I attended the IARR (International Association for Relationship Research) mini-conference for the second time this weekend. Yet again it proved to be my most academically fulfilling conference of the year. (Socially, I’m going to have to give ICA in London that title.)

I know a lot of people are deterred by the relatively high conference attendance fee, but if you’re an interpersonal scholar and the conference topic is relevant to your work, make the sacrifice. They foster a constructive and supportive atmosphere, and scholars present work at various levels of completion, some looking to share work and others looking to get feedback. You would think having fewer people attend your talks (compared to a larger conference) would be a bad thing, but the smaller size makes for a more lively audience. The sessions are cohesive and your audience is both curious and knowledgeable about what you study, so they ask great questions and give great feedback.

The downside to a mini-conference is that you pretty much want to attend every. single. talk. IARR does it right by keeping the talks pretty solidly divided into 20 minute timeslots, so you can move back and forth between sessions. With five grad students and three former colleagues there–not to mention all the scholars’ work I wanted to see–I was stretched a little thin, but I still caught lots of great talks. Better yet, my grads knocked their talks out of the park. My advisee Margaret Rooney and Elizabeth Jones, both doctoral candidates, co-presented a study on religion and social support. Their flow was so smooth you’d swear they hosted talk shows together on the side. Kelly Dillon gave a powerful talk about narrative building during traumatic experiences. Courtney Anderegg, a first year Ph.D., gave a talk on attachment and Facebook use, and already she sounds like an expert in the area of relational maintenance. My advisee Bridget Potocki also presented a poster relating to her research niche. It’s exciting to see grads sharing their work with a larger audience, and I’m proud to have such great students representing OSU.