Greetings NASSS graduate student members!
Greetings NASSS graduate student members! We hope that you have all had fun and productive summers, and that your preparations for returning to school (or whatever is on your agenda for September) are going well. For those of you have not met us yet, we are your NASSS graduate student representatives; Jennifer Sterling (University of Maryland) and Janelle Joseph (University of Toronto). As graduate student representatives, it is our responsibility to keep you informed of all that is happening with NASSS (especially those issues that concern graduate students), and to represent graduate student concerns to the executive board (as voting members). Please feel free to contact us any time if you have questions or suggestions; We can be reached at our e-mail address: grads[at]nasss.org.
As the new school year starts, it is an ideal time to begin (if you haven't already) planning for this year's NASSS conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. If you have submitted an abstract and been accepted, you will have heard from the session organizer by now. And in the next little while, you will be able to access the preliminary conference program online. If you have not yet heard from anybody about your abstract submission, please contact this year's Program Chair C. Richard King (crking [at] wsu.edu). If you are presenting a paper, you must be registered as a NASSS member, and to take advantage of the early conference registration discount ($5), you need to register by 15 September. Please consider the journal option (a good way to increase your sociology of sport library) and be sure that you are getting listserv messages. All registration information is available through the NASSS website (http://nasss.org/2007/registration.html).
Below, we have included information about:
Publish or perish is a common, and often accurate rhetoric among most university institutions. Grants, scholarships, productivity, job applications, and tenure are often evaluated upon one's ability to publish. For those just entering the already-challenging world of academia, the "p" word can be both frightening and intimidating. Designed for, but not restricted to, graduate students this round table will be driven by attendee participation and questions directed to a range of panelists that have agreed to speak to their varied publication experiences. What is the publication process and how does one begin? How much ‘assistance’ should one’s supervisor provide? What kinds of journals are available for those who study sociology and cultural studies of health, physical activity, recreation, and sport? Which non-refereed sources should also be considered? What are some of the dos and don'ts of written submissions? If you have any concerns or curiosities about the publication process, this seminar will provide a non-threatening and informative environment where graduate students can learn to negotiate the ever-important publication terrain. As always, the graduate student workshop is informal and interactive, and all are encouraged to attend and participate.
Workshop Organizers and Presiders: Jennifer Sterling, University of Maryland, Janelle Joseph, University of Toronto, NASSS Graduate Student Reps
In order to help the panelists prepare, we are asking you, as NASSS graduate student members, to submit questions in advance of the Pittsburgh conference. Please contact us (your graduate student representatives) at grads[at]nasss.org with any questions related to this year's workshop topic that you would like us to pass along to the panelists. In order to give the panelists adequate time to prepare, please send your questions by 1 October.
Check to see if anyone from your school or area is heading to the conference. You can do this by contacting people directly or using the message board linked off both the NASSS home page and 2007 Conference page. You may be able to get a group deal on flights, or coordinate flights so that you arrive at the airport with a group of conference participants with whom you can share taxis to the conference hotel.
The message board can also be used to connect people who are driving to the conference (if you are driving and would like to fill up your car, or if you are interested in driving with somebody, you can post your information and request on the message board). More information on transportation options can be found through the conference home page.
The annual conference officially ends late Saturday afternoon. Many people (students and faculty) elect to stay until Sunday and take advantage of one last night of networking and socializing, celebrating the end of a successful conference.
It is common for grad students to share accommodations with each other to minimize conference costs (hotel rooms comfortably fit 4 students). While staying at a hotel or location other than the conference hotel may be cheaper (and is perfectly okay), staying with a group of grads at the conference hotel will (hopefully) improve/contribute to your conference experience. The benefits of staying at the conference hotel are that you are "close to the action" you can sleep longer, the grad breakfast is just downstairs, and you can dash up to your room during the day if you need to. The conference hotel will be the hub of both academic and social activities, and this is definitely something to consider before choosing where you would like to stay.
So, how do you find a roommate/roommates?
NASSS has created a message board for the explicit purpose of connecting roommates for the conference. On the message board, you will find a thread devoted specifically to grad student accommodations. This is where you should submit your posting if you are looking for shared accommodations, or if you have already booked a room and are looking for people to share the space and the cost. When using the message board to organise yourselves into groups, you may want to note if you are a late-night or early morning person so you end up with roommates who intend to keep similar schedules. Sharing your room is a great way to get to know a few other grad students and expand your NASSS social network.
You can also book a room at the conference hotel yourself; all conference hotel information is available on the homepage conference website (be sure to tell the reservation agent that you are booking with the NASSS conference).
You should try to finalize your accommodations before the end of September. The earlier you organise accommodations, the more likely you are to get a room at the conference hotel. If you are having trouble finding a roommate (before the end of September), email the grad reps and we will certainly try to help you make a connection with other students (but try on the message board FIRST).
IF you want to stay somewhere cheaper, try these hotels/motels
When making your accommodation and transportation arrangements, please keep in mind that there is an opening reception on Wednesday evening (31 Ocotber), and that many conference participants choose to stay through Saturday night (2 November) in order to have one last night of socializing before the conference ends.
All graduate students should try to book their flights as soon as possible in order to take advantage of seat sales, and to make sure you have the most flexibility in choosing your times (and, hopefully, as few stopovers as possible).
You should also check with your department, graduate school, graduate student association, etc. for information about procuring conference travel funding.
This year's Take a Student to Lunch event will take place on Friday, 2 November. Take a student to lunch is an annual event and involves faculty members taking graduate students out for lunch (and picking up the tab). We will send an e-mail to NASSS faculty members prior to the conference asking them to volunteer for this year's lunch, and we would like you to start thinking about who you would like to have lunch with. We will do our best to match you with somebody who shares your (general) interests, but even when this is not possible, you have the opportunity to meet somebody new, and to have a free lunch! Please e-mail us with your faculty requests as the conference nears in October.
Finally, don’t underestimate the importance of networking with other graduate students – these will be your future colleagues! An important event for grad networking is the graduate student breakfast, which is held on Friday morning. This is your chance to have a say in your organisation, and if you are interested in contributing ideas/suggestions/ comments of particular interest to NASSS grad student members (or if you would like to be the new graduate student representative), it is in your best interest to attend. As an added incentive, NASSS pays for a hot breakfast! Start thinking now about what you think NASSS should be doing, and the role that grad students have to play. The new grad rep (who brings a graduate student perspective to the executive board) is nominated and elected at the meeting. If you are interested in being the new grad rep, contact your grad reps for a draft copy of the job description (this information will soon be available on the website).
The end of October is only a few weeks away. Why not work on your paper/presentation today? Also remember, in order to present a paper at the annual conference, you must be a NASSS member. Becoming a member prior to the conference means less hassle when you get there, and speeds up the registration process. If you are not a member yet, there is still time to submit your dues before the conference. The early bird deadline is September 15. Check that if you have submitted dues, you have received a confirmation email receipt from the treasurer. You can now pay your membership (and conference) dues on-line. NASSS offers an excellent student membership rate, and graduate students can choose to subscribe to the Sociology of Sport Journal (with an excellent student discount) a great opportunity to build you personal library.
We hope that your fall semester starts well, and we look forward to seeing you all in Pittsburgh in November! Please contact us with your questions for the graduate student workshop and with any other questions or comments you might have about this year's conference or about NASSS more generally.
Best of Luck and see you at NASSS2007!
Jennifer Sterling (2005-2007)
Janelle Joseph (2006-2008)
grads[at]nasss.org
Our aim here is to include information that is useful for all graduate students attending NASSS annual meetings, but particularly for those graduate students attending their first NASSS conference. These are our ideas and ‘tips’ (generated with the assistance of former graduate student representatives), and we encourage you to contribute your own ideas, either through the bulletin board on this site, or by e-mailing us. We would love to learn from your conference experiences!
Graduate Student Minority Scholarship Award
In recognition of the recommendation made by the Racial Diversity Committee in the fall of 2003, the NASSS Conference Programme Committee has implemented a scholarship for a graduate student who is a member of a racial or ethnic “minority” group. The purpose of the scholarship is to create a mechanism to identify racial and/or ethnic “minority” graduate students who are doing research in the area of sport sociology and to provide a means of supporting their work and association with NASSS. The award is for $500 to be applied toward expenses associated with attendance at the NASSS 2007 Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Applicants must be members of NASSS. The application process for the scholarship is as follows:
Application Deadline: 8 August 2007 via e-mail.
Submit materials to:
Othello Harris
Miami University
Chair, NASSS NASSS Diversity and Conference Climate Committee
harriso[at]muohio.edu
The winner of the award will be recognized at the Annual Meeting of NASSS in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, October 31-November 3, 2007.
[Top]Barbara Brown Student Paper Award
The DEADLINE for submissions is August 1, 2007.
