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| FLORENCE MULTIDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE |
Online submissions will be accepted until March 21, 2012.
If you need a Schengen Visa, please apply early.
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In our mission to promote multidisciplinary education on a global setting, we receive numerous invitations to host our conferences in various places. Sometimes, we are asked to celebrate particular scholars. Of these, one name stands out both in frequency and stature. How could the International Journal of Arts and Sciences not honor Leonardo da Vinci, the father of multidisciplinary education? we have been asked.
Finally, we do. And we do so in his own Florence.
Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, in the territory of the Medici-ruled Republic of Florence. Florence is the capital of the Italian region of Tuscany. A centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, Florence is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance; it has been called the Athens of the Middle Ages.
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Renaissance humanism saw no mutually exclusive polarities between the arts and the sciences, and Leonardo's artistic work is as impressive and innovative as his studies in science and engineering. His studies were recorded in 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, which fused art and natural philosophy (the forerunner of modern science), made and maintained daily throughout his life. His notes and drawings displayed an enormous range of interests and preoccupations, some as mundane as lists of groceries and people who owed him money and some as intriguing as designs for wings and shoes for walking on water. Leonardo, a man of great ingenuity, was the quintessential multidisciplinary scholar.
The historic centre of Florence attracts millions of tourists each year. It was declared a World Heritage Site UNESCO in 1982. Due to Florence's artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Florence is believed to have the greatest concentration of art in the world. Thus, cultural tourism is particularly strong, with world-renowned museums such as the Uffizi selling over 1.6 million tickets a year. Florence is also an important city in Italian fashion. The city exerts a strong influence in the fields of art, culture and politics.
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The IJAS Conference Series takes place annually in several cities across Europe and North America. The series has three primary aims.
The first aim is to provide opportunities for academics from a range of disciplines and countries to share their research both through the conference podium and IJAS' double-blind refereed publications. All IJAS conferences are inter- and multi-disciplinary.
The second aim of the Conference Series is to provide opportunities for academics to receive informal in-depth feedback through discussions, and to enable them to establish contact with professionals in other countries and institutions. The tours are the main way of "breaking the ice" away from the formalities of the conference hall, providing an informal setting for discussing different points of view. Even in an increasingly networked world of internet and satellite conferences, there is no substitute for personal interaction—what Edward R. Murrow calls "the last three feet of communication." It is individuals, not data streams, who must ultimately build the connections that in turn create lasting international research partnerships.
The third aim of the Conference Series is to introduce academics to educational premises in locations that are suitable for study abroad programs and which may meet their students’ educational needs. IJAS draws its inspiration from the Fulbright Program, an integral part of the United States' foreign educational relations, where face-to-face exchanges have proven to be the single most effective means of engaging international publics while broadening dialogue between academics and institutions.
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Picture above: Florence and its prominent Ponte Vecchio. This video is about Florence.
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We invite abstracts, papers, and proposals in any of the following tracks:
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Social Sciences and Humanities,
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Business and Economics,
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Teaching and Education, and
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Technology and Science.
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The accepted submissions will be clustered around their common topics and areas of interest. As is typical of multidisciplinary conferences, the final program - released about three weeks before the conference - will mirror the research agendas of the delegates rather than a pre-conceived list of arbitrary topics.
It is up to each delegate how much to submit or publish. Some authors may publish only an abstract in the proceedings. Others may prefer to publish a full-length manuscript in the journal.
Delegates may also attend a conference without submitting or publishing any research.
Authors may deliver their work during the conference either as (i) a 15-minute oral presentation, or as (ii) a poster session.
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First Tour:
San Gimignano and Siena
June 20, 2012
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| San Gimignano from afar. |
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The first stop on our first cultural program will be the village of San Gimignano, one of the most splendid examples of a medieval town.
The town developed greatly during the Middle Ages thanks to the "Via Francigena" the trading and pilgrim's route that crossed it. Such prosperity lead to the flourishing of works of art to adorn the churches and monasteries. However, due to internal power struggles it eventually divided into two factions one headed by the Ardinghelli family (Guelphs) and the other by the Salvucci family (Ghibellines). In 1348 San Gimignano's population was drastically reduced by the Black Death Plague throwing the city into a serious crisis which eventually led to its submission to Florence in 1353.
In the following centuries San Gimignano overcame its decline and isolation when its beauty and cultural importance together with its agricultural heritage were rediscovered. Eventually it was discovered by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and since then its Guelphs and Ghibellines have lived happily and peacefully, marinating in the blessings of tourism.
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| Inside San Gimignano. |
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The program will continue with a tour of Siena where you will be enchanted by the architectural styles of the Cathedral and of the Palazzo Comunale facing the Piazza del Campo, the city's main square which stages the famous horse race twice each year.
The Palio di Siena is more than a simple horse race. It is the culmination of ongoing rivalry and competition between the contrade or neighborhoods. The lead-up and the day of the race are invested with passion and pride. Formal and informal rituals take place as the day proceeds, with each contrada navigating a strategy of horsemanship, alliances, and animosities. There is the two-hour pageant of the Corteo Storico, then all this is crowned by the race, which takes only about 75 seconds to complete. Although there is great public spectacle, the passions displayed are still very real as can be seen by these videos. We will not watch the race; there won't be any when we visit; but the palio spirit will reign on nonetheless.
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Second Tour:
Lucca and Pisa
June 21, 2012
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| California State University (Fullerton) academics in front of Pisa's Leaning Tower. |
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Lucca and Pisa are undoubtedly to be placed among the richest cities in the world as far as their architectural heritage is concerned: therefore, they have to be considered unmissable destinations for those who want to experience a complete view of Tuscany and its artistic background.
In Lucca, famous for its distinctive walls interrupted by huge gates and ramparts, we will proceed to the enchanting old town center walking along a section of the walls to enjoy a breathtaking view over the roofs. We will then have free time to admire the main attractions of the city, such as the Anfiteatro Square, the Guinigi Tower, the San Martino Cathedral, and finally the picturesque Street of Antiques shops.
In Pisa, we will visit the impressive Piazza dei Miracoli where we will admire the Baptistery, the Cathedral and, needless to say, the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
A popular tourist activity is to pose for photographs pretending to "hold up" the leaning tower and preventing it from falling. The illusion is created through the principle of forced perspective. In the adjacent photo, it looks like our academic colleagues were about to start the pushing process against the leaning tower but either lost interest or the photographer clicked the button thirty seconds too soon.
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| Lucca's Amphitheater. |
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Why The Bus Programs Matter
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There is more than meets the eye behind these bus programs.
To find out why these tours are conducive to study abroad programs and joint research, please click here.
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To submit your abstract for presentation at this conference, click here.
The most important dates to remember are as follows:
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Online abstract submissions will be accepted until March 21, 2012.
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Pay the registration for the conference before March 31, 2012.
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The conference will be held during June 19-22, 2012.
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The proceedings and journal will be published in late October 2012.
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Within a few days of receiving your online abstract submission, we will notify you of the reviewers' acceptance or rejection, for the conference.
If we inform you that it is an acceptance and you would like to publish your research, follow the model format here and email us your formatted document in Microsoft Word. You may do so up to July 10, 2012.
Abstracts and summarized articles will be published in the proceedings entitled Conference of the International Journal of Arts and Sciences, in CD-ROM format (ISSN 1943-6114).
Full length manuscripts may be published in the International Journal of Arts and Sciences, also in CD-ROM format (ISSN 1944-6934). The review process for the journal is slower and more demanding in its standards. Although both the proceedings and the journal are refereed, research that meets the refereed standards for the conference may not meet the refereed standards for the journal.
The journal is no longer distributed in hard copy format. It is now in CD-ROM format since this makes it easier to disseminate articles (click for examples). Each registered author will receive a complimentary copy of the CD-ROM in which his/her work appears. The CD-ROMs will be airmailed in October 2011.
Registered authors who prefer a hard copy of the proceedings or journal may download the entire CD-ROM on their own computer and publish and order a hard copy of it from Lulu.com for their own personal use.
Our articles are increasingly accessed - click here - through Google Scholar. The journal is indexed in (i) WorldCat, (ii) Ulrich's serials directory, and (iii) Cabell's directories of Educational Curriculum & Methods and Educational Psychology and Administration.
There is no page limit on articles. We welcome both short and lengthy submissions. We don't impose a financial penalty on lengthy manuscripts.
Each registered author, irrespective of whether he or she submits a formatted abstract or paper, will receive a Certificate of Participation.
Powerpoint Presentations
At the conference, each presentation room will be equipped with a laptop, a digital projector and a projector screen. The laptop will be set up for Powerpoint presentations. Linux and Mac users are asked to save their presentations in a compatible format. In the evolving world of Microsoft, save down to the 97-2003 format in order to ward off any problems. You may bring with you about 15 hard copies for the attendees.
Questions about your submission and presentation should be emailed to: conference@internationaljournal.org.
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Conference Location, Lodging and Food
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| Our conference site in Florence. |
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Conference Location
Our conference will be held at Piazza Della Calza 6, 50125 Florence, Italy. Piazza means "square". The building is a charming venue dating back to the fourteenth-century. Originally built as a hospital and run by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, it changed ownership over the centuries, from one religious order to another. Then, in 1938, the building was sold and the seminary on site was closed.
In 1987, Cardinal Silvano Piovanelli, Archbishop of Florence, bought it back and re-inaugurated it in 1992. Since then, the building has been functioning as a conference center with over 70 beds. It will be very difficult to secure one of the bedrooms during our conference week and delegates would be advised to find lodging elsewhere. Luckily, there is no shortage of hotels in Florence. We recommend the lodging website booking.com. For those who would still like to obtain a bedroom on the conference site, it would be best to write directly to Dr. Rachele Taddeucci (t.rachele@calza.it) in Florence, who administers the conference premises.
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Lodging
For lodging in Florence, we recommend the booking website booking.com. Our conference center (marked as balloon "A" in the left-hand map, below) is a 15-minute walk away from the famous Ponte Vecchio (i.e. Old Bridge) marked as balloon "B" in the same map.
Food
Halfway in between our conference building and the Ponte Vecchio, we recommend two squares for open-air restaurants and lovely dinners. One is the Piazza del Carmine -- marked as "A" in the right-hand map -- for a quite candlelight dinner at its Napoleon restaurant. The other is the Piazza di Spirito Santo (for a vivacious setting full of restaurants). It's marked as "B" in the same map. The two piazze are only a 5-minute walk apart.
Budgetwise, the cheapest deal in town is at the Chef Express Buffett in the main train station (i.e., Santa Maria Novella Train Station) where a large plate heaped with three different pastas (yes, three different recipes) goes for about five Euros.
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Conference Registration Payment
Registration is open to everyone, not just to research presenters.
For all alternative ways of paying the registration fee, click here.
Registration fees do not include food and lodging.
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$360 - Florence (2012) Conference Registration:
Valid for all 4 days.
Valid for one person for all conference events, on and off conference premises. Includes all tours.
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$240 - Florence (2012) Conference Registration:
Valid for 1 day only.
Valid for one person, for one day only, on conference premises. Does not include any tours.
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$560 - Florence (2012) Conference Registration for 2 persons:
Valid for all 4 days.
Joint registration for yourself and a co-author, child or guest, valid for all conference events, on and off conference premises. Includes all tours.
This option is not available for two authors with two or more research presentations.
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| The most overdone pose made by tourists in Italy.
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In case of questions about...
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the conference or submissions:
| events sponsorship:
| tourism and lodging in Florence:
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International Journal of Arts & Sciences
Attn: Mark Bridge
Conferences Department
55 Farm Drive
Cumberland, Rhode Island 02864-3565
USA
E-mail: conference@internationaljournal.org
| Professor J. Bonnici
IJAS Conferences Coordinator
Vance Hall
Central Connecticut State University
1615 Stanley St
New Britain, CT 06050-4010
USA
| Agenzia per il Turismo di Firenze
Via Manzoni 16
50121 Firenze
Italy
http://www.firenzeturismo.it/en/
Lodging: Click here.
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