Academic conference

An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers (not necessarily academics) to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.

Overview

Conferences are usually composed of various presentations. They tend to be short and concise, with a time span of about 10 to 30 minutes; presentations are usually followed by a discussion. The work may be bundled in written form as academic papers and published as the conference proceedings.

Usually a conference will include keynote speakers (often, scholars of some standing, but sometimes individuals from outside academia). The keynote lecture is often longer, lasting sometimes up to an hour and a half, particularly if there are several keynote speakers on a panel.

In addition to presentations, conferences also feature panel discussions, round tables on various issues and workshops.

Presentations

American Athletic Conference

The American Athletic Conference (also known as The American) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and four associate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I, with its football teams competing in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Member universities represent a range of private and public universities of various enrollment sizes located primarily in urban metropolitan areas in the Northeastern, Midwestern, Western, and Southern regions of the United States.

The American was considered one of the six collegiate power conferences of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) era. With the advent of the College Football Playoff, The American became a "Group of Five" conference, which shares one automatic spot in the New Year's Six bowl games. The American, however, remains a power conference in men's basketball.

The league is the product of substantial turmoil in the original Big East Conference during the 2010–14 conference realignment period. It is one of two conferences to emerge from the all-sports Big East in 2013. While the other successor, which does not sponsor football, purchased the Big East Conference name, The American inherited the old Big East's structure and is that conference's legal successor. However, both conferences claim 1979 as their founding date, and the same history up to 2013. The American is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, and led by Commissioner Michael Aresco.

Track and field

Track and field is a sport which combines various athletic contests based on the skills of running, jumping, and throwing. The name is derived from the sport's typical venue: a stadium with an oval running track enclosing a grass field where the throwing and jumping events take place. It is one of the oldest sports. In ancient times, it was an event held in conjunction with festivals and sports meets such as the Ancient Olympic Games in Greece.

The running events, which include sprints, middle and long-distance events, and hurdling, are won by the athlete with the fastest time. The jumping and throwing events are won by the athlete who achieves the greatest distance or height. Regular jumping events include long jump, triple jump, high jump and pole vault, while the most common throwing events are shot put, javelin, discus and hammer. There are also "combined events", such as heptathlon and decathlon, in which athletes compete in a number of the above events. Most track and field events are individual sports with a single victor, but a number are relay races. Events are almost exclusively divided by gender, although both the men's and women's competitions are usually held at the same venue.

Conference

A conference is a meeting of people who "confer" about a topic.

University of Mississippi

The University of Mississippi (colloquially known as Ole Miss) is a public, coeducational research university in Oxford, Mississippi, United States. Founded in 1848, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven, as well as the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. It also operates the University of Mississippi Field Station in Abbeville. It is both a sea-grant and space-grant institute. Sixty percent of undergraduates are from Mississippi and 23 percent of all students are minorities. International students come from 93 nations. Ole Miss is Mississippi's largest university with a total enrollment of 23,838 in fall 2015.

History

Founding, expansion, and tradition

The Mississippi Legislature chartered the University of Mississippi on February 24, 1844. The university opened its doors to its first class of 80 students four years later in 1848. For 23 years, the university was Mississippi's only public institution of higher learning, and for 110 years it was the state's only comprehensive university.