Dear Madam, Sir!
We kindly inform you that the registration is open for the upcoming SiS-CATALYST/EUCU.NET Joint Conference:
“Visionary or Fantasy? Creating open spaces for science communication and social inclusion”
University of Vienna, Austria
Sept. 10th-12th, 2014
http://www.eucu.net/conference_vienna
Social inclusion as strategy in Higher Education
In recent years, universities and other science organisations have made manifold attempts to open up spaces which previously used to be of limited access. New environments are created to engage with the general public and to enable uncommon encounters. Above that a very specific audience became relevant: children and young people.
Children’s Universities and similar science engagement programs have already proven as successful models in many aspects. They have been discussed as potential change models for the education system and are capable to make children familiar with and curious about the potential of learning, research and science. Such programs foster aspirations towards (higher) education.
But do we know who is actually participating in such informal science engagement? Are such programs reflecting the social environment around them and do they include all majority and minority groups with all their diverse expectations and lived histories? And if so, how to best interact in a responsible and ethical way?
When we open up spaces and enable non-traditional audiences to get a foot in the door, how can organisers of science engagement programs like Children’s Universities help to keep those rooms open – so that these first insights over the fence will not be frustrated by reality of life? How can this be incorporated in the strategic thinking of universities and contribute to a transformation of science institutions towards even more societal responsibility? And what is the lasting global dimension of this approach?
The upcoming conference will tackle these fundamental questions about informal science learning environments and social inclusion. It will provide abundant room to discuss these issues in keynote talks and workshop sessions – and it will introduce the “1st Vienna Open Space on Social Inclusion for Science in Society (SiS)”
Keynote speakers will include:
• Michael Hartmann (Technical University of Darmstadt, Dept. of Sociology/Germany)
• Emily Dawson (King’s College London, Dept. of Education & Professional Studies/UK)
• Eva Egron-Polak (General Secretary of the International Association of Universities/France)
• Abhay Kothari (Manthan Education Programme/India)
• Charles Hopkins (York University, UNESCO Chair in Reorienting Teacher Education, Faculty of Education/Canada)
Registration
This is a joint conference of SiS Catalyst under FP7 and the European Children’s Universities Network (EUCU.NET).
The conference is co-organised and hosted by the University of Vienna and the Vienna University Children’s Office.
Conference details and online registration are available on http://www.eucu.net/conference_vienna
Participation in the conference is free, but seating capacity is limited.
Registration deadline: 18:00 CET on Sept. 3rd, 2014 Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis
We kindly invite all interested experts and practitioners to register as soon as possible.
(University managers, public engagement and outreach program coordinators, science communicators, researchers, teachers, NGOs, educational authorities, municipalities – and all other people committed to academic research, science and social inclusion)