The First International History of Public Relations Conference (IHPRC) will be held on Thursday July 8 and Friday July 9 at Bournemouth University.
The conference is the first international opportunity for academic researchers, historians and interested practitioners to meet, hear papers and discuss this emerging area of research. Previously, occasional papers had been presented at business and journalism history conferences.
The conference chair, Prof. Tom Watson FCIPR, said the conference had evolved from a 'History of Public Relations' special issue of the Journal of Communication Management in 2008. "The response to it showed convincingly that there was world-wide interest in PR history and it drew contributions from Australia, Spain, UK and the US. Some challenged orthodoxies whilst others brought less-considered topics and national PR industries into a well-researched view."
At July's conference, 35 papers from academics and practitioners in 14 countries will be presented. There will be two keynote speakers, the leading PR historians Dr Jacquie L'Etang (Stirling University) and Dr Karen Russell (University of Georgia, US). There will also be a special "Meet the Editors" panel on Thursday, July 8 when delegates can discuss PR research and scholarship with the editors of the three major PR research journals – Dr Russell (Jnl of Public Relations Research), Prof Anne Gregory FCIPR (Jnl of Communication Management) and Ray Hiebert (Public Relations Review).
Some papers from IHPRC will be published in another Special Issue of the Journal of Communication Management next year. Conference proceedings will be published online by BU's Media School, along with video reports on the conference, keynote speakers and the editors' panel. It will be a unique archive of a special conference.
Social media plays an important role in promoting the conference. The website is http://historyofpr.com and you can follow IHPRC on Twitter at '@historyofpr' and on LinkedIn at the 'History of Public Relations' group. There's also a Facebook group named after the conference.
A special £140 single-day rate for UK delegates is available. In addition to attending the day's opening keynote speech and their choice of speakers, delegates will get the conference papers, lunch and two coffee breaks on the day that they attend. Registration is at http://ihprc.eventbrite.com/.
