In mid-August, Professor Alison Sheridan and Dr Sujana Adapa attended the US Academy of Managment conference in Chicago. 

Alison and Sujana at the soft launch of their edited book, “Inclusive Leadership – Negotiated Gendered Space” for Twitter by Palgrave Macmillam Publishers, at the Academy of Management Conference

Networking at the Academy of Management Conference. (Left to right): Professor Linley Lord, Pro Vice-Chancellor Curtin University Singapore; Professor Diana Bilimoria, Case Western Reserve University USA; Professor Susan Vinnicombe, Cranfield University UK; Dr Sujana Adapa, Senior Lecturer University of New England Australia.

As Program Chair for the Gender and Diversity in Organizations (GDO) division of the US Academy of Management, this year’s annual conference was a busy one for Professor Alison Sheridan.  Over the previous 10 months, she managed the review, selection  and programming  process for the 300 plus papers and symposia submitted for the GDO division from academics across the globe.  With more than 320 volunteer reviewers required to complete the reviews on a short time frame in February/March, the logistics were interesting.   The Academy of Management conference is the leading international conference for management and the quality of the contributions is always high.  With this year’s submissions to the GDO division being a near record,  Professor Sheridan found the selection process tough.   The final program for the GDO Division included 121 papers in 28 sessions, 35 symposia and nine professional development workshops, shaped around the conference theme Improving Lives: Improving Health and Well-being in Society – How Can Organizations Help?.  

For Professor Sheridan , the highlight of this year’s conference was the GDO plenary session she facilitated –  ‘GDO in the #MeToo and #BLM era: An International Perspective’.  The panel for the plenary comprised  distinguished  scholars engaged with these critical issues.  The acute and insightful interactions between panel members Professors Alison Pullen (Macquarie University) , Peggy Stockdale (Indian University-Purdue University), Enrica Ruggs (University of North Carolina at Charlotte),  Laura Morgan Roberts  (Georgetown University ) and Ashleigh Shelby Rosette (Duke University) provided a thought provoking

session on the impact of these social media campaigns.  With the focus on the lessons we have learned and can leverage as educators, a wider conversation was opened up, clearly resonating with the 100 plus participants at the session. Professor Sheridan also chaired four of the paper sessions, all of which contributed rich insights into her research around gender and diversity.

Sujana presented her work on ‘Gender, Ethnicity and Religion: Affirmation Action Legislation in Malaysia’ in the Professional Development Workshop (PDW) titled Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Under Researched Countries. This PDW is jointly organised by the GDO and Careers divisions of the US Academy of Management. Sujana also chaired a paper session in the GDO division. All of the workshops and paper sessions that Sujana attended provided new insights into her research areas of gender and diversity. Following upon the conference presentation, Sujana has been invited to contribute a book chapter for publication in mid 2019 by Emerald Publishers; a wonderful achievement and opportunity.