Association for Conflict Resolution: October 6-10, 2015

With the help of S-CAR and George Mason University, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend this year's annual conference of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR). The conference is an opportunity for conflict resolution practitioners, especially North American mediators to exchange innovative ideas in the field and build relationships. This year's conference drew approximately 300 participants around the theme of "Thinking about our Thinking" emphasizing workshops and presentations based on empirical studies or evidence based practices. It was a good chance for me and other academics to introduce research to a community of practitioners. In collaboration with Dr. Susan Allen and a mediator colleague, Dan Bernstein, I developed a three-hour workshop session called "Tools to Prove you Practice what you Preach." The title was in part stimulated by my colleague's interest in building a reflective practice tool that mediators can use to tout their ethics and professionalism to clients, thereby increasing credibility. For Dr. Allen and I, the primary interest was in collecting practitioners' own reflective practice tools: how, when, and with whom these are used. Participants' feedback in the session will be used to expand our research and writing in the area of reflective practice for conflict resolution professionals.

In addition to presenting at this year's conference, I also continued my work with the leadership committee of ACR's international section, which hosts an annual international day at the conference. Every year, the section presents an International Outstanding Leadership award to a peacemaker. Mediator Mohammad Faizal, from Singapore, received this year's award and gave a richly informative talk about adapting western models of mediation to an Asian context.

If you would like more information, please check out these sites: www.acrnet.org - Association for Conflict Resolution main website; reno.acrnet.org - for information about the ACR 2015 conference; http://acrinternational.polisci.txstate.edu/ - The ACR International Section website