What Is the Conference's History?
EQRC is a longstanding national research conference that has become a staple forum for presentations and engagement of ideas in qualitative research. Historically, it has always been sponsored by a university, most often being held on different university campuses. The conference began in the East, first being held at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. It subsequently moved to Columbia University in New York City, then to Duquesne University in Pittsburg, followed by the State University of New York (SUNY at Albany), then to Cedarville University located outside of Dayton, Ohio. Presently, EQRC is sponsored by the University of Nevada at Las Vegas’ College of Education.
EQRC enjoys a national reputation for quality and distinction in the qualitative research community. The supporting publication, the Journal of Ethnographic & Qualitative Research (www.jeqr.org), is subscribed by over 10,000 libraries, world-wide. EQRC historically has been a juried (peer-reviewed) conference, affordable, and staff workers give careful attention to organization and detail. Since 2005, the conference has been directed by Dr. Michael Firmin, Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Cedarville University and he may be reached via firmin@cedarville.edu. To the Director's role, Dr. Firmin brings the personal experience of having presented over 170 papers at national and international conferences, as well as having authored over 120 articles that have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Because Dr. Firmin is presently directing EQRC and the American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences conference (www.aabss.net), and the Conference on Academic Research in Education (www.care-conference.net), scholars are able to participate in any/all of the three conferences for a single registration fee. However, EQRC, AABSS, and CARE are three independent conferences, they possess separate histories, and in future years the three conferences may again be held in different locations.