There are hundreds of conferences held all over the world on all sorts of different topics. You probably know which the big conferences in your field are, and maybe you've attended them in the past. But if you work in an interdisciplinary setting, or if your work has crossover with another field, you might be wondering – should I attend conferences outside of my field? Today, we'll discuss the pros and cons of this, and at the end we'll share some tips for how to prepare for a conference when you're new to the field. Pros of attending conferences outside of your field:

Conferences can be great career boosters and good fun to attend, but they can also be chaotic, rushed, and rather intimidating. If you are someone who struggles with time management, you may find the conference days difficult to navigate. To help with this, try these tips on managing you time during conferences:

Ahh, conferences: the best chance to see the many diverse characters of academia in one room. And yet, you always seem to bump into the same sorts of people at these events. If you've attended a conference, you've surely met each of these people:

Most of us have a story about a first date that seemed to go well, yet the person never called us back. It's often a guessing game trying to figure out what you did wrong. Did you talk too much? Get food stuck in your teeth? Have bad breath? It's an uncomfortable experience—and it isn't isolated to romantic relationships. Every researcher has met a potential collaborator or client at a conference, presented them with a business card… and never heard from them again. If your networking connections are ghosting you, it's easy to get stuck wondering what's wrong.

When you are working as an academic, attending conferences is an important part of your job. Attending a conference allows you to present your work to the academic community, to hear about the latest research by others in your field, and to network with fellow researchers to help expand your knowledge and promote your career.

Your research is finished, and you can't wait to present your latest discovery at an upcoming conference. Unfortunately, organizing your findings has been a nightmare. It's tough deciding how to best present a project to people who know little about it—especially when you know every single angle. 

Ahh, conferences. They can be deeply informative and a lot of fun – but they can be a headache too! One point of pain in attending conferences is the application stage, where you send off an abstract of your work together with information about yourself and hope to be allotted a poster presentation or a coveted talk. If you're applying for conferences and finding this to be a stressful experience, don't worry, you're not alone! Here are five of the biggest struggles that academics face when applying for conferences.

Conference Monkey is proud to introduce the winner of the ESD Conference Invitation. Conference Monkey invited one lucky participant to our partner conference, Economics and Social Development Conference, which took place in Prague. Meet Elmira Mirguseinova from Lithuania. 1. Could you introduce your academic background?

Summer schools are ideal locations for not just learning new skills and ideas, but also for networking with your peers and senior figures in your field. Plus they can be a lot of fun! If you have the time over the summer break, spending a week or two at a summer school can be an helpful step along your career path.

Summer schools are ideal locations for not just learning new skills and ideas, but also for networking with your peers and senior figures in your field. Plus they can be a lot of fun! If you have the time over the summer break, spending a week or two at a summer school can be an helpful step along your career path.

When you're working on interdisciplinary topics, it's extremely helpful to have contact with other students and researchers in related fields. Getting to know people who are working in different academic disciplines to you gives you new perspectives on your research, as well as improving your communication skills and broadening your knowledge. So interdisciplinary summer schools are the ideal chance to interact with other students and get in practise at presenting your work to an interdisciplinary audience.

The study of politics as a social science has a long and rich history, with many great academic institutions offering courses and research in the discipline. Along with International Relations, the ongoing relevance of Political Science is reflected in the high quality of programs of study and research. Many of the best-known politics departments are located in institutions within the United States, but outstanding departments can also be found in other countries including Australia, Singapore, China, and Japan.

When you're looking for the best institutions for your subject, it's important to consider the standing of not only the institution as a whole, but also the specific department in which you wish to study or research. Although it's a matter of debate what makes the very best academic departments, there are some universally-recognised leaders in each discipline.

Summer schools are a great way to learn and network over the holiday time. You can meet fellow students and senior researchers, learn new methodologies or research specific topics, and practice your presentation and debate skills. Plus you get to travel to a new place or even a new country, to enjoy the summertime in a new place. Make the most of your summer by enrolling on a summer school offered by some of the top universities in the world.

Following up on our start of term round up of open positions for economics professors, this post offers you a selection of the many jobs currently listed on INOMICS for professors of politics and law. Within the discipline of politics are jobs focusing on public policy, international relations, political economics and related fields. Law includes positions in education law, business law, criminology, immigration law and numerous other areas.

With student mobility continually on the rise, the number of foreign students earning degrees in Europe is ever increasing. Yet, the long-term visa opportunities for such graduates are not equal across the European Union. With immigration laws changing regularly, sometimes it can be difficult to know exactly what to expect in a given country. In this post, we offer you updated information about the types of work visas available to university graduates in the most popular European destination countries for foreign students: France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.

With September upon us and campuses around the globe preparing for the coming school year, many recent graduates face a harsh reminder that student life is over and it’s time to plunge headlong into the workforce. Yet, sometimes landing that first career-oriented position can be tough, particularly in today’s economic climate.

Although summer is just getting underway in many parts of the world, fall application season is waiting just around the corner. Whether you’re a recent graduate or a professional looking to step back into academia, finding the right PhD program is not always an easy process. For that reason, it’s important to start reviewing your options early. In a post a few months back we highlighted the global Top 20 Political Science Departments, and in this post we’d like to narrow that list to the graduate level while focusing specifically on Europe and the United States.