Upcoming Conferences
2010: Malta Medieval Symposium
This symposium is slated to begin in the afternoon/evening of Thursday 15 July 2010 at the Victoria Hotel, Sliema (a township adjacent to Valletta). Please read Professor Ian Kirby's enticing symposium letter here.
2010: Malta Triennial Conference
IAUPE's next Triennial Conference will be held in Malta, in the third week of July, hosted by Professor Peter Vassallo, President of the Association peter.vassallo@um.edu.mt, and the Department of English at the University of Malta. Details are now available, in PDF form, for both the First Circular, and the Sections and Chairs. For more information, please see The University of Malta / L-Università ta' Malta conference webpage here.
Interested parties please note the letter released by Professor Kirby on the IAUPE Medieval Symposium, which takes place on Malta roughly one week prior to the IAUPE Triennial Conference. To read a PDF of Professor Kirby's letter, click here.
The traditional pattern of IAUPE conferences
According to IAUPE tradition, conferences alternate between English- and non-English-speaking countries; the 1998 conference was thus in Durham, UK, the 2001 conference in Bamberg, and the 2004 conference in Vancouver. But this is by no means a fixed rule.
Traditionally, too, the IAUPE conference lasts for a full five days. The academic programme is not as heavy as with most conferences, and members have plenty of time to get together outside lecture halls and seminar rooms. While the social aspect is important in the IAUPE context, more and more members are unable to obtain the necessary funding for the trip unless they give papers, so academic programmes are likely to be fuller at future IAUPE conferences. Of course participants are free to pick and choose among the sessions in the programme, so those who like to take academic things easy and explore the local attractions instead can do that.
As attendance at the conference entails a week-long stay and considerable expenditure, though Presidents try to keep registration fees and other charges low, and as many participants bring partners to IAUPE conferences, members like to go to an attractive location. Certainly the last three conferences took place in spectacular settings, and Lund is a pretty place. But a good location may have other things to offer besides beauty.
At most previous conferences, the location of the next conference has been chosen during the concluding Business Meeting. Usually there has been competition — getting the IAUPE conference has been a little like bidding for the Olympics.
Changing times
In some respects the traditional pattern may change in the 21st century. Fewer and fewer Humanities professors have the kind of base that keeps the work involved in organising a major conference at a reasonable level — secretarial help, assistants, hordes of willing graduates and junior colleagues, faculty funds for conferences and symposia, and so on. Besides, most of us have little 'air' in schedules filled with teaching and administration and find it hard enough to find time to do any serious writing, let alone arrange conferences. Consequently there are likely to be fewer bidders in the years ahead.
It may well be that future Presidents will only assume responsibility for the academic programme, handing over everything else to professional conference organisers -- at a cost to participants, of course. In such cases the President's own home university may not even be the conference location; the conference could take place somewhere entirely different. These are matters for the IAUPE governing body, the International Committee, to discuss, with input from members.
Q&A for prospective Presidents
Q. I just might be interested in this. What should I do first?
A. Consult your colleagues and superiors to find out if you're going to have local support should you decide to take the idea further. If you have a partner/family, make sure they're on board. You can't do it if you have to keep justifying yourself on your home ground. Then contact the Secretary-General.
Q. Exactly how much work would I be letting myself in for?
A. It depends on what sources of help are available to you. The Secretary-General will be able to advise on what IAUPE as an organisation can do for you. While you'll need a small group of loyal and efficient people on the ground, and a larger group for the actual conference week, the work will be manageable if you start early, keep the reins in your own hands, and enjoy planning and organising.
Q.How free am I to design the conference according to my own wishes?
A. Very free, and this is one of the best things about the IAUPE presidency. You'll want to consult IAUPE officers, above all the immensely experienced and supportive Secretary-General, from time to time for your own sake -- but the conference is yours to set up and run as you see fit, as long as you don't run up a big deficit which will need to be covered out of the Association's coffers.
Q. Do I need to do a lot of fund-raising?
A. A rule of thumb says a conference of this magnitude needs a local budget of at least 60,000 euro, so yes, you need to tap all available resources the moment you've been elected President. But fears of this kind shouldn't put you off, and anyway things may change in future, the financial aspect included (see above).
Q. What's in it for my department/university and for me personally?
A. A major international conference showcases the host department/seat of learning both nationally and internationally, and however little scope our present employers give us for anything but 'core activities', they do welcome efforts geared to putting their institutions on maps. Hardly any academic policy these days omits sonorous phrases about internationalisation, and there's kudos to be had by injecting some substance into those phrases. For yourself, the presidency of a global professional organisation will lend your input on local/national issues extra weight, which may be strategically useful. Your personal academic network will be extended and strengthened, you'll make new friends for life, and at last you get to attend a conference where everything is exactly as you want it!
Marianne Thormählen
Past President of the International Association of University Professors of English 2004-2007
marianne.thormahlen [at] englund.lu.se