The IJAS Conference

If you google this conference, you will find a thread in the Chronicle of Higher Education, where it talks about how the people posting on the thread think this conference is a scam. None of the threads define what they mean as "scam". One person did assert that it is merely a vacation for people who go. If that is the definition of scam, then about every conference I know has people who attend in scam mode. Why else would they call it a scam? Maybe because there is no professional organization that goes with it. Maybe because there are no big time speakers invited. Maybe because it is multidisciplinary.



I would not assert that this conference is a scam. I fact, I think it is pretty valuable. By virtue of the fact that the conference is truly international, one gets to hear about on the ground research in other countries in the cultural traditions of their academic research. Individual variety comes right out, and it is fascinating. The American presenters are highly energetic and data driven about helping low income NYC students. The Turkish speakers tell a narrative and read straight from the power point about something I did not understand. The Polish presenter had highly multicolored slides about how the sounds of poetry make us happy. The German presenter and the Romanian presenter read dense papers about theology. The grad student in English studies read a paper full of whimsical self disclosure about reading Mrs. Dalloway in the tub. An Israeli Buddhist gave a moving account of his moment of enlightenment in the Judean desert. Having such variety in culture, kinds of questions being asked, and styles of presentations is an experience of widening the world that would not occur in discipline specific situations. This pulls you out of your silo if you let it.





Some people here, as in other places, present, and leave. They make it a scam for themselves, just as those at the American Psychological Association or the Professional and Organizational Development Association do when they present and leave. Some people here have also shortened papers they have written for the purpose of other conferences. Some don't even bother to change the PowerPoints to be tailored for this conference. This seems unprofessional but maybe this is a little scam- like in that they re not taking the conference as seriously as they might, probably because it is not a discipline specific conference. But not everybody is like that. There are many presentations that take themselves and the audience seriously.

Is this a scam because there are no big speakers? No. The big guys are great, but more interesting is what the little guys are doing in the moment. You can get your own big guys at your discipline specific conference, but here you get to hear things from regular researchers in little chunks. More would be too much. For the most part these are supposed to be for a general audience, although, of course, some do get a bit jargony. Humans are just that way in all their infinite variety.

Is this a scam because there is no plenary or closing? Well, on that point I am a little disappointed. I believe a bit of cohesion would be good, but that is my personal bias. Maybe the bus trip works like a plenary. I can report on that tomorrow. Technically, we can ask more questions during the trips.