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IR Network Update


Kia ora koutou,

A belated thanks to everybody who was able to attend the IR Network meeting at NZPSA.

I am writing to ask for a volunteer to take over the role of IR Network coordinator from me (it's not onerous!) and to organise a couple of online or hybrid presentations as part of a new presentation series that we all thought would be valuable.

Details:

At the meeting, Network members agreed that it is valuable to have an IR Network to build community, share work in progress, and create a space for professionalisation and collaboration for IR postgraduate students.

There was some enthusiasm, specifically, to develop a regular online/in-person IR Network presentation series. Other Networks do this and it appears to work well as a way to build regular interactions.

The idea was to have several presentations throughout the year that would involve presenting a paper (one that has actually been written), and to have a discussant who has read the paper and prepared comments ahead of time.

According to my notes, Jason Young and Mengdi Zhang at VUW have volunteered to organise one presentation.

Who else (especially at a different institution) might be willing to organise a session? I think it could be online-only, or a hybrid event.

Next year there will not be an NZPSA conference, so I understand there will also be some funding for an IR Network workshop if there is appetite for this.

Finally, I'm going on research and study leave (sabbatical) part way through next year. We need somebody else to step in as coordinator of the IR Network. It is not a difficult role, and mainly consists of sending the occasional email. Thanks in advance for considering this. I think it would be completely fine to have multiple people in the role and to share any jobs around.

Ngā mihi,
Matt

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