Marianne Barker, our guest blogger this week, is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University. Her research focuses on the social integration of Canadian immigrants, investigating how sense of belonging and identity develop in the context of language programming for newcomers. She filled the role of conference co-chair during her fourth year of doctoral studies as a way to get involved in a leadership role and to gain experience in academic conference organization. The EGSS Conference is an entirely graduate student led annual conference with the goal of peer mentoring, support and collaboration. See the 20^th annual conference website here  and keep up with other EGSS news and events here.

Have you ever watched a bee hive abuzz in the heat of a summer day? If so, you will likely have observed the innate synergy of the hive, with each bee whizzing along on its own path and somehow contributing to a cumulative ‘hum’ of productivity and collective energy. This spring, I had the privilege of ‘humming’ among a team of student leaders involved in organizing the 20^th Annual Education Graduate Student Society (EGSS) Conference within McGill University’s faculty of education. The conference took place on March 25-26th, 2022, with both presenters and attendees joining in-person on McGill’s campus and online via Zoom.

In true conference form, those in attendance felt energized and excited at having shared ideas, networked, and plugged into the community. The purpose of this blog post is twofold: (1) To offer some reflections on chairing a student-led conference through the lens of belonging, identity; and (2) to promote the diverse and high-quality work of the presenters at this year’s conference.