Visual Resources Emerging Professionals and Students group (VREPS) are pleased to announce a Call for Presenters for lightning presentations by students and new professionals (within 10 years of the start of their career) in the field for the 2021 Visual Resources Association Annual Conference. Each presenter will be allotted 7 minutes followed by a group Q&A after all presentations.

Session Description:
The Emerging Voices Lightning Round Session provides emerging professionals in the visual resources field and related, the opportunity to present topics from exceptional coursework, such as a master's thesis, or topics with which they are engaged early in their professional life. Emerging professionals are defined as either students in programs leading to a career in visual resources or related, or those within 10 years of the start of their career. Topics presented reveal new ideas as well as different ways of thinking about established concepts. Speakers will give the conference attendees a glimpse of interests and current discourses of the newest VRA members.

Topic Ideas:
- Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Cultural Competencies, Social Justice
- Broadening Access to Hidden Collections
- Digital Scholarship and Digital Humanities
- Community Outreach
- Metadata/Cataloging Ethics (Decolonizing vocabularies, Radical cataloging)
- Tools: Open Source, Evolution, Future Trends
- Project Management (Communication, Grant writing, Prioritization, Leadership, etc.)
- Linked Data
- Materials/Objects collections
- Storytelling and Oral History
- Workplace cultures and professional transitions (academic departments, libraries, cultural heritage institutions, archives, corporate, etc.)
- Adapting to a virtual work and/or learning environment


Session Date and Time: Tuesday March 23rd, 3pm ET / 2pm CT

Submission Cap: We will only be able to select a maximum of 5 presenters.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: January 7th, 9PM ET