Postgraduate research conference: April 2018 in Australia

The next QPR conference will be held in Australia 2018 (This is Sydney - so beautiful)

Every second year the Postgraduate Research Conference is held at the National Wine Centre in Adelaide, Australia. During the alternative years we gather at Spier in Stellenbosch, South Africa for the conference. In 2018, the theme of the 13th Quality in Postgraduate Research Conference (QPR) will be: Impact, Engagement, and Doctoral Education. 

The call for papers is out and closes on 21st November. Options include traditional papers,  discussions, poster presentations and 'fast and furious 5X5' presentations which are fun, informative and focused (well worth trying). Possible topics include:

Theory, concepts, and measurement

• What does impact and engagement mean in doctoral education?
• How can impact and engagement be measured in doctoral education?
• How are impact and engagement exerted and mediated? What are the key processes and actors?
• Can we measure the quality of impacts and engagements? How can we improve that quality?

Impact and engagement in practice

• What impact do doctoral researchers have on institutions?
• How do impact and engagement translate into employability?
• What impact do doctoral graduates have following graduation?
• What impact do industry-funded doctoral projects have?
• How can the impact and engagement of doctoral graduates be maximised?
• How do impact and engagement operate in the overall ecology of the doctoral education system?

Impact and engagement – the human dimension

• What impact does doctoral education have on
  graduates? What is the impact of the wider engagement agenda on doctoral graduates?
• What impact have developments in doctoral education over the past 25 years had on the student experience?

The next International Conference on Historical Sciences will be in 2020, Cape Town

Sunday afternoon in Amsterdam.

In 2010, the 20th International Conference on Historical Sciences was held in Amsterdam. I was so exited to have my abstract accepted for this great conference. When making the bookings, we (my husband and two sons) decided to also take a detour to Belgium to see the Spa Formula 1 race the following weekend. We had the time of our lives. 

In 2015 the conference was held in China and we did not go but I recently saw the call for papers for the 2020 conference that will be here, in our own back yard - Cape Town! No excuses not to participate: An international conference in South Africa, Cape Town is always a desired destination and if you check the list of topics below, you will be convinced that ever academic will be able to participate. And the big bonus:  Volunteers will get free registration!  

• Behavioral and Psychological Sciences
• Cognitive, Psychological and Behavioral Sciences
• Communities and Communications
• Complex Socio-Cognitive-Technical Systems
• Complexity Theory in the Social Sciences
• Computation and Social Networks
• Computational Methods in Social Science
• Country studies
• Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies with International Relations
• Data mining in Social Science
• Digital Libraries, Archives and Repositories
• Geographic Information Systems
• Geography and Geological Sciences
• Health Issues and Services
• History
• Human and Social Evolutionary Complexity
• Human Development based on psychological and social concepts
• Human Rights Development
• Human-Computer Interactions
• Human-Environment Interactions
• Information and Communication Systems
• Innovation, Technology and Society
• Interdisciplinary Research and Studies
• International Relations & Collaborations
• Land-Use Modeling Techniques and Applications
• Law and Justice
• Learning and Behavioral Modeling
• Media and Communications, Technology
• Open Learning and Distance Education
• Organizational Decision Making
• Physics Methods for Analyzing Social Complexity
• Policy/Public Administration/Public Health
• Political Science and Decision Making
• Politics, society, and international relations
• Psychology
• Public Administration
• Public Governance
• Race/Ethnic Studies
• Social and Organizational Networks
• Social Complexity
• Social Computing
• Social Network Analysis
• Social Systems Dynamics
• Social Work
• Social-Psychological, Social, Organizational, and Technological Systems
• Socio-Cognitive-Technological Systems
• Sociology
• Sociology and Social Computation
• Sport and Physical Education
• Standards for Metadata, Ontologies, Annotation, Curation
• Sustainable Development
• Sustainable Economic Development
• Sustainable Human and Social Development
• Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods
• Sustainable Urban Transport and Environment
• Technology and Education
• Technology, Society, Environmental Studies
• Urban and Regional Planning
• Urban Studies
• Violence, Extremism, and Terrorism
• Virtual Communities and Communications

Start to look for calls for abstracts for 2018 conferences

Combining stunning places or events with conference presentations require advanced planning. This is Alaska, on a recent conference trip to the USA.

The middle of August is the start of a busy time for me because this is when I spend hours and hours on the internet searching for interesting places and conferences that have calls for abstracts out for their 2018 conferences. Yes, I must confess that the places where the conferences are held is equally important to me as the themes and subject fields covered.  I also prefer to link two or three conferences into one trip and also to include at least one spectacular excursion to a place I would really like to visit, or just add a short stopover to our trip.  

The Learner conference, one of the Common Ground conferences will be held in Athens from 21-23 June 2018 and the call for papers is already open. A number of the other conferences under the Common Ground research networks are also already scheduled for 2018. The e-Learning and Innovative Pedagogy conference will take place on 2 and 3 March in New York. The Religion and Society conference will be held in Berkeley (USA) from 17-18 April 2018 and the New Directions in the Humanities conference will take place at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (USA) from 5 to 7 July 2018. 

One of the most important advantages of submitting abstracts early is that once you got confirmation of acceptance, you will have enough time to apply for funding and support from the university and also be able to book flights, accommodation and transport well in advance, often at discounted prices. Early confirmation also gives me enough time to search for the best options in flight tickets and accommodation options. Looking at early acceptance from the academic side of things, it also ensure that you have more time to start working on the article  and the presentation. Although this is not always possible, it is awesome to have your article published within a month or three after presenting at the conference, allowing you to focus on other things (or a second conference paper) soon after you are back from the conference.   

Fourth conference on the South African first year experience in 2018

Johannesburg, South Africa

Attention all lecturers who are working with first year students! Working towards excellence in support of the first-year students in South Africa, the 2018 SANRC conference will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa between 23 and 25 May next year. The focus is on ‘critically examining all aspects of the first year experience’.

Although I am used to being a lecturer who is responsible for the first years, I am still amazed by the fragmentation and diversity and constant regressing of students’ ability to read, write and comprehend meaning.

This conference calls together those involved with first year students to participate in collaborative and scholarly discussions about the first year experience and how we can improve and expand the support structures to ensure success and reduce drop-out rates. Some of the questions that need our attention, include:

Do we know enough about the multi-faceted needs of first-year students?

Are lecturers fully capacitated to meet the needs of first-year students?

Can new learning models and technologies create a new learning dynamic for students?

How well are we serving our students in terms of the various academic support programmes offered at South Africa’s universities?

This conference is designed to thoughtfully consider these questions and problem areas through introspection, both on an individual and institutional basis. All who are involved should reflect upon what it really means to fully support first-year students.

Abstracts should focus on the following sub-themes:

• How to teach for first-year success

• ‘Show and Tell’: Innovative first-year support initiatives

• Measurement and accountability in first-year support services: Are we getting

it right?

• Orientation programmes as a key element of student support

• Engaging the student voice: Critical Perspectives from students

• International models of first-year support

• Theorizing academic support

Abstracts should be double spaced and written in Arial Font, size 11. Abstracts should also be limited to 350-400 words.

This first round is open for abstract submission until 30 September 2017, and is tailor made to accommodate those of us who need to apply for funding from our institutions.