The accessibility of international conferences

Friday 29 January 14:00 GMT
academia accessibility

Our panel members for this round table will be Dr Claire Hann, Prof Ana Silva and Prof Stephen K. Boss. They will discuss and share their views on two main questions - How do aspects such as finances, language barrier, geographical location and other factors impact accessibility of international conferences? and What can be done to make conferences more accessible? and interact with attendees via the YouTube chat.

Dr Claire Hann is currently the Equality and Diversity Officer in the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford, and has worked as a researcher in social sciences in both academia and public policy. In 2019 she co-authored a best-practice guide to organising inclusive conferences, which has been widely used in higher education and the wider public and charity sectors in the UK and beyond.

Prof Ana Silva directs the Laboratory of Neuroscience of the School of Sciences at Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay. Her research focuses on understanding the neuroendocrine bases of social behavior in general, and agonistic behavior in particular; as well as on the study of environmental and social pressures modulating the functioning of the biological clock. She is a member of IBRO Latin American Regional Committee and Chair of the Inclusion and Diversity Committee of the International Society for Neuroethology.

Prof Stephen K. Boss is Professor of Environmental Dynamics & Sustainability in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arkansas, USA. He holds a BS-Magna Cum Laude in Geology from Bemidji State University (Bemidji, Minnesota), MS in Geology from Utah State University (Logan, Utah), and PhD in Marine Sciences from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. From 2002-2015, he served as director of the interdisciplinary doctoral program in Environmental Dynamics at the University of Arkansas. He was the architect of sustainability curricula at the University of Arkansas and from 2010-2015 also served as Director of Sustainability Academic Programs. Stephen considers himself an interdisciplinary scientist and has ongoing research interests in natural resource dynamics, global agriculture, global fisheries, and equity and inclusion in the geosciences.