School of Information Professors Kathleen Burnett and Gary Burnett had the opportunity to travel to Cambodia to attend the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference. The Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) hosted the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on January 3-4, 2019 at the University of Cambodia located in Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia. The 2019 Theme was “Effective Learning in Low-Tech Information Environments”. Gary, one of four keynote speakers, gave a talk titled “Wading the Shallow (Or Deep) Waters of Information Worlds”. Later, Gary and Kathleen both participated in a panel titled “Higher Education in the 21st Century with Information and Learning Sciences”.
This is not their first international conference ‘rodeo’, so to speak. Prior to this trip, the Burnetts also attended the 1st International Conference of Open Library to Open Society hosted at the Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, Nonthaburi, Thailand, on August 18-19, 2018. Gary Burnett gave a keynote talk titled “What We Mean by ‘Open’: Disciplinarily, Information, and Representation”. Kathy was also an invited speaker; her talk was titled “Open Access, Open Data, Open Society: Toward an Open Ethics”.
These are the two latest excursions to Asia related to work; before these, Gary gave keynote talks at conferences in both India and South Korea, and both Burnetts each gave thirty-three talks at universities in twelve different countries across Asia while on sabbatical. The travel can be understandably exhausting (30+ hours en route each way) but they feel the opportunities to establish such connections have been worth it. Gary Burnett says, “These trips have given us the invaluable opportunity to develop lots of friendships and professional relationships with colleagues throughout Asia.”