AHDA HISTORY

“The naming of AHDA in the 1980’s: The founders of AHDA chose the name “The Australasian Human Development Association” to keep the boundaries of the association permeable and to welcome people across disciplines. A key goal within AHDA’s early development was to shape the association into an interdisciplinary group. Historically, New Zealand and Australia lacked a strong foundation of Developmental Psychology, so one aim was to foster connections between people interested in human development across a number of disciplines and occupations with the overarching goal of bringing human development into the forefront of psychological research within Australasia. ”

“With the objective of creating a strong foundation of Developmental Science across Australasia, AHDA was officially incorporated on the 20th of June in 1994 by AHDA’s first president, Distinguished Professor Alan Hayes. The first governance of AHDA consisted of: Distinguished Professor Alan Hayes (President), Emeritus Professor Dianne Catherwood (Vice President), Dr Kym Irving (Secretary), and Dr Gerald Ashby (Treasurer).”

“In the early 2000’s, AHDA held bi-annual conferences in world class cities across Australia and New Zealand. Attendees described these conferences as vigorous and stimulating, primarily due to the overlap between the disciplines of the attendees and the opportunity to connect with scholars across continents.”

“One highlight of this decade was the 2013 conference at Surfer’s Paradise on the Gold Coast Australia, which provided the opportunity to host a festschrift for longtime AHDA member, Professor Candida Peterson. AHDA welcomed researchers from across the globe to celebrate Professor Peterson’s remarkable contributions to socio-cognitive development in early childhood.

In 2018, AHDA partnered with the International Society for the Study of Behaviour and Development (ISSBD) by hosting a conference in Australia’s Gold Coast. AHDA played a key role within this synergenistic conference by providing an opportunity for human developmental researchers, whose interests may not have directly aligned with those of ISSBD, to connect with one another and share their scientific findings.

In 2019, AHDA held its first virtual conference hosted by Victoria University in Wellington. Conference organisers and the AHDA Executive Committee were tasked with facilitating enthusiasm, passion, and commitment for a conference in a digital format. The success of the 2019 conference paired with the lack of social connection opportunities imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of 2020 prompted AHDA to host a second and third online conference in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Although conference organisers for the 2020 and 2021 conference faced the same challenges as the organisers from 2019, attendees noted that the virtual format was a strength for AHDA. Specifically, the virtual format allowed AHDA to become more accessible to its membership and reduce its carbon footprint by negating the need for travel.”

“Throughout the years, AHDA has experienced ebbs and flows of change. Within the last 20 years and with the addition of AHDA’s 2020 – 2022 Executive, including president, Associate Professor Annette Henderson, researchers from areas of human cognition, nursing, social work, and teaching have joined the vibrant community that is AHDA. The shifting boundaries between disciplines has enabled more researchers across the developmental sciences to join and exchange ideas within AHDA. The additions and diversity of our membership has allowed AHDA to unite people and purse topics that support human development, particularly as we face significant challenges as a species, such as climate change. In the future, AHDA aims to promote the advancement of developmental science within the Australasia region by seeking diversity and extending connections to include researchers across the Pacific and Asia.
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