Michael Tilford Conference 2023 | October 5-6, 2023 | Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas

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The 2023 Conference theme is Living into Brown: Staying the Course Toward Inclusion and Belonging

The Kansas Board of Regents’ Michael Tilford Conference on Diversity and Multiculturalism Program Committee seeks submissions for the annual Tilford Conference to be held October 5 and 6 2023 at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas.

Proposals will be accepted until July 15, 2023 @ 5:00pm.

Notices of acceptance/decline will be sent by August 1, 2023.

Conference Goals

The goal of this year’s Tilford Conference is to renew our efforts and support our partners who are working to create educational equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging in Kansas Higher Education since the landmark legal decision in 1954. Conference sessions will assist participants in overcoming the current educational (including pedagogical and climate), economic, and political challenges continually present in efforts to fulfill the promise of Brown v. Board in Kansas institutions of higher education. Participants will discuss the progress achieved since the historic Brown decision as well as remaining inequities and challenges. The conference will feature research and professional development to provide participants with tools to help them advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in education and work environments.

Diverse Proposals

Previous Tilford Conference sessions have focused on topics and presentations including the following. We once again solicit diverse proposals on these or other topics.

  1. Implementing programs to allow faculty, staff, and students to reflect upon and understand their roles and responsibilities as agents of improvement and change in diversity and inclusion.
  2. Strategies to develop a sense of inclusion and belonging for all members of the campus community or workforce.
  3. Improving access to quality higher education in rural and urban areas throughout the state of Kansas.
  4. Strategies to improve recruitment, support, and retention of diverse students, faculty, and staff.
  5. Effective practices for policies, policy proposals, and norms to help to cultivate and support inclusion.

Who Should Propose to Present at Tilford?

Everyone is welcome to propose a paper, poster, roundtable, or workshop at this year’s Tilford Conference. This includes students, faculty, staff, and administrators at colleges and universities, as well as community members and business/industry partners. Submitting a proposal does not register you for conference attendance. Separate registration is required.

Conference Format

In 2023, the Tilford conference will have a two-day in-person format. There will also be a virtual option of selected keynotes and presentations. We invite proposals for five types of sessions:

  • Posters (visual presentation of research or project tacked to a bulletin board)
  • Individual papers (one individually written paper, which conference organizers may group with other individual papers into a panel)
  • Paper panels (consisting of up to four individually written papers whose authors have organized in advance around a theme or topic)
  • Roundtables (a facilitated group conversation), and
  • Workshops (highly interactive sessions)

Panel sessions will last 60 minutes. Roundtables and workshops will be 35 minutes or 60 minutes. Poster sessions will take place on Thursday, October 5, 2023. All other sessions will take place on Friday, October 6, 2023. Unfortunately, we are not able to accept requests for specific session times.

Each conference room includes a screen and projector; additional audio-visual or technology needs are the responsibility of presenters. Finally, we ask session proposers to identify one or more of the following audiences for their session: students, faculty, staff, administrators, and local communities.

Submissions are evaluated by a team of conference organizers for topic, time, relevance to the conference theme, and relevance to diversity, multiculturalism and belonging in higher education.

Submission Instructions

Proposal submissions can be sent through our proposal form.

The deadline to apply is July 15, 2023 @5:00pm. We are unable to accept late submissions.

All proposals must include the following to receive full consideration:

For Posters

  1. Title of poster
  2. Name, title, institutional affiliation, email address, and 25-word biography for the poster author
  3. Poster abstract of up to 100 words
  4. Up to three keywords related to your poster
  5. Poster should display horizontally and fit a 4’(l) x 6’(w) Corkboard
  6. Intended audience(s): faculty, staff, student, senior administrator, community member, business and industry)
  7. Accommodations

For Individual Papers

(an individual 35-minute paper which the conference organizers will group together with other individual papers into paper panels)
  1. Title of your paper
  2. Name, title, institutional affiliation, email address, and 25-word biography for the paper author
  3. Paper abstract of up to 100 words
  4. Up to three keywords related to your paper
  5. Intended audience(s): faculty, staff, student, senior administrator, community member, business and industry)
  6. Accommodations

For Paper Panels

(maximum of four 15-minute papers per 60-minute panel)
  1. Title of panel
  2. Name, title, institutional affiliation, email address, and 25-word biography for the session organizer
  3. Panel abstract of up to 100 words
  4. Up to three keywords related to your session
  5. Intended audience(s): faculty, staff, student, senior administrator, community member, business and industry)
  6. Name, title, institutional affiliation, email address, 25-word biography, paper title, and paper abstract (of up to 100 words) for each session participant
  7. Up to three keywords related to each paper
  8. Accommodations

For Roundtables and Workshops

(35 or 60 minutes)
  1. Title of roundtable or workshop
  2. Time: will your session be 35 or 60 minutes?
  3. Name, title, institutional affiliation, email address, and 25-word biography for the session organizer
  4. Name, title, institutional affiliation, email address, and 25-word biography for each session participant
  5. Intended audience(s): faculty, staff, student, senior administrator, community member, business and industry)
  6. Session abstract of up to 100 words
  7. Up to three keywords related to your session
  8. Accommodations
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