Time to plan for 2019 conference attendance

To me, conferencing means flying and that is half of the fun - going to interesting and beautiful places.

September means it is time to start planning for next year's conference attendance. Important to all of us teaching to first year students, is the First Year Experience (FYE) as we all have to take responsibility to assist students to adapt to higher education systems and to become successful life-long, self-directed students.

  

The South African National resource centre's (SANRC) First-year experience and students in transition conference will take place from 22 tot 24 May 2019. The venue is not yet confirmed, but due dates for the three rounds of abstract submissions are 14 October 2018, 11 February 2019 and 1 April 2019.  Early bird registration will be R4000.00. Abstracts can be submitted in the following sub-themes:

Case studies in good FYE practice

First year transitions in the higher education system

staff as support systems for first year students

engaging the student voice: critical perspectives from students

FYE in the classroom

FYE theory. 

Also important for South African scholars (who pay less registration for this conference), is the Transatlantic Roundtable on religion and race (TRRR) that will take place at the Hekima Institute of Peace studies and International Relations (HIPSIR) at the Hekima University College in Nairobi, Kenya from 1 to 5 July 2019. The theme for 2019 is: Old divisions, new social formations: Africa and the diaspora. Abstracts must be submitted by 30 November 2018. Themes that will be discussed include

Political and Religious Authoritarianism: Past, Present and Future

Deconstructing Conflict, Violence and Sovereignty in Africa and Across the Diaspora

Assets, Cooperatives and the Culture of Cooperation 

Patriarchy, Sexism and the Role of Culture in Africa and the Diaspora

Faith-based Responses to the Immigration Crisis

New Formations of African Identity on the Continent and Across the Diaspora

Old Media New Media, Social Media and the Production of Knowledge-based Development

Religion, Race and Morality in the Age of New Social Movements

Global Conference on education, Los Angeles

The pond next to the conference facility at the University of Riverside in southern California

It is dangerous to write about conferences that I did not attend myself, as one can easily promote a conference which is a scam (yes I read about some terrible experiences) or which is not worth the trouble. And trouble it is to get all the forms done, funding arranged and then spending hours on the internet for accommodation and transport and flight arrangements if you are pressed for time. If I do have time to do searches, I love to get lost in the internet however. 

The conference facility of the university of Riverside is situated next to a beautiful pond with awesome wildlife such as tortoises and lots of water birds. Riverside is about two hours’ drive from Los Angeles. The university host international conferences on a regular basis in management, nursing and education. We attended an education conference as an add on to a weekend in Los Angeles and another conference in Seattle. It was a small conference with less than 50 people presenting and attending, which means that there were no concurrent sessions and all get to participate and interact with each other in one conference venue. 

The Global conference on education is less than a month away but for those who will be in the vicinity, there is still time to attend and present at this conference. It will be held on 27 and 28 September. The registration fee for presenters is $500 and for attendees $350. 

And for those of you who are not planning to go to California soon, please remember the upcoming HELTASA conference in Port Elizabeth in November and planning ahead, remember the ICDE in November 2019 in Dublin. Both of these conferences are really worth the effort.