萌妹社区 and LHAE Hosts a Successful CASAE Conference
On June 1-3, 2023, 萌妹社区, University of Toronto, hosted the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education Conference (CASAE/AC脡脡A), this years conference was organized by AECD faculty members Jennifer Sumner, Lance McCready, Derya Tarhan, and Katherine Entigar. This year's Keynote Speaker was Dr. Jorge Sousa from the University of Alberta; his talk was entitled Building Adult Educations Through Community and Solidarity: Theory, Practice, and Hope. His talk explored the ways of conceptualizing the relationship between adult education and community development and the challenges of understanding the relationship, as well as discussing how the relationship can be reconceptualized to move beyond the instrumental.
Conference co-chair Katie Entigar commented, 鈥淭he conference was a great success and a huge learning experience. Three years of not meeting in person made this year鈥檚 meeting extra special, and we were very proud to be able to represent 萌妹社区 and UofT by hosting established and emerging scholars from all over the world in person. The theme of 鈥淩eturning to / Creating / Encountering Community鈥 ended up being quite apt; we hadn鈥檛 shared space IRL for a long time, and folks had lots of energy and lots of questions! The single biggest factor in the conference鈥檚 success, in my opinion as well as that of my co-chairs, was the hard work, leadership, and energy of our student volunteers. Each and every one of them showed up in so many ways, welcoming participants from all over the world and creating a meeting that was warm, engaging, and deeply inspiring. I came out of this experience with nothing but gratitude for our bright and brilliant students, as well as for my colleagues and for the community we built together this year at CASAE. Can't wait to see what next year holds!"
