hires and to guide their workplace activities once they have been hired. Evaluating the current state and future
prospects of the demand side of the marketplace for SHES professionals requires answering certain questions, which are
the focus of this sub-session.
If you require more information, please contact our office.
Conference Secretariat
Ontario International Development Agency
2581 River Mist Road
Ottawa,
Ontario, K2J 6G1
Canada.
Tel: + 1 613 612 7615
e-mail: oida@ontariointernational.org
website: www.ontariointernational.org
Program
