2013 Annual Meeting Relocation
2013 Annual Meeting Relocation
 
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2013 AERA Annual Meeting Relocates from Atlanta to San Francisco


February 24, 2012, WASHINGTON, DC – The 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association will be held in San Francisco, California, Saturday, April 27 through Wednesday, May 1, 2013.

The meeting will take place in headquarters hotels located in the heart of San Francisco.

Although AERA had planned to hold the 2013 meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, the AERA Council began reconsideration of Atlanta as the venue for the Annual Meeting after passage in May 2011 of HB87, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011, by the Georgia State Legislature. In a related action, in April 2010, the AERA Council had passed a resolution that the Association would not site meetings in Arizona until that state’s similar legislation in question was repealed (Arizona SB1070).

In June 2011, the AERA Council began an intensive process of consideration of HB87, how best to proceed in light of AERA’s mission and policies, and options for the 2013 Annual Meeting. On October 30, 2011, the Executive Board decided to relocate from Atlanta leading in early February 2012 to the final selection of San Francisco as the site.  

As a matter of policy, AERA has an affirmative obligation to operate its own functions and monitor its own behavior in accordance with the research policies it supports, its code of ethics, and a commitment as a democratic organization to the values of equity, equality, and transparency. The relocation from Georgia helps to ensure that AERA members and other Annual Meeting participants have equal access to engage in AERA activities free of constraint, distraction, and intimidation that could occur under this law.

HB87 seriously compromises the viability of AERA’s holding a conference where all its members will be welcome. Since passage of this law in May, some members have indicated that they would not attend a meeting in Atlanta where they or other participants from Mexico, Haiti, and other countries could be racially profiled and harassed.

With this change in location—and the tension in our country about immigrants—AERA is giving priority attention to promoting consideration of the substantial base of science and scholarship that can address the topic of immigration and education and the assets for all of welcoming and inclusive educational environments. This issue is the subject of symposia at AERA’s forthcoming Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada on April 13-17, 2012 and will continue at the 2013 Annual Meeting in San Francisco.