Virtual Component of 2023 Annual Meeting Draws More than 2,600 Attendees
Virtual Component of 2023 Annual Meeting Draws More than 2,600 Attendees
 
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May 2023

The virtual component of the 2023 AERA Annual Meeting, held May 4–5, drew more than 2,600 attendees from around the world. Over two days, participants had more than 300 sessions to choose from, including major AERA-wide sessions as well as numerous invited speaker, paper, and roundtable sessions and symposia held by AERA divisions, SIGs, and committees.

Total registration across both components of the Annual Meeting—place-based in Chicago and virtual—was 15,458.

“This year’s Annual Meeting was the first to be planned from the outset as a dual-component conference,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “We could not have been more pleased with how it turned out, especially with the dynamic opportunities provided for attendees to engage in stimulating intellectual exchange and foster professional relationships.”

Each day of the virtual meeting featured high-profile Presidential sessions and sessions in the AERA Honorary President Edmund W. Gordon Series, showcasing leading scholars in the field. On May 5, preeminent scholar Arnetha Ball delivered the AERA Distinguished Lecture, “Conducting Consequential Research in Challenging Times: Generative Change for Educational Equity.” (See related stories in this month’s issue of AERA Highlights.)

During the Closing Plenary, 2023–24 AERA President Tyrone Howard presented his vision for the 2024 Annual Meeting theme, titled “Dismantling Racial Injustice and Constructing Educational Possibilities: A Call to Action,”

“As we theorize about issues of race and dismantling racism, and imagining possibilities, I ask that we think about race in its intersections with issues tied to gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, social class, identity, and religion,” said Howard. “This work will be about us thinking historically, connecting past to the present, and imagining future possibilities of how race and racism can be undone in ways that it creates different kinds of opportunities.” 

Howard’s presentation was followed by robust Q&A with virtual attendees. 

New this year, papers accepted for poster presentation were available throughout the entire virtual meeting in the AERA i-Presentation Gallery (rather than at a specific time span), where chat appointments with authors were possible. Even after the meeting, all meeting registrants are able to contact virtual poster authors and set up times to audio or video chat through the Gallery to discuss their papers or their mutual interests in a research arena. Virtual attendees can also reach out through the Gallery to authors of papers presented in poster sessions in Chicago.

All virtual sessions, as well as videos from 46 sessions livestreamed from Chicago, are available for on-demand viewing for all meeting registrants in the Annual Meeting online platform and mobile app