Past Meetings
2023 SFHE Conference
Drawing upon its mission statement, the Society for the Future of Higher Education announces a three-year initiative for faculty and staff to develop and implement projects to make their institutions more inclusive, just, and equitable. This year, SFHE’s focus is on justice, which informs the theme of the 2023 Conference: W. E. B. Du Bois, Higher Education, and Justice.
Society for the Future of Higher Education
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN
July, 19 – 23, 2023
Featured Speakers
Race, Critical Pedagogy, and the Struggle for Justice at Higher Education Institutions
Wednesday, July 19
7:00 PM
Dr. Sekou Franklin
Dr. Franklin is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). He is the author of After the Rebellion: Black Youth, Social Movement Activism, and the Post-Civil Rights Generation (NYU Press, 2014) and edited the State of Blacks in Middle Tennessee. He also has a forthcoming book (co-authored with Ray Block) called Losing Power: African Americans and Racial Polarization in Tennessee Politics (University of Georgia Press, 2020).
He served as President of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists from 2019-2021. He resides in North Nashville with his wife and two daughters.
Justice, Humility, and the Power of our Stories
Thursday, July 20
7:00 PM
Dr. Michelle Stevens
Dr. Stevens, professor of Educational Leadership, serves as the director of the Center for Fairness, Justice, and Equity (FJE) in the College of Education at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). Prior to her current appointment, Dr. Stevens served as professor in the Professional Counseling Program for 14 years and provided supervision for school counseling and clinical mental health counseling students throughout their programs. Scholarly areas of interest include the study of the implications of unjust and inequitable practices connected to historical trauma on under resourced communities as well as mentoring throughout the pipeline. Prior to joining the clinical mental health faculty at MTSU, Dr. Stevens instructed at Youngstown State University, Cleveland State University, Kent State University and was a K-12 school-based therapist in Akron Ohio. Dr. Stevens is a licensed professional counselor and has over 20 years of clinical experience working with clients of all ages who have experienced underlying issues related to trauma.
2022 SFHE Conference
Pursuing Inclusivity: The University and Beyond
Society for the Future of Higher Education
2022 Conference, July 20-24
University of Denver
Drawing upon its new mission statement, The Society for the Future of Higher Education announces a three-year initiative for faculty and staff at a wide variety of institutions to develop and implement projects to make their institutions more inclusive, just, and equitable. Our 2022 conference will focus on inclusivity.
Featured Speakers
Wednesday, July 20
7:00PM
Decolonizing the Westernized University:Black Feminist Interventions
In this presentation I analyze my experiences of centering women and Black and Brown communities over a 25-year career as a professor teaching decolonial research methodologies from a student-centered radical Black feminist orientation. I seek to examine ways to bridge the gap created by the disciplinary exclusions of the voices and contributions of the communities our students come from, and namely the exclusion of African and Black women scholars.
Dr. Assata Zerai serves as the Vice President for Equity and Inclusion and Professor of Sociology at the University of New Mexico. A decolonial feminist scholar, Zerai has published five books and numerous articles, including African Women, ICT and Neoliberal Politics: The Challenge of Gendered Digital Divides to People-Centered Governance (Routledge 2019).
Thursday, July 21
7:00PM
Transformative Change and Social Justice in Higher Education
Higher Education institutions have struggled to move the needle towards transformative change that “sticks” and improves the life chances and educational possibilities of minoritized students. How institutions orient themselves towards change is at the root of this struggle.
Dr. D-L Stewart is Professor and Chair of the Higher Education Department in the Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver. Dr. Stewart has served as an ACPA Senior Scholar and is now the 2022 Past President for the Association for the Study of Higher Education.
2021 SVHE Conference
Can We Talk? The University’s Role in Transforming Public Discourse
In a time when misinformation, disinformation, and “fake news” run rampant, how can institutions of higher education respond to the need for accurate information and civil discourse? What ethical obligations do universities and their faculties have to the common good related to accurate and honest information? What is the University’s role in transforming public discourse? The Society for Values in Higher Education (becoming the Society for the Future of Higher Education in late July) tackles these questions at its annual meeting.
July 13-16, 2021
Conference Agenda
(subject to change)
Seminar (aka Morning Group) Information
The conference is open to the public
Registration is $50.oo
(contact the office for financial assistance)
Chats with Change Agents
These 90 minute conversations will allow an opportunity for a moderated conversation with innovators and thinkers about higher education.
Erica Stone
Tuesday, July 13, 1:00 – 2:30 ET
Given that the public funds so much of university research, shouldn’t that research be more accessible to the public? That is a question at the heart of Dr.Erica Stone’s advocacy within higher education and in the public arena. She advocates for “inclusive, democratic research” that breaks down barriers between higher education and the general public. Breaking down such barriers may even be critical to fulfilling higher education’s role in public discourse. Join us to discuss these issues with Dr. Stone. Learn more about Erica.
Cailin O’Connor and James Weatherall
Wednesday, July 14, 1:00 – 2:30PM ET
Join us for a conversation with Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall as we discuss their book,The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread. Their work examines the many factors that contribute to consensus and dissensus—particularly in regard to science and public policy. It also has great implications for thinking about the role of the university in an era marked by rampant misinformation and disinformation. Learn more about Cailin and James.
2021 SVHE Winter Virtual Conference
SVHE Winter Virtual Conference
The University’s Role in Public Discourse
February 9th – 12th, 2021
Conference Agenda
All times are Eastern
February 9th
1:00PM – Chat with Change Agents – John Sexton
American lawyer and academic,John Sexton will join SVHE Executive Director, Eric Bain-Selbo and President Melanie Howard for a conversation about his latest work,the NYT Best Seller, Standing for Reason:The University in a Dogmatic Age. Sexton is President Emeritus of NYU and Dean Emeritus of the NYU School of Law.
February 10th
11:00AM – Celebrating the Search Discussion Group
Everyone is invited to deal with the role of imagination
in religion: is it fantasy or is it visionary?
You are invited to present your own papers, but special
invitation to deal with this theme. All are welcome.
12:00PM-1:00PM Modes of Teaching Workshop
The Modes of Teaching group will feature an interactive, collaborative, and encouraging space for instructors to learn with one another and share ideas to enhance teaching practices. The two meetings of the group during the Winter Mini Conference will focus on prioritizing and practicing instructor self-care in the midst of teaching during a pandemic. All are welcome.
8:00PM – Social
Join us on Zoom to catch up with old friends and meet new ones!
February 11th
12:00PM-1:00PM Modes of Teaching Workshop
The Modes of Teaching group will feature an interactive, collaborative, and encouraging space for instructors to learn with one another and share ideas to enhance teaching practices. The two meetings of the group during the Winter Mini Conference will focus on prioritizing and practicing instructor self-care in the midst of teaching during a pandemic. All are welcome.
3:00PM – Learn About SVHE
Curious about what SVHE is all about? Been around SVHE for awhile and wondering how to describe it to others? This session is an opportunity to learn more about the history, mission, and projects of the Society for Values in Higher Education.
4:00PM SVHE Town Hall
The SVHE President and Executive Director will update SVHE members on the organization’s yearly plans and projects.
February 12th
*2:30PM – Chats with Change Agents-Note time change*
Tracy Fessenden and John Carlson
Fessenden and Carlson will discuss their work with the Recovering Truth Project, part of The Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at Arizona State University. The Chat, led by BOD member, Terry Shoemaker, will focus on truth and misinformation in the world today.
5:00PM – Social
Join us on Zoom to catch up with old friends and meet new ones!
2020 Fellows Meeting
July 20 – 24
Meeting Agenda
All times on the agenda are Central time, due to a Whova glitch.
All events are free and open to the public, But Registration is required.
If you are planning to participate from a computer, use the link below,
If you are planning to participate using a mobile device, use this link, from your mobile device
Loading… Powered By WhovaVirtual conference software
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were calls for radical transformation in higher education suggesting a diversity of futures available to higher education, wherein both the structure and purpose of the university education are reimagined. These radical re-imaginings have increased in frequency and intensity because of COVID-19.
The Society for Values in Higher Education is planning a week of virtual events from July 20-24, 2020 to consider and critique the many futures available to post-secondary education after the pandemic.
In addition to online versions of some of the regular features of our annual meeting, this year we are excited to include these innovative virtual sessions:
- Chats with change agents: These 90 minute conversations will allow an opportunity for a moderated conversation with innovators and thinkers about higher education.
- Wicked Provocations Teams: These groups will tackle varied wicked problems facing higher education, and will present their work at the Gallery of Wicked Provocations virtual event on July 23, 2020. RFP
- The TPHE Collective: A group of scholars, sponsored by SVHE and Indiana University, has been working to develop a new theory of public higher education. The group will share the results of their work and engage participants in conversation.
Higher education faces an uncertain future,
students and their learning matter more now than ever.
Come join us from July 20-24 as we explore how to maximize the impact of post-secondary learning.
2019 Summer Conference
95th Annual Conference July 10 – 14th, 2019
Loyola University in Chicago, IL
“The Conflict of the Faculties: Scarcity and Competition in Higher Education.”
Featured Speaker:
Thursday, July 11, 2019 7:00pm
Regis Hall
For more than fifteen years, anthropologist Susan D. Blum has been trying to understand the milieu in which she lives her professional, academic life. In My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture she tried to make sense of what was an apparent panic of plagiarism, which led to a greater understanding of students’ goals for attending college. In “I Love Learning; I Hate School”: An Anthropology of College she went deeper, to try to understand both how humans learn in general and how learning in school differs from this. Since then she has been continuing her own radical pedagogical experiments to try to bring learning and schooling into better alignment. It is a work in progress, not an airtight system. Her talk is honest, and committed to the value of student learning even in a system that emphasizes credentials, achievement, and, far too often, corner-cutting.Schedule At A GlanceMorning Group SeminarsSpecial Interest GroupsMeeting Fee Summary
2018 Summer Conference
July 18 – 22, 2018 at University of Washington-Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Meeting Information (archived from 2018):
| Schedule At A Glance | Special Interest Groups | Morning Group Seminars | Meeting Fee Summary | Working Group Schedule | Pottery Lottery | Call For Papers
Featured Speakers:
Wednesday, July 18, 2018 7:00pm
Ethnic Cultural Center Theatre – UW Seattle
Dr. Sophia Pandya is a Professor of Religious Studies at California State University Long Beach with a focus on women, religion and globalization. She is the author of the book Muslim Women and Islamic Resurgence: Religion, Education and Identity Politics in Bahrain, and was the co-editor of The Gulen Hizmet Movement and Its Transnational Activities: Case Studies of Altruistic Activism in Contemporary Islam. For complete information about the presentation click HEREThursday, July 19, 2018 7:00pm
Ethnic Cultural Center Theatre – UW Seattle
Philip S. Gorski is a Professor of Sociology and the Co-Director of Yale’s Center for Comparative Research. His empirical work focuses on topics such as state-formation, nationalism, revolution, economic development and secularization with particular attention to the interaction of religion and politics. He is the author of American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present and The Disciplinary Revolution: Calvinism and the Growth of State Power in Early Modern Europe. For complete information about the presentation click HERE
2017 Summer Conference
SVHE 93rd Annual Meeting | July 12 – 16, 2017 at Simmons College, Boston, MA
Topic: Sacrifice, Consumption, and the Public Good
Meeting Information (archived from 2017):
Welcome | Program Guide |Map | Fees and Hotel Information | Morning Seminar descriptions | Special Interest Group Descriptions | Schedule at a Glance | Working Groups Schedule | Call for Papers
Featured Speakers:
Daniel McCarthyDaniel McCarthy has worked as editor of ISI books and served as the internet communications coordinator of the Ron Paul 2008 presidential campaign. He is currently the editor of the American Conservative, a position he’s held since 2008.
Lee Hull MosesLee Hull Moses is a writer and speaker who graduated from both Albion University and the University of Chicago’s Divinity School. Her work has been published in a number of print and online platforms including Christian Century, Fidelia’s Sisters, Practicing Families, and the Greensboro News and Record. Her most recent publication More Than Enough: Living Abundantly in a Culture of Excess explores the effects that the consumer mindset has on not only the planet, but the people around us. Lee currently serves as pastor at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in her home Greensboro, North Carolina. She will be the plenary speaker on Thursday, July 13 at Simmons College in Boston. Read more about her at leehullmoses.com
2016 Summer Conference
SVHE 92nd Annual Meeting | July 13 – 17, 2016 | Oberlin College, Oberlin,OH
Topic: The Politics of Dissent: Satire, Sarcasm, and Spite in Civil Society
Archived from 2016: | Program Guide | Fees | Morning Seminar descriptions | Interest Group Descriptions | Schedule at a Glance |
Featured Speakers:
Sophia McClennenSophia McClennen and The Future of our Democracy: Satire, Millennials, and Social Democracy on Wednesday, July 13 Sophia A. McClennen is Professor of International Affairs and Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University and is the author of Is Satire Saving Our Nation? co-written with Remy Maisel (Palgrave 2014), Colbert’s America:Satire and Democracy(Palgrave 2013).
Rebecca SchumanRebecca Schuman: Decoding Civility, Achieving Discourse on Thursday, July 14
Rebecca Schuman a journalist and essayist whose work on education, Germany, literature and popular culture regularly appears in Slate and the Chronicle of Higher Education. She is the author of the forthcoming comic memoir Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Awkward Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations Only They Have Words For (Flatiron Books/Macmillan, Feb. 2017), as well as the academic book Kafka and Wittgenstein (Northwestern University Press, 2015). She received her PhD in German from the University of California-Irvine in 2010 and spent four years on the fringes of academia before becoming a full-time writer. She lives in St. Louis.
2015 Summer Conference
SVHE 91st Annual Meeting | July 22 – 26, 2015 | Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101
Topic: Working Together? Collaboration and the Future of Higher Education
Wednesday, July 22, 2015 Plenary Speaker: Timothy Eatman, Associate Professor of Higher Education at Syracuse and Faculty Co – Director of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life
Reacting to the Past returns! Kentucky 1861: Loyalty, State and Nation led by David Stewart, Amy Berger and game author Nick Proctor.
2014 Summer Conference
SVHE 90th Annual Meeting | July 16th – 20th, 2014 at University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
Topic: Minding the Gap – Educating for Economic Justice
Meeting Information: FM News! | Fees | Schedule at a Glance | Morning Seminar descriptions | Interest Group Descriptions | Poverty, Politics and Policy Panel | Program Book
2013 Summer Meeting
SVHE 89th Annual Meeting | July 24th – 28th, 2013 at University of Denver, Denver, Colorado
Topic: Debt: Obligations that Shape our Lives
For more detailed information on this year’s meeting click on the links: Program Guide | Meeting Guide | Morning Groups
2012 Summer Conference
2012 Meeting SVHE 88th Annual Meeting | August 3-7 at Drew University, Madison, NJ
Topic: Imagination & Compassion in Higher Education
For more detailed information on this year’s meeting click on the links: Schedule | Meeting Guide | Morning Groups | Call For Papers | Working Group Schedules and Summaries | Reacting to the Past
2011 Summer Conference
Annual Meeting of the Society for Values in Higher Education at Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, Illinois, July 27-31, 2011
Topic: IMMIGRATION AND IDENTITIES: ACADEMIC CULTURES IN TRANSITION
Other info:Meeting Schedule) | Meeting Guide | Call For Papers | Mary Jo Small Fellowships | Plenary Speaker – Isabel Wilkerson | Morning Groups | Reacting to the Past | Auction | The Rock’s space adventure!
2010 Summer Conference
Annual Meeting of the Society for Values in Higher Education at Portland State University on July 21-25, 2010
Topic: Making Choices – Sustainability in a World of Conflicting Values
More info: Plenary Sessions | Morning Groups | Call for Papers | Reacting to the Past | Mary Jo Small Fellowship