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Last month, 25 faculty and students from the School of Criminology presented their research at the Western Society of Criminology鈥檚 42nd Annual Conference.

This year鈥檚 conference took place from February 19 to 21 in Phoenix, Arizona. Over 200 participants from various universities in the United States and Canada 鈥� along with a few international universities 鈥� attended the conference.

The School is a major sponsor of the Annual Conference, donating $5,000 to the Western Society this year. $2,500 of the donation went towards supporting the conference, and the other $2,500 supported the Society鈥檚 journal Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society.

The Annual Conference is a prime networking opportunity for faculty: the conference always takes place in a pleasant location and the Western Society aims to keep costs low.

It also has a reputation for being graduate student friendly, making it an excellent first conference for graduate students or even undergraduate honours students.

鈥淚n my experience, everybody attending the Annual Conference is there to be supportive of the presenters. They are attentive and they listen, and at the end of your presentation they will often compliment you before providing constructive feedback,鈥� says Associate Director David MacAlister, who sits on the Society鈥檚 Board as Executive Counselor.

鈥淪ome of the faculty from other institutions commented on how good our students鈥� presentations were 鈥� they said their presentations were amazing. So that was really good to hear,鈥� says MacAlister.

The Western Society also holds an annual fundraiser to provide a travel scholarship for one or two students to attend the conference. The conference raised $800 this year by selling off books donated by publishers to the Book Exhibit.

The 43rd Annual Conference is scheduled to take place in Vancouver from February 4 to February 7, 2016. All graduate students are asked to consider volunteering at the conference:

鈥淲e are the big local institution in the host city of the conference next year. They will be counting on us for extra resources, and asking our graduate students to volunteer,鈥� says MacAlister. 鈥淭here are always last minute things that need done at conferences, like helping set up projectors and picking up people at the airport.鈥�

Graduate students are also encouraged to apply to participate in the conference if they have research that will be completed by the end of February 2016. The deadline to submit abstracts is October 2, 2015.