Catching up with old friends at BERA 2023

I attended BERA 2023 at Aston University, Birmingham, as part of a panel with Adam Peter Lang, Dain Jeong, Kamille Beye, and Stella Micheong Cheong on our yearlong journey of creating a podcast about citizenship education. My own contribution connected these experiences to my broader philosophical project of trying to reconceptualise academic citizenship drawing from the experiences of peripheral academics. Specifically, for this presentation, I reflected on how podcasting was a way, for PhD researchers and early career academics, to exercise academic citizenship.

Photo by Yaobin Tong

The organizers said that this was the biggest BERA conference ever, with well over a thousand participants. It definitely felt like a big reunion, because many people I hadn't seen since the early days of my PhD. who now had posts all over the world, flew into the country to attend. It was fantastic seeing old friends and meeting new acquaintances as well.

Academics all of whom have some connection to Hong Kong. L to R: Jason Cong Lin (EdUHK), Janet Orchard (Bristol) Rowena Azada-Palacios (Ateneo de Manila), Sally Wan (CUHK).

All connected to Hong Kong in different ways: Jason Cong Lin (EdUHK), Janet Orchard (Bristol), me, and Sally Wan (CUHK).

It was also great catching up colleagues from the philosophy of education space, both in formal presentations and around the snacking table.

Richard Davies (Central Lancashire) giving a talk at the philosophy of education panel on AI and education.

Linda Tuhiwai Smith giving the keynote.

All in all, a good BERA conference for me. Thank you, BERA, Aston University, and Birmingham!