Conventions

AAHPERD? What’s that? Well, it’s the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, since you ask. AAHPERD’s mission is “To promote and support leadership, research, education, and best practice in the professions that support creative, healthy, and active lifestyles”. AAHPERD envisions a society in which all individuals enjoy an optimal quality of life through appreciation of and participation in an active and creative, health-promoting lifestyle. Topics that came up for discussion at the show included physical education, health education, kinesiology (that’s all that biomechanics and motor development stuff), sport, dance and recreational activities of every type. Oh, and don’t even THINK about sitting on the sidelines and not getting involved. C’mon, on your feet everyone…

ACRL is the Association of College and Research Libraries, and it claims to be “peer-revered”, whatever that turns out to mean. Actually “peers” seem to be a big thing with this group, as in “ACRL 2011 features more than 300 thought-provoking sessions hand-selected by your peers. In today’s fast-paced and changing world, keeping current is more essential than ever”. You needed to be there to “access cutting-edge information, discover new ideas, and engage in conversations with academic and research librarians from around the world”. Not to mention finding new ways of getting people to return the damn books when they’re finished with them. You never imagined, did you, that people running libraries, of all things, would be making so much sheer noise about themselves…? Okay, all together now: Shhhhh!!!!

FETC Conference & Expo is a comprehensive and progressive educational technology conference in Orlando. The event exposed all the latest hardware, software and successful strategies on student technology use. ETC is designed for teachers, principals and deans, district administrators, curriculum designers, media specialists, technology directors and other educators. The profile of exhibit includes Assessment Solutions, Assistive-Learning Technologies, Computer/Presentation Furniture, Computer Hardware/Peripherals, Literacy Solutions, Administrative/Business, Management Software, educational/Instructional software, and Multimedia Software. What do you mean, the dog ate your e-mailed homework?

The American Historical Association (AHA) has quite a history. It was founded in 1884 and incorporated by Congress in 1889 to serve the broad field of history. It “encompasses every historical period and geographical area and serves professional historians in all areas of employment”. There was an association presidential address on “Islam and Power in Colonial India: The Making and Unmaking of a Muslim Princess” at the General Meeting. The address told of Shah Jahan Begam, the third female ruler of the Bhopal state of India, and how she navigated Islamic religious traditions, colonialism, and the complexities of power. Just the kind of thing you presumably have to do to get to be president of AHA, we’re thinking…

The MLA is the Modern Language Association, and members tend to be involved in the study or teaching of language and literature . A lot of what these folks do is about helping people with language or literary skills to use them in job-hunting. Their preoccupations spread to areas like Academic Freedom and Professional Rights and Responsibilities, The Literature of People of Color in the United States and Canada, and the Status of Graduate Students in the Profession — especially women. Membership of the association “is organized into divisions, each representing a major area of scholarly and professional concern, and accommodating the scholarly and professional interests of constituencies within the association concerned with discrete literatures or with literary and linguistic concerns that are not encompassed by one of the divisions”. So that’s clear, then, right…?