The IAMCR Executive Board extend a very warm welcome to our four newly appointed ambassadors: Gemma Lopez, based in Santa Clara California, Leah Komen at Daystar University Kenya, Rodrigo Cetina Presuel at the Harvard Law School, and Anna Gladkova at Lomonosov Moscow State University. They join our original four ambassadors: Luis Santos (Portugal), Uma Shankar Pandey (India), Jude Genilo (Bangladesh) and Brian Pindayi (Southern Africa).
The Association’s sections and working groups bring members together on the basis of their research interests providing vibrant and much appreciated spaces for intellectual exchange, networking and sociality both inside and outside the annual conferences. The ambassador scheme is designed as an essential supplement organised on the basis of geographical location. It has three main aims; providing additional points of contact, connection and support for IAMCR members, encouraging new members to join, and publicising and promoting the Association’s work in relevant academic and policy fora. These aims are pursued in a variety of ways. They include; convening mini conferences, maintaining dedicated social media sites and on- line discussion groups (see IAMCR's Ambassador's group in Facebook), presenting at relevant scholarly meetings, collaborating with local NGO’s, and offering free services for students and researchers as a prelude to encouraging IAMCR membership.
The successful recent workshop for students on Conceptualising Research organised by our ambassador in Bangladesh (see photo below) illustrates this outreach work in action.
Background information on the ambassador scheme together with links to the procedure for becoming an ambassador and portraits of our seven currently serving ambassadors can be found here on the IAMCR website.
Our four recently appointed ambassadors extend the scheme in welcome ways but we still have some way to go to more fully reflect the diversity and international reach of IAMCR’s membership. Expressions of interest from members located in nations and regions not currently represented in the scheme are therefore very warmly invited and should be sent in the first instance to Vice President Graham Murdock, who co-ordinates the scheme, at G.Murdock@lboro.ac.uk