Call for Submissions: 2nd Equitable Opportunity Conference
We are pleased to announce the 2nd Equitable Opportunity Conference to be held on June 6-7, 2025 at the MIT Sloan School of Management. This recurring conference focuses on how organizations shape socioeconomic opportunities in ways that align with prevailing notions of fairness and justice – of equity – while also aligning with evolving regulations.
We use the term "equitable opportunity" deliberately. "Equitable" indicates circumstances in which no disparities result from "differential treatment" (i.e., unequal treatment yields different outcomes) or "disparate impact" (i.e., equivalent treatment yields different outcomes). "Opportunity" highlights possibilities to obtain an education or a job, launch a business, experience socioeconomic mobility, etc. that vary across people, time, and place.
"Equitable Opportunity", therefore, focuses us on understanding and addressing situations where organizational practices characterized by differential treatment or disparate impact violate our notions of equity. In such situations, we are interested in leveraging social science research to identify ways to achieve greater equity while complying with applicable laws and policies.
The conference aims to:
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Feature equity research on organizations that spans disciplines and fields, highlighting novel theories, methodologies, findings, and implications for research, practice, and policy.
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Foster the exchange of ideas and practices among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, bridging gaps between theory and practice.
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Facilitate research collaborations between researchers and organizations interested in collaborating on research projects, policymaking, and organizational interventions.
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Facilitate multidisciplinary dialogue on the equity challenge that organizational leaders face as they try to be inclusive of diverse notions of fairness and justice.
Preliminary Program Highlights
● Keynote address by President David Thomas of Morehouse College, who is world-renowned for his equity-focused leadership in higher education and his seminal work on equity in organizational leadership.
● Plenary and parallel track sessions, panel discussions of equitable leadership practices, poster sessions, and a pre-conference doctoral student workshop.
● Confirmed speakers & discussants include:
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Honorable Jenny R. Yang, New York University
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Sekou Bermiss, North Carolina
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Isabel Fernandez-Mateo, London Business School
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Summer Jackson, Harvard Business School
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Kylie Hwang, Northwestern
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Sandra Portocarerro, London School of Economics
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Ray Reagans, MIT
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Chris Rider, Michigan
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Lauren Rivera, Northwestern
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Adina Sterling, Columbia
● Editors from the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Management Science, and Organization Science will discuss publishing equity-centered research in top journals.
● Opportunities to interact with practitioners and other organizational leaders interested in collaborating with academic researchers.
Call for Presentations and Posters
We invite submissions for paper and poster presentations on equity and opportunity in organizations from faculty, doctoral students, and other researchers.
Submission Guidelines
Submissions should include:
● Your contact name, affiliation/institution name, and email address
● Names of all contributing authors and their affiliations/institutions in the order they should appear in the program.
● Presenter's name, affiliation/institution name, and email address
● Title of the presentation
● Short abstract (max 150 words) to appear in the conference program
● Extended abstract (max 1,500 words), structured as follows: (1) Motivation & Research Question; (2) Theoretical Objectives, (3) Methodological Approach; (4) Data & Results (if applicable); (5) Intended Contribution; and (6) Relevance for the "Equitable Opportunities" Theme.
● Type of presentation you want your submission to be considered for:
1) Oral presentation only
2) Poster presentation only
3) Oral or poster presentation
Please submit your proposal here. The deadline is March 1, 2025, but early submissions are encouraged and appreciated.
Pre-Conference Doctoral Workshop
Doctoral students may also apply to attend a doctoral student pre-conference workshop on the morning of Friday, June 6th. Interested applicants should submit a CV and a statement of no more than two pages at the submission form below. The statement should describe how their research addresses the concept of "equitable opportunities" and why they wish to participate.
All submissions will be reviewed by the conference organizers and acceptance decisions will be made on a rolling basis.
Please apply for the workshop here. The deadline is March 1, 2025, but early submissions are encouraged and appreciated.
Schedule & Registration
The conference will begin at 12pm on Friday, June 6th and will end about 5pm on Saturday, June 7th. The doctoral student workshop will run from 9am to 12pm on Friday, June 6th.
Registration is free and details will be posted after the paper submission deadline. Space will be limited but we hope to include some attendees who do not submit papers but do wish to engage with other attendees.
Scholars at all career stages are encouraged to submit proposals. We also encourage submissions from practitioners who are interested in engaging researchers on the concept of equitable opportunities.
For more information, please contact Chris Rider at riderci@umich.edu or visit the Equitable Opportunity Conference website.
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Christopher Rider
Associate Professor
University of Michigan
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