AESOP Young Academics Network
“Fostering creative interaction among young planning scholars”
Who are the AESOP Young Academics (YA)?
The YA Network is a loosely structured organisation in which everyone, who wishes to, is invited to participate. Its activities are, in particular, addressed at planners who have recently entered the academic and professional planning world: PhD candidates, Postdocs, and new young academic and planning professionals. These YA Network activities also are complementary to other events that are deployed within the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP, http://www.aesop-planning.com).
The YA Network is organized by a Coordination Team (CT) of five elected members. Every year, new members are elected. One person from the CT represents the YA Network in the AESOP Executive Committee and Council of Representatives. The remaining CT members are responsible for Website administration, Outreach, PhD Workshop, and special YA events and activities.
CORE AIMS
The YA Network has two core aims:
Make AESOP a challenging environment for young academics; and
Open up the structure of AESOP to better encourage young academic involvement
.
Creating a challenging environment
· Form a network of young academics within AESOP
· Initiate activities for young academics
· Make the AESOP congress more attractive for young academics
Opening up the structure
· Ensure that attention is paid to the particular wishes and needs of young academics in the activities of AESOP
· Use the opportunities offered by the Internet to make the organization more accessible and interactive, and to disseminate useful information
WEBSITE
YA members have a highly interactive website at their disposal, which offers unique opportunities for the exchange of ideas and the representation of both young academics and professionals!
The website is a dynamic mediating platform for what concerns innovation in both its structure and content (continuously enriched by the constant upload of news posts and other digital content such as papers by various YA members).
ACTIVITIES
In previous years, several activities have been undertaken by the YA Network. In addition to the annual PhD workshop, they include the ‘YA Drinks’, and the YA ‘Special Session’ that is regularly held during the annual AESOP congress.
In the near future new events will follow! For those interested in acquiring more information, providing suggestions or joining the YA network, please visit us at http://www.aesop-youngacademics.net.