What is the AESOP Young Academics Conference?

• The AESOP Young Academics conference is an annual conference attended by scholars of the YA Network and provides an opportunity for presentation, discussion and personal feedback on evolving academic work.
• Internationally renowned scholars deliver keynote speeches and provide mentorship throughout the conference as tracks.
• The conference is held yearly during Spring – preferably during the month of March or early April – for a duration of 3 to 4 days.
• Usually the conference incudes keynote lectures (4+-); parallel sessions (8 to 10 sessions for a total of 40 to 50 presentations); a conference dinner and a best paper prize in collaboration with an international academic peer-reviewed journal (Currently in collaboration with Routledge).
• So far there have been 11 successful conferences in
• Past conferences have been in Bratislava (Slovakia) 2007; St Petersburgh (Russia).. 2008; Vienna (Austria) 2009; Prague (Czech Republic) 2010; Delft (the Netherlands) 2011; Reading (UK) 2012; Vienna (Austria) 2013; Gothenburg (Sweden) 2014; Palermo (Italy) 2015; Ghent (Belgium) 2016; Munich (Germany) 2017. The 2018 conference is held in Groningen, the Netherlands. On the right hand side of the following link you can find out all about those conferences. http://www.aesop-youngacademics.net/en/Conferences

Submitting your bid

1. Candidate institutions should send their proposals to Coordination Team (CT) of Young-Academics (YA) in the form of brief document (maximum 3000 words), before the identified deadline. Proposals are to be sent to the following e-mail address: yamail@aesop-youngacademics.net

Selection criteria

1-      Priority is for schools in cities that did not previously host a YA conference.

2-      A theme should be chosen that is original and covers a wide disciplinary interest and differ from themes previously covered in YA conferences. Please refer to the above mentioned link in order to be aware of the previous themes.

3-       Conference themes capable of attracting participants from outside Europe and non-member schools aredefinitely preferable.

What should the bid include?

1-      Description of the conference theme and preliminary list of tracks.

2-      List of potential keynote speakers.

3-      Tentative program – with number of presentations, theme of the workshop and public event.

4-      Preliminary budget with financial commitment from the hosting institution (see below for further details).

5-      The Local Organizing Committee (LoC): that should be composed primarily of YA members from the hosting school, and a conference coordinator.

6-      List of possible dates – the final date should be agreed upon with AESOP ExCO. A prospective timeline would be:  

• 15 September 2017: CfP online;
• 1 November 2017: submission of abstracts;
• 15 December 2017: notification of acceptance and request of registration;
• 31 January 2017: deadline for full paper and registration submission;
• March/April 2018: conference.

Who attend Young Academics Conference?

1-      Every year 30-40 participants are invited to attend the YA conference to present their work, share their ideas and most importantly receive critical feedback in an open, collegial atmosphere.

2-      YA conferences are free for participants. AESOP YA encourages the LoC to open the event to Young academics, even if they would be non-presenting attendees. Up to 10 non-presenting attendees can be accepted and will pay a small fee (~50€) to cover the costs of meals and conference material.

3-      The conference is open to students (PhD, post-doc), early-career scholars and young practitioners and activists involved with relevant issues to planning (urban, rural, political, or social).

4-      All YA members can participate to a YA conference, whether they are affiliated to AESOP or not.

Budget and Finance

Costs generally include:

• 4 keynote speakers’ travels, accommodation and meals (no honorarium is provided to the speakers);
• Travel, accommodation and meals of the editor of the journal awarding the best paper prize (depending on the details of the selection process, optional);
• Lunches and coffee breaks during the conference;
• Conference materials (book of abstracts, badges, conference bag);
• Venues (often the host institution provides the venue free of costs);
• Conference final dinner (although, in case of limited financial resources, this cost could be covered by participants);
• Costs related to the workshop and city tour;
• Wire transfer costs.

AESOP contributes to the conference with:

• a reimbursement of up to 2,000€ after the conference and only if the final balance is negative, taking into account all expenses and external funding.
• CT travel and accommodation costs (AESOP YA annual budget).

If you have questions about submitting a bid or what it is like to organize the YA conference, please get in touch with the coordination team at aesopya@gmail.com

We look forward to receive your valuable proposals!

Best wishes, 

On Behalf of Young Academics Network of AESOP