The aim of this project is to trace and document the discursive shifts in ideas about academic identity by focusing on the International Academic Identities (IAI) Conference. From its beginnings in 2008 at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK, through to its next conference (which is to be held at Hiroshima University, Japan in 2018) the time-span marks 10 years and 5 conferences (3 in the UK, 2 in Australasia). Since the conference has no professional sponsor or a higher education association attached to it, 10 years is an achievement and this project acts as something of a celebration. More broadly, it also offers a critical account of change and impact. By taking an international conference as its key focus and by drawing on the methods of social history, the project provides a window onto the research preoccupations of academic identity scholars across the globe as they wrestle with changes to, and the demands of, shifting ideas of the University.
Research questions:
1. What kinds of local and international HE debates has shaped the emergence and nature of IAI conferences?
2. What kinds of scholarly (content) and pedagogical (experiences) interventions have those involved in IAI conferences intended, and with
what effects?
3. How have the IAI conferences progressed research and inquiry about academic identities, and supported participants’ own scholarly
formation, in terms of being (ontology), knowing (epistemology) and doing (practice)?
4. What lessons can be learned/commended from the social history of the IAI conferences about the future of the academic conference in
general?
Project leads
Dr Tai Peseta, The University of Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Dr Paul Sutton, University of St Mark and St John, UK
Project team members
Dr Agnes Bosanquet, Macquarie University, AUSTRALIA
James Burford, Thammasat University, THAILAND
Professor Catherine Manathunga, Victoria University, AUSTRALIA
Fiona Salisbury, La Trobe University, AUSTRALIA
Dr Jan Smith, Durham University, UK
Dr Jeanette Fyffe, La Trobe University, AUSTRALIA
Associate Professor Machi SATO, Research Institute for Higher Education (RIHE), Hiroshima University, JAPAN