ESRAD Online Conference 2025
11th - 13th June 2025
11th - 13th June 2025
The theme of our 2025 conference is Developing 21st century minds for system transformation and resilience
The key topics of focus for the conference are as follows:
In addition to the above key themes, submissions are also invited that are relevant to adult development in other domains.
The conference will be held online, via Zoom.
Call for Proposals: We welcome proposals from scholars and practitioners who are engaging in research and practice that is advancing an understanding of adult development. We also welcome proposals from all branches of the behavioral and social sciences and from practitioners working with adults to enhance development and personal growth.
SUBMISSION DEADLINES
Feb 28th 2025: Deadline for submission of proposals
March 28th 2025: Notification for acceptance of proposals
CONFERENCE FEES
BOOKING TICKETS
You can buy tickets for the conference via the Eventbrite page below:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/esrad-online-conference-2025-tickets-1110306299029?aff=oddtdtcreator
The key topics of focus for the conference are as follows:
- Ageing, resilience and wellbeing
- Transitions, life stages and change
- Meaning-making and dialectical thinking
- Applications of adult development in AI, business, coaching and therapy
In addition to the above key themes, submissions are also invited that are relevant to adult development in other domains.
The conference will be held online, via Zoom.
Call for Proposals: We welcome proposals from scholars and practitioners who are engaging in research and practice that is advancing an understanding of adult development. We also welcome proposals from all branches of the behavioral and social sciences and from practitioners working with adults to enhance development and personal growth.
SUBMISSION DEADLINES
Feb 28th 2025: Deadline for submission of proposals
March 28th 2025: Notification for acceptance of proposals
CONFERENCE FEES
- Early Bird Fee: £50 + Eventbrite fee (up to 1st May 2025)
- Standard Fee: £60 + Eventbrite fee (2nd May 2025 onwards)
- Student Fee / Concession: £24 + Eventbrite fee
- Pre-conference workshop: £12+ Eventbrite fee
- Bursaries: There are a limited number of bursaries for free attendance for full-time students in lower to middle income countries. Email [email protected] to apply.
BOOKING TICKETS
You can buy tickets for the conference via the Eventbrite page below:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/esrad-online-conference-2025-tickets-1110306299029?aff=oddtdtcreator
Keynote Speakers
Prof Jeffrey Arnett
Prof Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, PhD. is a Senior Research Scholar in the Department of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He has also taught at the University of Missouri. During 2005 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. Arnett earned a B.S. in psychology from Michigan State University in 1980, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Virginia in 1985 and 1986. He was the Founding President and first Executive Director of the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood (SSEA) and he is the author of the book Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties, published by Oxford University Press in 2004. The 2nd edition was published in 2015 and the 3rd edition in 2024. He is also co-author (with Lene Jensen) of four textbooks, including the most widely used textbook on adolescence, Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach (2023, Pearson Education, 7th edition). In addition to emerging adulthood, his other scholarly interests include promoting a more culturally inclusive psychology; adolescents’ risk behavior; media use in adolescence; and adolescents’ responses to cigarette advertising.
Prof Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, PhD. is a Senior Research Scholar in the Department of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He has also taught at the University of Missouri. During 2005 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. Arnett earned a B.S. in psychology from Michigan State University in 1980, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Virginia in 1985 and 1986. He was the Founding President and first Executive Director of the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood (SSEA) and he is the author of the book Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties, published by Oxford University Press in 2004. The 2nd edition was published in 2015 and the 3rd edition in 2024. He is also co-author (with Lene Jensen) of four textbooks, including the most widely used textbook on adolescence, Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach (2023, Pearson Education, 7th edition). In addition to emerging adulthood, his other scholarly interests include promoting a more culturally inclusive psychology; adolescents’ risk behavior; media use in adolescence; and adolescents’ responses to cigarette advertising.
Dr Theo Dawson
Dr Theo Dawson is the founder and managing director of Lectica, Inc. She received her PhD from the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Education. Her award-winning dissertation presented a new approach to measuring learning and describing learning pathways. Since the mid-1990s, Dawson has been building and deploying learning tools that support optimal mental development—focusing on the skills people need to navigate the challenges and opportunities of 21st-century life. She is an active blogger and the author of numerous articles, book chapters, and reports on issues related to human development in journals such as Cognitive Development, Mind, Brain, and Education, The European Journal of Developmental Psychology, Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, The Journal of Applied Measurement, and Developmental Review. Theo has acted as a consultant to institutions like the US Federal Government, Harvard University, the University of Ireland, and a wide variety of businesses and schools, both in the US and abroad.
Dr Theo Dawson is the founder and managing director of Lectica, Inc. She received her PhD from the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Education. Her award-winning dissertation presented a new approach to measuring learning and describing learning pathways. Since the mid-1990s, Dawson has been building and deploying learning tools that support optimal mental development—focusing on the skills people need to navigate the challenges and opportunities of 21st-century life. She is an active blogger and the author of numerous articles, book chapters, and reports on issues related to human development in journals such as Cognitive Development, Mind, Brain, and Education, The European Journal of Developmental Psychology, Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, The Journal of Applied Measurement, and Developmental Review. Theo has acted as a consultant to institutions like the US Federal Government, Harvard University, the University of Ireland, and a wide variety of businesses and schools, both in the US and abroad.
CONFERENCE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Oliver Robinson, Teresa Sgaramella, Marc Lucas, Clare Mehta, Nick Shannon, Katja Hleb, Natalia Wächter, Garry Nicholson, Salla Ahola
Oliver Robinson, Teresa Sgaramella, Marc Lucas, Clare Mehta, Nick Shannon, Katja Hleb, Natalia Wächter, Garry Nicholson, Salla Ahola
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE (times shown in Greenwich Mean Time)
11th June - Pre-conference workshop
Qualitative methods for adult development
Dr Oliver Robinson
An interactive workshop for adult development researchers about innovative ways of designing and conducting qualitative studies to support longitudinal, biographical and cross-sectional research in adult development and ageing. Dr Robinson has developed a number of qualitative methods that can be viewed here: https://www.oliverrobinson.info/qualitative-methods
12th June
8:30 to 16:00 – Conference Sessions, including interview with Jeffrey Arnett
Interview with Prof Jeffrey Arnett
Building resilience in young adults and the future of adult development
Dr Arnett will be interviewed about his views on the future of adult development research, on his current and future research projects and on what his work points to being the foundations for resilience in adulthood.
13th June
8:30 to 16:00 – Conference Sessions, including lecture by Theo Dawson
Keynote talk by Dr Theo Dawson
From theory to practice: Cultivating minds that are ready for almost anything
We're living in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. Right now, relatively few of us are equipped with the skills, resilience, agility, and endurance required to tackle its challenges and leverage its opportunities. Moreover, the lifeworlds we inhabit often work against us, depriving us of the human-normal formative and (mostly social) experiences we need to develop optimally. For the last 30 years, my colleagues and I have been searching for simple, scalable ways to optimize mental development for everyone, not to increase intelligence or developmental scores, but to give everyone the opportunity to build skills for learning the way our brains are designed to learn—with joy, satisfaction, and just the right amount of pain. Minds that develop in this way grow faster, better, and further, and people with minds like these are more hopeful, effective, adaptive, and resilient. In this talk, I'm going to share highlights of the research that eventually led us to two simple learning tools that are already being used around the world to support optimal mental development—and grow more minds that are ready for almost anything.
Qualitative methods for adult development
Dr Oliver Robinson
An interactive workshop for adult development researchers about innovative ways of designing and conducting qualitative studies to support longitudinal, biographical and cross-sectional research in adult development and ageing. Dr Robinson has developed a number of qualitative methods that can be viewed here: https://www.oliverrobinson.info/qualitative-methods
12th June
8:30 to 16:00 – Conference Sessions, including interview with Jeffrey Arnett
Interview with Prof Jeffrey Arnett
Building resilience in young adults and the future of adult development
Dr Arnett will be interviewed about his views on the future of adult development research, on his current and future research projects and on what his work points to being the foundations for resilience in adulthood.
13th June
8:30 to 16:00 – Conference Sessions, including lecture by Theo Dawson
Keynote talk by Dr Theo Dawson
From theory to practice: Cultivating minds that are ready for almost anything
We're living in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. Right now, relatively few of us are equipped with the skills, resilience, agility, and endurance required to tackle its challenges and leverage its opportunities. Moreover, the lifeworlds we inhabit often work against us, depriving us of the human-normal formative and (mostly social) experiences we need to develop optimally. For the last 30 years, my colleagues and I have been searching for simple, scalable ways to optimize mental development for everyone, not to increase intelligence or developmental scores, but to give everyone the opportunity to build skills for learning the way our brains are designed to learn—with joy, satisfaction, and just the right amount of pain. Minds that develop in this way grow faster, better, and further, and people with minds like these are more hopeful, effective, adaptive, and resilient. In this talk, I'm going to share highlights of the research that eventually led us to two simple learning tools that are already being used around the world to support optimal mental development—and grow more minds that are ready for almost anything.
SUBMITTING YOUR PROPOSAL
Submissions may be oral presentations, workshop/discussion sessions, or poster presentations. Both theoretical and empirical proposals are welcome. You may submit as a symposium of three presentations. Proposals should not exceed 300 words (excluding title, tables, graphs and references). They should be submitted under the following structure:
Author participation limit: Please note to promote broad participation, ESRAD has implemented an author limit. Each author may appear only up to twice in the programme as a presenter, once as the first author and then a second time as a co-author.
SUBMISSION DEADLINES
Feb 28th, 2025: Deadline for submission of proposals
March 28th, 2025: Notification for acceptance of proposals
SUBMISSION PROCESS
Please submit proposals as pdf or Word document to the following e-mail address: [email protected]. Please put "ESRAD conference 2025 submission" into the subject heading.
Submissions may be oral presentations, workshop/discussion sessions, or poster presentations. Both theoretical and empirical proposals are welcome. You may submit as a symposium of three presentations. Proposals should not exceed 300 words (excluding title, tables, graphs and references). They should be submitted under the following structure:
- Title
- Authors
- Area of interest
- Type: Oral presentation, workshop/discussion session or poster
- Background and Aim
- Method (if theoretical paper, describe theoretical approach instead)
- Results (if theoretical paper, summarize key conceptual points instead)
- Discussion and Implications
Author participation limit: Please note to promote broad participation, ESRAD has implemented an author limit. Each author may appear only up to twice in the programme as a presenter, once as the first author and then a second time as a co-author.
SUBMISSION DEADLINES
Feb 28th, 2025: Deadline for submission of proposals
March 28th, 2025: Notification for acceptance of proposals
SUBMISSION PROCESS
Please submit proposals as pdf or Word document to the following e-mail address: [email protected]. Please put "ESRAD conference 2025 submission" into the subject heading.