Dear MSR Community members,
Dan Harris, Yochanan Altman and I would like to bring you up to date on the International Association of Management, Spirituality and Religion (IAMSR) conference in 2017. IAMSR was born out the MSR Interest group as a place to house the Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion (JMSR). This journal is the primary publishing outlet for people doing research in the MSR domain. IAMSR has hosted four international conferences so far: Vienna, Mumbai, Lourdes, and Barcelona. The fifth conference was to be held in Cape Town, South Africa in July 2017, but due to unforeseen circumstances, that venue is not available. Several months ago, Dan Harris, the Director of the Tyson Center for Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace at the Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas, graciously and enthusiastically agreed to host the 2017 IAMS conference in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The attached call for proposals provides more details, but I would like to add that the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business is one of the top research universities at a public institution, and that the campus is beautiful with state-of-the-art technology.
Fayetteville was recently named as #3 in the best cities to live in in the U.S., and the University of Arkansas has a lot to do with what makes this town so livable.
While Fayetteville may not have the glamour and cachet of Vienna or Barcelona, we are recognized as an important center of work on faith and spirituality in the workplace, and we are nestled in the beautiful Ozark mountains. Arkansas is called The Natural State for a reason – there is a great appreciation of nature and a high commitment to sustainability.
We are in the early stages of planning the conference and are already hearing from people as far away as Dubai and Brazil who plan on attending. We hope to create an event that nurtures creative dialogue among academics, practitioners, students, and faith leaders about challenges and opportunities in our field, with a particular focus on Leadership, Spirituality and Education.
This conference is a wonderful opportunity for MSR members to continue to build community and to share our research, teaching and professional practices with each other.
We sincerely hope you will join us May 18-20, 2017.
Feel free to contact any of us with your questions. Contact information is also in the attached Call for Proposals.
Warm Regards,
Judi Neal, Ph.D.
Co-founder and Past Chair, MSR
Co-founder and Board Member, JMSR and IAMSR