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ACL2021 Overview

Special Announcement: ACL2021 will be held Online

Due to continued uncertainties surrounding the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, IAFOR has made the decision to hold ACL2021 entirely online via Zoom.

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ACL2021

March 25–27, 2021 | Held online from Tokyo, Japan

Welcome to The Asian Conference on Language (ACL), held in partnership with the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, Japan.

ACL2020 is an interdisciplinary conference that explores the many fields, theories and practices of the study of language, from questions of language acquisition, psychology and linguistics, through those of culture, communication, and technology, to the teaching and learning of language.

In its written and spoken forms language dominates and shapes our lives. Far from just being the tool of communication, language can be beautiful or ugly, sparse and succinct, or overblown, technocratic; direct or obfuscatory; it can be mediocre, lazy, hurtful, spiteful, libellous, slanderous, or false, but it can also be uplifting, joyous, salutary, truthful, and even divine. Language brings us our first and dying words, and accompanies our journeys, helping us to formulate concepts, sentences, and lives, and helps us negotiate meanings, ideas, and each other.

The study of language and languages is an immense opportunity to engage with international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary content and issues that lie at the heart of the IAFOR mission. Since its founding in 2009, IAFOR has brought people and ideas together in a variety of events and platforms to promote and celebrate interdisciplinary study, and underline its importance. Over the past year we have engaged in many cross-sectoral projects, including those with universities (the University of Barcelona, Hofstra University, UCL, University of Belgrade, Moscow State University and Virginia Tech), think tanks/research centers (the East-West Center, APHERP, The Center for Higher Education Research), as well as collaborative projects with the United Nations in New York, and here in Tokyo, with the Government of Japan through the Prime Minister’s office.

With the IAFOR Research Centre at Osaka University’s Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), we have engaged in a number of interdisciplinary initiatives we believe will have an important impact on domestic and international public policy conversations. It is through conferences like these that we expand our network and partners, and we have no doubt that ACL2021 will offer a remarkable opportunity for the sharing of research and best practice, and for the meeting of people and ideas.

At the intersection of theory, pedagogy, and praxis the Asian Conference on Language invites researchers and teachers to submit proposals in the following areas:

  • Language Acquisition
  • Language and Communication
  • Language and Culture
  • Language and Psychology
  • Language and Technology
  • Language Learning and Teaching
  • Linguistics

We look forward to meeting you online!

– The ACL2021 Organising Committee

Joseph Haldane, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
Donald E. Hall, University of Rochester, USA
Barbara Lockee, Virginia Tech., USA
Jo Mynard, Kanda University of International Studies, Japan
Diane Hawley Nagatomo, Ochanomizu University, Japan
Dexter Da Silva, Keisen University, Japan

This conference is associated with the Scopus and DOAJ listed IAFOR Journal of Education. Authors need to submit their manuscripts directly to the IAFOR Journal of Education for the normal review peer-review process. Please note that papers already submitted to, or published in IAFOR Conference Proceedings are not accepted for publication in any of IAFOR’s journals. IAFOR's Conference Proceedings are not Scopus listed.

Key Information
  • Location & Venue: Held online from Tokyo, Japan
  • Dates: Thursday, March 25, 2021 ​to Saturday, March 27, 2021
  • Early Bird Abstract Submission Deadline: October 30, 2020*
  • Final Abstract Submission Deadline: January 08, 2021
  • Registration Deadline for Presenters: February 16, 2021

*Submit early to take advantage of the discounted registration rates. Learn more about our registration options.

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Programme

  • The New Peace Linguistics – Because Nice Is Not Enough
    The New Peace Linguistics – Because Nice Is Not Enough
    Keynote Presentation: Andy Curtis
  • Life and Language
    Life and Language
    Panel Presentation: Gloria Montero, Svetlana Ter-Minasova
  • A Language for Humanity
    A Language for Humanity
    Panel Presentation: Dexter Da Silva, Andy Curtis & Stuart Rees

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Speakers

  • Andy Curtis
    Andy Curtis
    University of Anaheim, United States
  • Gloria Montero
    Gloria Montero
    Novelist, Playwright & Poet, Spain
  • Stuart Rees
    Stuart Rees
    University of Sydney & Sydney Peace Foundation, Australia
  • Dexter Da Silva
    Dexter Da Silva
    Keisen University, Japan
  • Svetlana Ter-Minasova
    Svetlana Ter-Minasova
    Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

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Organising Committee

  • Steve Cornwell
    Steve Cornwell
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) & Osaka Jogakuin University, Japan
  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Donald E. Hall
    Donald E. Hall
    University of Rochester, USA
  • Barbara Lockee
    Barbara Lockee
    Virginia Tech., USA
  • Jo Mynard
    Jo Mynard
    Kanda University of International Studies, Japan
  • Diane Hawley Nagatomo
    Diane Hawley Nagatomo
    Ochanomizu University, Japan
  • Dexter Da Silva
    Dexter Da Silva
    Keisen University, Japan

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ACL2021 Review Committee

IAFOR's peer review process, which involves both reciprocal review and the use of Review Committees, is overseen by conference Organising Committee members under the guidance of the Academic Governing Board. Review Committee members are established academics who hold PhDs or other terminal degrees in their fields and who have previous peer review experience.

If you would like to apply to serve on the ACL2019 Review Committee, please visit our application page.

Apply to Join the Review Committee

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The New Peace Linguistics – Because Nice Is Not Enough
Keynote Presentation: Andy Curtis

As the IAFOR Asian Conference on Language 2021 webpage says, clearly, concisely and poignantly: “In its written and spoken forms language dominates and shapes our lives … Language brings us our first and dying words, and accompanies our journeys, helping us to formulate concepts, sentences, and lives, and helps us negotiate meanings, ideas, and each other.” Knowledge is Power, Language is Powerful, and Politics is Power. Therefore, Language is Political, and as such, like all (hu)man-made tools, language can be used by those in power for constructive or destructive purposes. That is the focus of the New Peace Linguistics.

The concept of Peace Linguistics has been around for decades. However, for much of its history, its proponents focused on giving advice – often to English language students and teachers, who already have more-than-enough on their plate. That advice was about using language consciously and carefully, in ways that avoid causing any offence, and instead using language that is respectful, honouring and dignifying – what might be called ‘talking good’ or “talking nice”. Although that still is sound and solid advice, unfortunately, nice is not enough. It should be, but it’s not. Therefore, since 2017, the focus has shifted to a New Peace Linguistics, which is based on systematic, in-depth analyses of the texts (written and spoken) of some of the most powerful people in the world – as it is they, much more so than any of us, who have the power to start wars or to make peace, depending on the language they choose to use.

Read presenter biographies
Life and Language
Panel Presentation: Gloria Montero, Svetlana Ter-Minasova

In this conversation, writer and filmmaker Gloria Montero, speaks to linguist and writer Svetlana Ter-Minasova, around the role of language and languages in their lives.

They will discuss how the highs and lows of their lives have been shaped through language, and through its study and manipulation. For them both, language has been their sword and shield, and something which has represented power in both positive and negative forms, both enriching and endangering lives.

In this conversation, they will exchange anecdotes and compare notes on their own respective journeys with language.

Read presenter biographies
A Language for Humanity
Panel Presentation: Dexter Da Silva, Andy Curtis & Stuart Rees

Without a language to consider ways to build socially just post COVID-19 societies, there would be few ways to communicate across countries and cultures. This indispensable language speaks of non violence, an end to cruelties to people, animals and planet earth. It emphasises respect for universal human rights and for humane governance. Such governance requires a redefinition of politics in every context, the home, work place, communities as well as national policy making and international relations. This ‘politics’ stresses non destructive, life enhancing ways to conduct personal relations, and to craft policies to achieve equalities, locally, nationally and around the globe. Paying attention to the plight of powerless peoples such as refugees and brutalised women and children is a priority. To speak this language, to contribute to socially just futures requires citizens from all walks of life to seek inspiration from any source, such as from music, poetry, art, sport, friendship, hospitality and diverse other experiences or share and value.

Read presenter biographies
Andy Curtis
University of Anaheim, United States

Biography

After some years of working in UK hospitals, as a clinical, medical biochemist, Dr Andy Curtis finally found his true passions: teaching and learning; languages and cultures. Having no background of any kind in language studies or linguistics, in his 20s, he started over, from the beginning. First, with mail-in distance learning education courses, then a science teaching degree, then a Master’s in Applied Linguistics and Language Education, and eventually a PhD in International Education. That journey has enabled him to take an interdisciplinary approach to language education, that breaks down barriers and builds bridges between hitherto disconnected domains of knowledge. His recent work, at the forefront of the field of the New Peace Linguistics, is an example of that scholarly and academic interdisciplinary bridge-building.

Dr Curtis was the Director of the English Language Teaching Unit at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Executive Director of the School of English at Queen’s University, Canada. In 2015, Dr Curtis was elected to serve as the 50th President of the world’s largest professional body of language educators, the TESOL International Association, representing 11,000 language teaching professionals in 150 countries. He has published more than 150 articles, book chapters and books, and presented to more than 50,000 language educators in nearly 100 countries. He is currently a professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Anaheim, and he is based in Ontario, Canada, from where he works with language teaching and learning organizations all over the world.

Keynote Presentation (2021) | The New Peace Linguistics – Because Nice Is Not Enough
Panel Presentation (2021) | A Language for Humanity
Gloria Montero
Novelist, Playwright & Poet, Spain

Biography

Novelist, playwright and poet Gloria Montero grew up in a family of Spanish immigrants in Australia’s North Queensland. After studies in theatre and music, she began to work in radio and theatre, and then moved to Canada where she continued her career as an actress, singer, writer, broadcaster, scriptwriter and TV interviewer.

Co-founder of the Centre for Spanish-Speaking Peoples in Toronto (1972), she served as its Director until 1976. Following the success of her oral history The Immigrants (1973) she was invited to act as Consultant on Immigrant Women to the Multicultural Department of the Secretary of State, Government of Canada.

She organised the international conferences "Amnistia" (1970) and "Solidaridad" (1974) in Toronto to support and make known the democratic Spain that was developing in the last years of the Franco dictatorship, and in 1976 at Bethune College, York University, "Spain 1936-76: The Social and Cultural Aftermath of the Spanish Civil War".

With her husband, filmmaker David Fulton, she set up Montero-Fulton Productions to produce documentary films on social, cultural and ecological themes. Their film, Crisis in the Rain, on the effects of acid rain, won the Gold Camera Award American Film Festival 1982. Montero was consultant-interviewer on Dreams and Nightmares (A-O Productions, California) about Spain under Franco, a film that won international awards in Florence, Moscow, Leipzig and at the American Film Festival 1975.

Among her many radio documentaries for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation are: The Music of Spain – a series of 18 hours which presented Spanish music within a social and historical framework; Segovia: the man and his music — a 2-hour special (Signature); Women and the Law (Ideas); Foreign Aid: Hand-out or Rip-Off (Ideas).

Since 1978 Montero has been living in Barcelona, where she has continued to write and publish novels such as The Villa Marini, All Those Wars and Punto de Fuga. Her poem Les Cambres was printed with a portfolio of prints by artist Kouji Ochiai (Contratalla 1983). A cycle of prose poems, Letters to Janez Somewhere in Ex-Yugoslavia, provided the basis for collaboration with painter Pere Salinas in a highly successful exhibition at Barcelona's Galería Eude (1995).

She won the 2003 NH Premio de Relato for Ménage à Trois, the first time the Prize was awarded for a short story in English.

Well known among her theatre work is the award-winning Frida K., which has toured Canada, played New York and Mexico and has been mounted in productions in Spain, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden and Latvia.

Photo by Pilar Aymerich.

Panel Presentation (2021) | Life and Language
Stuart Rees
University of Sydney & Sydney Peace Foundation, Australia

Biography

Stuart Rees is Professor Emeritus, University of Sydney, founder of the Sydney Peace Foundation and a human rights activist in several countries, in particular in Palestine. He has taught at major universities In the US and the UK and was Professor of Social Work at the University of Sydney. He is the author of books on social justice, on evaluations of economic policies, on health care, on empowerment in social policy and social welfare and on links between the arts, poetry, music, personal biography and courage in public life. He holds the Order of Australia for service to international relations and an honorary doctorate from Soka University, Japan. His most recent book, Cruelty or Humanity, Challenges, Opportunities, Responsibilities Bristol:Policy Press, addresses ways to promote social justice in post COVID-19 societies.

Panel Presentation (2021) | A Language for Humanity
Dexter Da Silva
Keisen University, Japan

Biography

Dr Dexter Da Silva is currently Professor of Educational Psychology at Keisen University in Tokyo. He has taught EFL at junior high school, language schools, and universities in Sydney, Australia, and for more than two decades has been living, and teaching at the tertiary level, in Japan. Professor Da Silva was educated at the University of Sydney (BA, Dip. Ed., MA), and the University of Western Sydney (PhD). He has presented and co-presented at conferences in Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States, co-edited two books on Motivation in Foreign Language Learning, and written or co-written articles and book chapters on education-related topics, such as trust, student motivation, autonomy, and content-based language teaching. He is a past editor of On CUE Journal, past president of the Asian Psychological Association, regular reviewer for conferences, proceedings, journal articles and book chapters, and regularly co-chairs and participates in the Organising Committee of conferences on Motivation, Language Learning and Teaching, and Psychology and the Behavioral Sciences.

Professor Dexter Da Silva is a member of IAFOR’s Academic Governing Board. He is Chair of the Psychology & the Behavioral Sciences section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Panel Presentation (2021) | A Language for Humanity
Svetlana Ter-Minasova
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Biography

Professor Svetlana Ter-Minasova is President of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia, and Professor Emeritus in the University. She holds a Doctorate of Philology from the University, and has published more than 200 books and papers on Foreign Language Teaching, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, and has lectured widely throughout the world.

She is Chair of the Russian Ministry of Education’s Foreign Language Research and Methodology Council, President and founder of both the National Association of Teachers of English in Russia, and the National Association of Applied Linguistics. She holds the Lomonosov Award, Fulbright’s 50th Anniversary Award, and was named Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Birmingham in the UK, the State University of New York in the USA, and the Russian-Armenian University in Armenia.

Panel Presentation (2021) | Life and Language
Steve Cornwell
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) & Osaka Jogakuin University, Japan

Biography

Steve Cornwell is the President of IAFOR, and President of the Academic Governing Board. He coordinates and oversees the International Academic Advisory Board, and also serves on the organisation's Board of Directors. He is Chair of the Language Learning section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Dr Cornwell is Vice President of Osaka Jogakuin University, Japan, where he is also a Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Studies. He helped write and design several of the courses at the New School in New York, and currently teaches on the online portion of the MA TESOL Programme, having been involved with the programme since its inception.

He has also been involved with the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) serving on its National Board of Directors as Director of Programme from 2012 to 2016; where his duties involved working with a volunteer team of over 50 people to organise JALT’s annual, international conference each autumn.

Since 2012 he has been the Committee Chair of Osaka Jogakuin University’s Lifelong Learning Committee and is responsible for their evening extension programme geared towards alumni and community members. He is also the Vice-Chair of Osaka Jogakuin University’s English Education Committee, which is responsible for suggesting policy regarding English education and for developing material for the integrated curriculum.

Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Joseph Haldane is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s business and academic operations, including research, publications and events.

Dr Haldane holds a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and has had full-time faculty positions at the University of Paris XII Paris-Est Créteil (France), Sciences Po Paris (France), and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (Japan), as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (France), The School of Journalism at Sciences Po Paris (France), and the School of Journalism at Moscow State University (Russia).

Dr Haldane’s research and teaching is on history, politics, international affairs and international education, as well as governance and decision making. Since 2015 he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, where he teaches on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and is Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within Osaka University.

A Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance, Dr Haldane is also a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade (Serbia), a Visiting Professor at the School of Business at Doshisha University (Japan), where he teaches Ethics and Governance on the MBA programme, and a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Education (USA), collaborating on the development of the Global PhD programme.

Dr Haldane has given invited lectures and presentations to universities and conferences around the world, including at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and advised universities, NGOs and governments on issues relating to international education policy, public-private partnerships, and multi-stakeholder forums. He was the project lead on the 2019 Kansai Resilience Forum, held by the Japanese Government through the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet Office in collaboration with IAFOR.

From 2012 to 2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu Region) and he is currently a Trustee of the HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2015.

Donald E. Hall
University of Rochester, USA

Biography

Donald E. Hall is Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering at the University of Rochester, USA. Prior to moving to Rochester, he was Dean of Arts and Sciences at Lehigh University, USA. Dean Hall has published widely in the fields of British Studies, Gender Theory, Cultural Studies, and Professional Studies. Over the course of his career, he served as Jackson Distinguished Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English (and previously Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages) at West Virginia University. Before that, he was Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English at California State University, Northridge, where he taught for 13 years. He is a recipient of the University Distinguished Teaching Award at CSUN, was a visiting professor at the National University of Rwanda, was Lansdowne Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Victoria (Canada), was Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Cultural Studies at Karl Franzens University in Graz, Austria, and was Fulbright Specialist at the University of Helsinki. He has also taught in Sweden, Romania, Hungary, and China. He served on numerous panels and committees for the Modern Language Association (MLA), including the Task Force on Evaluating Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion, and the Convention Program Committee. In 2012, he served as national President of the Association of Departments of English. From 2013-2017, he served on the Executive Council of the MLA.

His current and forthcoming work examines issues such as professional responsibility and academic community-building, the dialogics of social change and activist intellectualism, and the Victorian (and our continuing) interest in the deployment of instrumental agency over our social, vocational, and sexual selves. Among his many books and editions are the influential faculty development guides, The Academic Self and The Academic Community, both published by Ohio State University Press. Subjectivities and Reading Sexualities: Hermeneutic Theory and the Future of Queer Studies were both published by Routledge Press. Most recently he and Annamarie Jagose, of the University of Auckland, co-edited a volume titled The Routledge Queer Studies Reader. Though he is a full-time administrator, he continues to lecture worldwide on the value of a liberal arts education and the need for nurturing global competencies in students and interdisciplinary dialogue in and beyond the classroom.

Professor Donald E. Hall is a Vice-President of IAFOR. He is Chair of the Arts, Humanities, Media & Culture division of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Keynote Presentation (2020) | Dislocation/Invitation
Barbara Lockee
Virginia Tech., USA

Biography

Dr Barbara Lockee is Professor of Instructional Design and Technology at Virginia Tech, USA, where she is also Associate Director of the School of Education and Associate Director of Educational Research and Outreach. She teaches courses in instructional design, message design, and distance education. Her research interests focus on instructional design issues related to technology-mediated learning. She has published more than 80 papers in academic journals, conferences and books, and has presented her scholarly work at over 90 national and international conferences.

Dr Lockee is Immediate Past President of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, an international professional organisation for educational technology researchers and practitioners. She earned her PhD in 1996 from Virginia Tech in Curriculum and Instruction (Instructional Technology), MA in 1991 from Appalachian State University in Curriculum and Instruction (Educational Media), and BA in 1986 from Appalachian State University in Communication Arts.

Professor Barbara Lockee is a Vice-President of IAFOR. She is Chair of the Education & Language Learning division of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Jo Mynard
Kanda University of International Studies, Japan

Biography

Dr Jo Mynard is a Professor and Director of the Self-Access Learning Centre (SALC) at Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) in Japan. At KUIS, she advises language learners, and oversees academic support, research and the general direction of the SALC. She also teaches an undergraduate course on Effective Language Learning at KUIS and a graduate course on Learner Autonomy as part of the MA TESOL programme at the KUIS graduate school. She is a part-time faculty member on the Doctor of Education programme in TESOL at the University of Anaheim (USA), an occasional supervisor at the university of Birmingham (UK) on the MA TESOL programme, and an advisor to doctoral candidates at the Education and ICT programme at the Open University of Catalunya (Spain). She has co-edited four books. Two on learner autonomy (2011; 2014), and two on advising in language learning (2012). She recently co-authored a book (with Satoko Kato) on reflective dialogue / advising which was published by Routledge (New York) in August 2015. She has been the editor of SiSAL (Studies in Self-Access Learning) Journal --a peer review, open access publication-- since 2010.

Diane Hawley Nagatomo
Ochanomizu University, Japan

Biography

Dr Diane Hawley Nagatomo is an associate Professor in the Graduate School of Humanities and Science at Ochanomizu University, Japan. She has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Japanese universities for more than thirty years. She is the author of 21 EFL textbooks for the Japanese audience, numerous academic articles, and has presented at numerous conferences. Among her books are Exploring Japanese University English Teachers’ Professional Identity (2012) and Gender, Identity and Teaching English in Japan (2016). Her research interests include teachers’ and students’ beliefs, professional identity, gender issues, and materials development.

Dexter Da Silva
Keisen University, Japan

Biography

Dr Dexter Da Silva is currently Professor of Educational Psychology at Keisen University in Tokyo. He has taught EFL at junior high school, language schools, and universities in Sydney, Australia, and for more than two decades has been living, and teaching at the tertiary level, in Japan. Professor Da Silva was educated at the University of Sydney (BA, Dip. Ed., MA), and the University of Western Sydney (PhD). He has presented and co-presented at conferences in Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States, co-edited two books on Motivation in Foreign Language Learning, and written or co-written articles and book chapters on education-related topics, such as trust, student motivation, autonomy, and content-based language teaching. He is a past editor of On CUE Journal, past president of the Asian Psychological Association, regular reviewer for conferences, proceedings, journal articles and book chapters, and regularly co-chairs and participates in the Organising Committee of conferences on Motivation, Language Learning and Teaching, and Psychology and the Behavioral Sciences.

Professor Dexter Da Silva is a member of IAFOR’s Academic Governing Board. He is Chair of the Psychology & the Behavioral Sciences section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Panel Presentation (2021) | A Language for Humanity
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A message from the IAFOR Board of Directors on the impact of COVID-19 on our activities.