absent but active – and on the move to Alice Springs for APA 2008

As you might have noticed, there has been limited blog activity for the past month – I have been running around the country chasing up some very interesting tourism research I have been involved with (see ontrackblog.desertknowledgecrc.com.au), and members of our team – Andrew Taylor, Suzanne Campbell, Doris Schmallegger – have likewise been out and about collecting data and giving presentations.

Most significantly, those ‘back home’, lead by Kate Golebiowska, have been frantically preparing for the 2008 Australian Population Association Conference in Alice Springs at the end of this month. Kate has asked me to give you an update as follows -

The conference (30tJune – 3 July) is a major national and international event and attracts around 200 delegates from Australia, New Zealand, the Asia-Pacific region as well as Europe and the US. It is the first time that this biennial conference is to be held in the Northern Territory (thanks to Dr Tom Wilson who promoted the idea and took it forward in mid-2006) and our team here at the SSPR has jumped into organising it. Apart from overseeing the technical aspects of the conference, including such mundane yet responsible tasks as for example putting together the conference program, liaising with plenary and session speakers, volunteering delegates to chair sessions, and alike (Kate Golebiowska and Andrew Taylor, whenever back in the office, with great assistance from Professor Tony Barnes and others), we have also ensured that our own research is presented at the conference.

 

The major conference themes include the Indigenous Demography, Policy Responses to Demographic Change and The Demography of Australia’s Northern Neighbours. Our presentations will be based on the Mobility Project as well as will fall under the theme of Indigenous Demography. For example, Dr Dean Carson assumes the MC role (and the rumour has it that he’ll be asking for a whistle, as a certified basketball coach, to herd everyone back to the session rooms after coffee breaks) as well as presents a paper on ‘Surviving the Territory – Group differences in migration intentions among non-Indigenous residents of the Northern Territory’. We will also have a strong presence at the poster session. Our SSPR Communications team deserves a credit for putting together the media strategy to ensure that the conference discussions regarding the future of Australia’s population are heard outside the meeting rooms. Check out the conference website, this year’s eminent Borrie lecture speaker – the Australian Statistician Mr Brian Pink, our excellent plenary speakers and more at: http://www.nt.gov.au/ntt/apa2008/.

As part of the conference, we are also preparing a special issue of the Journal of Population Research publishing peer reviewed ‘pick of the litter’ papers attached to each of the three conference themes. At this stage, we plan to have the issue on the shelves in November, publishing timeframes permitting!