Greetings, Fellow Graduate Students and Higher Education Scholars!
As we approach this year’s Annual Meeting, we’ve been thinking about
what we as Division J graduate students stand to gain from attending AERA’s
major annual event, particularly given that it will take place in the awesome
city of Philadelphia! As such,
we’ve performed our own AERA Annual Meeting attendance cost-benefit analyses. Our findings suggest that the Meeting
is surely worth the costs. While
it certainly can be an expensive and time-consuming event, the unparalleled
opportunities for 1) cross-disciplinary learning, 2) meeting other graduate
students, faculty members, and practitioners, and 3) professional development
tailored specifically for graduate students (not to mention all that
Philadelphia has to offer) make this Annual Meeting one you don't want to
miss!
Enhance your scholarship through
cross-disciplinary learning.
It’s true, AERA is MASSIVE. For those of us who have attended other
higher education conferences, AERA might sound overwhelming and perhaps
impossible to navigate. AERA
brings together thousands of scholars from all over the country and even the world;
in fact, in the hosting city, you’re basically guaranteed to see at least a few
people with AERA nametags anywhere you go. While such an immense event is
understandably intimidating for graduate students, AERA’s size is actually one
of its strongest assets. AERA is the only conference that offers higher
education scholars numerous opportunities for inter-divisional learning and
interaction:
●
Interested
in the politics of higher education?
Division L scholars are doing some exciting work in policy and politics
in education that you can couple with Division J activities
●
Interested
in the social context of higher education? Division G
●
History of
higher education? Division F
●
Administration?
Division A
Even the best graduate programs are limited in their ability to expose
students to various research topics, theories, and methods, particularly
because graduate student instruction is often dependent upon the expertise of
the faculty members in the department.
For this reason, conferences are invaluable opportunities to complement
the training offered by our programs and gain exposure to those topics,
theories, and methods we might not otherwise encounter.
AERA, in particular, has the added
value of providing insight from other disciplines and niches within education
research, practice, and policy, making it one conference no graduate student
should miss!
For more information
on other divisions and their events at this year’s Meeting, search by Unit->
Division on the Online Program Portal:
http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/aera/aera14/index.php?cmd=Prepare+Online+Program&program_focus=main&PHPSESSID=lrhjajcvjmrhuo1feaaqis54f4
Establish meaningful
relationships.
More people = greater probability that you will establish a meaningful
relationship.
Whether you are…
a)
On the job market and looking to meet other
practitioners, faculty members, or administrators,
b)
Looking to find a scholar with whom to collaborate or
bounce ideas off of for a research project,
c)
Curious about the graduate student experiences in other
programs,
…you’re bound to
find someone with whom you’ll connect!
Of course, for some
of us it can be an anxiety-inducing experience to attend a social, introduce
yourself to someone, or ask a question at the end of a paper presentation. But don’t fret! Within the Division J
graduate student community, we’ve tried to make this process more amiable by
creating a sense of community. Here are a couple of things you can do to make
AERA smaller:
●
Attend our
graduate student breakfast social. Our Division J Vice President, Dr. Adrianna
Kezar (University of Southern California), has been kind enough to offer her
hotel suite as the venue for our graduate student breakfast.
This is an informal, casual opportunity
to meet other graduate students and faculty members (and, of course, Dr. Kezar).
We’ve intentionally scheduled the
social at the beginning of the conference to provide an opportunity to make a
buddy or two from the start (trust me, it happens). Be sure to like our
Facebook
page for up to date announcements about the location of this event. RSVP here,
https://www.facebook.com/events/356507494489152/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming&source=1#
●
Join our
Mentoring Match program.
Our
two awesome coordinators, Jason T. Jones and Luis Leyva, have created a program
to match graduate students for the 2014 AERA Annual Meeting. Graduate students
are matched based on professional and personal interests.
As a mentor or mentee, you can meet
with your buddy once or you can attend multiple conference events
together.
The best part:
registration is now open. Sign up to be a mentor or mentee today!
http://tinyurl.com/qh5bj8m
Develop professionally.
What if you’re not presenting?
The great thing about AERA is that it’s much more than just a research
conference. In addition to simply demystifying the conference and presentation
process (an important step for graduate students), AERA presents a myriad of
opportunities for professional development. For instance, the Division J Graduate Student Reps will be
hosting two exciting panels with top scholars in the field:
●
Alleviating
“Teamwork” Anxieties: How to Establish and Sustain Successful Collaborative
Publication-Oriented Relationships –
Drs. Shaun Harper,
Ryan Gildersleeve, Cecilia Rios- Aguilar, Nick Hillman, and Riyad Shahjahan
will discuss ways in which you can get more involved with research (as graduate
students) and, more importantly, how to navigate the collaboration process.
●
Beyond
Academia: Reaching a Broader Audience –
Drs. Gary Rhoades,
Marybeth Gasman, Erin Castro, and Liliana Garces will discuss challenges
related to reaching a broader audience, including those that arise from
engaging in efforts that are not traditionally rewarded in academia.
And now for the elephant in the room: the cost of attending AERA
2014. We’ve wondered, too, why the
“big” conferences in higher education always seem to be in the most expensive
cities! Especially for
graduate student budgets, we understand the challenges associated with
travelling to Philly and paying for a hotel. Here are some ways to ease the pain:
2.
If possible, take a bus or train
3.
Once there, take advantage of FREE FOOD at the many
receptions throughout the conference, such as the Division J Graduate Student
Breakfast and the Division J Business Meeting.
4.
Seek out departmental/institutional funding or travel
grants
Now that you've decided to go
(or at least are considering it), here are a few tips to make the best of
your AERA experience:
●
Consider
your goals. What do you intend to get out of your trip? Do you hope to meet a faculty member? Do you hope to
learn more about your dissertation topic? Do you plan to make at least one
graduate student buddy? Do you want to learn about some potential methods to
answer the research questions in which you’re interested? Do you want to
successfully present your paper? (Do you want to visit the Liberty Bell?)
●
Review
the Online Program. You don’t need to plan out every hour of every day (in
fact, it’s probably a good idea to leave some room for unplanned activities),
prioritize the socials you might want to attend and the presentations you might
want to see. What topic are you interested in learning more about? What
methods? Is there a scholar whose work you’ve been following and would like to
learn more about?
o
Go to
socials! These are the best opportunities to meet potential collaborators,
other faculty members, or even a new friend. Don’t like to attend socials
alone? Find a buddy to join you (perhaps a mentor or mentee). Or, come talk to us (Div J Grad Student
Reps)! We’d be happy to introduce
you to other grad students and would love to meet you!
o
Don’t be
afraid to look outside Division J! Look for presentations, socials and
other activities in other divisions that might be relevant to your research,
personal or professional interests.
This is one of the coolest things about AERA - take advantage of it!
●
Set up
meetings. Have an old colleague you want to catch up with? How about a faculty member from your
master’s program, or someone your advisor recommended talking to (e.g.,
regarding your research topics)?
Email them to see if they have some time to chat. Don’t be discouraged if their schedule
is booked – there’s always next year! If you do set up a time to chat with a
faculty member, especially one with whom you’ve never met before, be sure to
prep! Know what you want to get
out of the meeting and do your homework ahead of time. This might be an
incredible opportunity and you certainly want to make a good first impression!
●
Pack
appropriately. Make sure to pack professional clothes, casual clothes, and
comfortable shoes. As you may have noticed, there are multiple venues for
conference activities, which means you may be doing a lot of walking.
●
Finally,
if you’re presenting, don’t forget to bring your materials, including
printouts, a USB or whatever you might need. Also, be sure to practice beforehand and to prep well for
Q&A. Whether you’re presenting or not, be sure to hit as many of your
Meeting goals as possible and, most importantly: HAVE A BLAST!
As always, if you have any questions or comments regarding
the Annual Meeting or anything else Division J Grad Students are doing, please
don’t hesitate to contact us at
aeradivjgradnet@gmail.com. Finally, consider
getting more involved with AERA Division J!
We are currently looking for a graduate student
representative and committee member- at- large.
Check out our Facebook page for more information on the call
for applications.
See you in Philly!!
Denisa, Blanca and Catherine
