We warmly invite you to join us, either in person or virtually, at the hybrid Niagara Conference on Workplace Mobbing scheduled for Monday to Wednesday, July 21-23, 2025, at Niagara University, Niagara Falls, in New York, USA. Registration for conference will open up in 2025.
The success of the conference will be measured less by individual presentations than by the exchanges and conversations that take place as a result. All who have registered for the conference will be part of this dialogue. Scholars who raise questions, make comments, and give feedback are as essential to the conference as those who present papers. A full list of all participants will be distributed at the start of the conference. The program for 2024 is posted (see below), and the final program for 2025 will be posted on this website in mid-July, 2025.
This conference initiates an effort to establish workplace mobbing as a comprehensive scholarly discipline and aims to establish a connected and interactive community of mobbing scholars, labor experts, and committed attorneys, with the following objectives:
We invite you to join us in this important undertaking. While we encourage in-person attendance for the opportunity to connect, reconnect, and exchange ideas, amidst the scenic splendor of the world-famous Niagara Falls scenery, we recognize that some who want to take part lack time and resources for travel. Therefore, the conference will be held in a hybrid format, allowing for both in-person and virtual participation.
This is a program for 2024. Check back soon for 2025!
All daytime sessions in Dunleavy Hall, Niagara University
| Times | Description |
|---|---|
| 8:00am-8:30am | Free transportation to Niagara University from DoubleTree Hotel, 401 Buffalo Ave, Niagara Falls, New York |
| 8:30am-9:00am | Check in at registration desk |
| 9:00am-9:50am | Opening session: the conference agenda Chair: Richard Peltz-Steele, University of Massachusetts Law School
Welcome from Herbert Richardson, Founder/Lektor, Edwin Mellen Press |
| 9:50-10:00am | Short break, coffee and juice |
| 10:00-11:15am | Conceptualization and Measurement of Workplace Mobbing
|
| 11:15-11:25am | Short break, coffee and juice |
| 11:25am-12:25pm | Case studies from Mellen Press
|
| 12:25-1:25pm | Complimentary light lunch |
| 1:25-2:25pm | The current context – unions and administrations
|
| 2:25-2:35pm | Short break, coffee and juice |
| 2:35-3:35pm | The current context – politics and student power
|
| 3:35-3:45pm | Short break, coffee and juice |
| 3:45-4:45pm | The current context – gender politics
|
| 5:00-5:30pm | Free transportation to DoubleTree Hotel |
| 5:30-7:00pm | Informal reception for attendees and their spouses at the DoubleTree |
All daytime sessions at Dunleavy Hall, Niagara University; dinner in the evening (cost included
in registration fee for in-person registrants) at DoubleTree Hotel.
| Times | Description |
|---|---|
| 8:00am-8:30am | Free transportation to Niagara University from DoubleTree Hotel, 401 Buffalo Ave, Niagara Falls, New York |
| 8:30am-9:00am | Coffee, muffins and croissants |
| 9:00am-10:00am | What has been learned so far Chair: Richard Peltz-Steele, University of Massachusetts Law School
|
| 10:00-10:10am | Short break, coffee and juice |
| 10:10-11:10am | Mobbing in industries and disciplines
|
| 11:10-11:20am | Short break, coffee and juice |
| 11:20am-12:20pm | The key role of leadership
|
| 12:20-1:20pm | Complimentary light lunch |
| 1:20-2:30pm | Mobbing and Academic Freedom
|
| 2:30-2:40pm | Short break, coffee and juice |
| 2:40-3:40pm | Toward remedy and prevention of workplace mobbing
|
| 3:40-3:50pm | Short break, coffee and juice |
| 3:50-4:30pm | Organizational meeting: toward an Association for Researchers on Workplace Mobbing (ARWM)
|
| 4:30-5:00pm | Free transportation to DoubleTree Hotel |
| 6:00-8:30pm | Dinner for conference registrants at the DoubleTree Hotel. Cost included in conference registration fee. With advance notice and payment of $50 per guest, registrants are welcome to bring spouses or other guests to this dinner. Brief remarks by Kenneth Westhues, University of Waterloo, and Tim Ireland, Provost, Niagara University. |
| Times | Description |
|---|---|
| 8:00am | Pick up at DoubleTree Hotel for complimentary tour of Niagara Falls, the Niagara River Gorge, and historic and heritage sites of the Niagara Frontier. |
| 8:00am-2:00pm | Itinerary of the tour includes a cruise (raincoats provided) on the world-famous Maid of the Mist, which has been carrying visitors to the base of the falls since 1846. Other possible stops on the tour, depending on weather, include Whirlpool Park, the Niagara Falls Underground Railway Heritage Center, the Niagara Power Vista, the town of Lewiston, and Old Fort Niagara, still intact, well-built by the French exactly 300 years ago. |
“Executive Action as the Cure: the Essential Role of University Leadership in Mobbing Prevention,” Dr. Ann Marie Flynn. A chemical engineer by profession, Dr. Flynn headed the engineering program at Manhattan College for decades, and now consults with universities and businesses on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) goals and expectations.
“Supporting Others While Surviving as a Target: Community Supports and Jousting with Windmills,” Dr. Caroline Crawford (education, University of Houston, Clear Lake), organizer and editor of the 2019 collection, Confronting Academic Mobbing in Higher Education: Personal Accounts and Administrative Action.
“The Art of Mobbing: Francisco Goya’s Visual Documentation of the Bullfight,” Dr. Emily Godbey (art and visual culture, Iowa State University), analyst of memorials and depictions of noteworthy events – see her Conversation in 2020, “Will There Be a Monument to the COVID-19 Pandemic?”.
“Student Power and the Worsening of Academic Mobbing,” Dr. Eve Seguin (political science, University of Quebec at Montreal), specialist in the study of how politics, technology and science intersect, and author of the pungent “Academic Mobbing, or How to Become Campus Tormentors” in University Affairs (2016).
“Mobbing in Our Lives,” Gail Pursell Elliott (HR consultant, Iowa), co-author with Noa Zanolli Davenport and Ruth Distler Schwartz of Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace (1999). This was the first trade book on mobbing published in the USA. Heinz Leymann wrote the foreword just a few months before his death.
“The Brave New World at Work: from the Me-Too Movement to Donald Trump, Political Litmus Tests Transform the Workplace,” Dr. Janice Harper (anthropology), author of Mobbed!, Surviving Workplace Mobbing: Identify the Stages, and notably “The Gentle Genocide of Workplace Mobbing”.
“Disciplinary Mobbing – Exclusion from an Academic Field,” Dr. Joseph Donnermeyer (rural sociology, Ohio State), editor of The Routledge International Handbook of Rural Criminology, author of numerous books and articles on rural crime, and a specialist in the study of Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities.
“Why Mobbing?” Dr. Karen Moustafa Leonard (business management, University of Arkansas, Little Rock), co-author with Fatma Pakdil of Performance Leadership (TM) (2016), author of dozens of articles on cross-cultural differences in how organizations address issues like stress, conflict and cooperation.
“Top Twenty Takeaways from Research on Mobbing,” Dr. Kenneth Westhues (sociology & legal studies, University of Waterloo), author or editor of eight books and scores of articles on mobbing, especially in academe, notably his foundational The Envy of Excellence(2006, 2020).
“Shoot the Messenger: a Personal Account of Academic Mobbing on a Canadian Campus,” Dr. Peter Wylie (economics, University of British Columbia, Okanagan), a prolific writer on technology and politics in Canadian economic history, and author of articles on the “all-administrative campus” in Workplace: a Journal for Academic Labor.
“Failure of Academic Freedom to Protect Mobbing Victims,” Professor Richard Peltz-Steele (law, University of Massachusetts), author of books and articles on civil and human rights and freedom of expression, as well as torts, development and sport – see his blog, The Savory Tort.
“From Experience to Expertise: Naming, Framing, and Claiming Workplace Mobbing as Part of an Individual and Campus Biography,” Dr. Rebecca Pearson (education, New Mexico State University), a senior scholar in public health, education and administration. She will contrast an individualistic perspective that focuses on bully, bystander and victim, with a structural perspective.
“Workplace Mobbing vs. Workplace Bullying: How Are They Different?” Dr. Qingli Meng (criminology, Niagara University), author of numerous articles on corruption in organizations, both in China and elsewhere, notably (with Paul Friday) “Victims of Corruption: a Conceptual Framework,” in Justice for Victims: Perspectives on rights, transition and reconciliation (2014).
“Hidden Toxicity: Psychological Abuse in the Academy,” Dr. Walter DeKeseredy (sociology, West Virginia University), author of the prize-winning Woman Abuse in Rural Places, 25 other books and scores of articles, mostly on violence against women.
Host of the conference is Niagara University, which dates from 1856, and which is meeting the challenges of the present century with extraordinary success. Its president, Rev. Dr. James Maher (theology), and its provost, Dr. Timothy Ireland (criminology), will welcome conference participants.
Among sponsors of this conference is the Edwin Mellen Press, which has published more books on mobbing than any other publisher. Professor Herbert Richardson (theology), Its founder and chief editor, now in his 93rd year, will address the conference on cybermobbing. In 1994, he was the subject of what is still the most famous case of academic dismissal in Canadian history. Dr. Eva Kort will also be on hand representing the Edwin Mellen Press.
A book by the late Joel Inbody, his factual analysis of being mobbed as a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts, will be released posthumously at the conference. His mother, New York educator Kimberly Lewis, will tell the story behind the book, and chronicle the events that led to Joel’s being slain by a gang of six law enforcement officers in New Mexico, in 2023.
Also sponsoring the conference is the Society of Socio-Economists. Its founder and leading light, Professor Robert Ashford, Professor of Law at the University of Syracuse, arranged for a session on academic mobbing way back in 2010, at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools. Professor Ashford will address the conference on “Mobbing and Academic Freedom.”
Due to space limitations, the number of in-person participants is limited to 100. Register as soon as possible to reserve your place by completing the reservation form and sending it to the Conference Registrar. All participants (either in person or virtually) must register for conference.
Niagara University has graciously offered to host this inaugural event alongside the nonprofit Conference on Workplace Mobbing Ltd. (N.Y. incorporation pending). We are privileged to have several co-sponsors, including the Society of Socio-Economists and Edwin Mellen Press.
If you would like to become a sponsor, complete the Contact form below.
We negotiated reduced conference rates at the two hotels below, but these applied only to reservations made by April 30, 2024. Space may still be available at these and other hotels nearby, but at standard rates. Regardless, as a summer tourism hub, Niagara Falls has an abundance hotels, motels, and inns. As July is high season, we encourage in-person participants to secure the accommodation you desire sooner rather than later.
Please direct all questions and inquiries to the Conference Registrar, Dr. Qingli Meng, using form below.
