conferences

• Another call for papers!-

  SAVE THE DATE and CALL FOR PAPERS ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSITY IN COLLABORATION WITH MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY PRESENTS:
  The 5th Biennial Adoption Conference: Identity and the Adopted Teen: Surviving the Crucible of Adolescence
  Date: October 24-25, 2008
  Location: St. John’s University Manhattan Campus
  For the latest information about the conference, contact the Adoption Initiative via e-mail (initiatives@stjohns.edu) or by telephone at 718-990-5460.

  THE ADOPTION INITIATIVE
  An interdisciplinary and inter-institutional structure
  * to address fundamental issues affecting the adoption community;
  * to provide information and training opportunities for professionals about adoption issues;
  * to encourage more research effort by the academic community in answering fundamental questions affecting members of the adoption triad; and finally,
  * to provide a forum where members of the adoption triad can find valuable resources.

• AKA Call for Papers-

  Each year the AKA Conference Committee and AKA Board of Directors strive to bring you the most knowledgeable and innovative speakers in the adoption field. If you would like to present at our 2008 conference, please submit the application to AKA by March 21, 2008.

  Adoption Knowledge Affiliates is a place where adopted people, birth parents, adoptive parents and others are coming together to find a depth of understanding unimaginable before.

  Whether you're seeking to form a family through adoption, seeking information about family members you have been disconnected from or just seeking knowledge about the lifelong issues in adoption, AKA provides helpful information through educational resources, on-going programs, and emotional support.

  At our events you will find people of great courage, choosing to sift through past and present perceptions about adoption in order to give voice to the losses, joys and hopes found in adoption's reality. AKA is an organization where there is often a broadening of perspective, a change of heart, tears shed and relief found. AKA is a place where people are reaching out and growing stronger.

• Portlanders?-

  I need to start thinking about what I'm going to say at the end of March for the AAC conference. This is the description for the workshop and yes I'm talking about this very site!

  Dawn will address the challenges of building a virtual community to meet a real-world need for post-adoption support. She will talk about what inspired the site and the ongoing process of bringing it together, specifically the difficulties of creating community in the often tumultuous online world of adoption.

  Are any of you in Portland who might want to come in and be part of a roundtable about it? I'm thinking that I'll talk about the challenges in building it and then solicit thoughts from people who are members and then open it up to the floor. It may be that no one will come to my session in which case we can just chat and brainstorm amongst ourselves. 

  The conference is happening March 26 to 29th at the Downtown Waterfront Marriott in Portland, OR and my session is from 3:30 to 4:45 on March 29 (Saturday). If you're interested in being on a roundtable, please private message me or use the contact form. Or comment here and I'll contact you.