Conference history

The International Human Sciences Research Conference (IHSRC) first met in 1982 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. Since then it has met annually in over ten different countries.

The conference is an opportunity to explore the use of qualitative methods in the study of human nature. There has been a strong phenomenological tradition at the heart of the IHSRC but researchers from other qualitative traditions also frequently attend and are very welcome. Indeed, constructive dialogue and debate across a broad spectrum of qualitative perspectives has very much been central to the Human Sciences tradition. Naming the conference 'Human Sciences' back in 1982 was provocative and remains so today but as Giorgi (2010) puts it in his historical account of the conference: "the idea of science was to be preserved because no contradiction was perceived between science and qualitative methods even if the sense of rigor in studying qualitative aspects of phenomena would be different". Participants are welcome from all disciplines, whether this be psychology, education, sociology, nursing or any other relevant disciplinary tradition, in which researchers seek to qualitatively explore human meaning and experience.

Past conferences

33rd International Human Sciences Research Conference

12-15 August 2014

St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada

The 2014 International Human Sciences Research Conference is being held at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada from 12-15 August 2013. The conference theme is Advancing Human Science: Recovering Subjectivity, Relation, Process.

32nd International Human Sciences Research Conference

13-16 August 2013
Aalborg University, Denmark

Creativity in Human Science Research, Methodology and Theory. Visit the IHSRC 2013 conference website

31th International Human Sciences Research Conference

25-29 June 2012

The University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada

Renewing the Encounter between the Human Sciences, the Arts, and the Humanities. Visit the IHSRC 2012 conference website

30th International Human Sciences Research Conference

27-30 July 2011

Hosted by the Department of Psychology, The Open University

Intertwining body-self-world. Visit the 2011 conference website

29th International Human Science Research Conference

4-8 August 2010

Hosted by the Department of Psychology and the College of Arts & Sciences Seattle University

Giving Voice to Experience. Visit the 2010 conference website

28th International Human Science Research Conference

17-20 June 2009

Molde University College, Norway

Challenging the past - interpreting the present - envisioning the future. Visit the 2009 conference website 

References
Giorgi, A. (2010). A History of the International Human Science Research Conference on the Occasion of its 25th Annual Meeting. The Humanistic Psychologist, 38(1), pp. 57-66.