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Niagara Conference on Workplace Mobbing

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2025 Niagara Conference on Workplace Mobbing

Following the success of the inaugural 2024 conference, this event continues to elevate public awareness and foster critical discussions on workplace mobbing. By promoting academic dialogue, showcasing innovative research, and inspiring actionable solutions, the conference highlights the moral, social, and legal imperatives of addressing and eliminating workplace mobbing.

Theme: Multidisciplinary Examinations of Workplace Mobbing
Dates: July 21-23, 2025

The 2025 conference will explore the following key themes:

  1. Conceptualizing Workplace Mobbing: Defining workplace mobbing, distinguishing it from workplace conflict, and emphasizing prevention and intervention strategies.
  2. Conflict vs. Mobbing: Identifying early signs of mobbing, investigating its escalation phases, examining the roles of administrative and union dynamics, and analyzing its prevalence in both private-sector and public-sector organizations, especially in academia and healthcare.
  3. Justifications for Workplace Mobbing: Investigating victim-blaming tactics and the rationalizations used by perpetrators to justify their actions.
  4. Research Methodology in Workplace Mobbing: Promoting the need for empirical research and theoretical frameworks. This includes systematically identifying mobbers’ tactics, analyzing organizational influences, and assessing the impacts on individuals, institutions, and society.
  5. Public Awareness and Legal Policies: Advocating for increased public awareness and recognition of workplace mobbing and the development of effective anti-mobbing legislation and policies.
  6. Case Studies and Public Engagement: Presenting real-world examples to foster awareness, inform discussions, and inspire actionable solutions.

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.

Program Registration Fee Deadline
In-person $150 June 1, 2025
Virtual+ $75 No Deadline

+Virtual registrations is free to current NU faculty, staff and students. When registering use your NU email

Catering

The registration fee for in-person attendees includes a formal dinner on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, as well as coffee, juice, and lunch on Monday, July 21, and Tuesday, July 22.

    

We invite submissions from researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and advocates from a variety of disciplines. Proposals for papers, panels, and workshops may include case studies, quantitative or qualitative analyses, or theoretical perspectives contributions. Deadline to submit proposals is April 15, 2025.

The true success of the conference will not rest solely on individual presentations but on the meaningful exchanges and conversations they inspire. All registered participants will be integral to this ongoing dialogue. In addition to thought-provoking panel discussions and presentations, the conference will feature networking opportunities, interactive workshops, and a public lecture designed to foster collaboration and active engagement.

Niagara University Mobbing Conference 2024 Attendees

About The Niagara Conference on Workplace Mobbing

This conference initiates an effort to establish workplace mobbing as a comprehensive scholarly discipline and aims to raise public awareness of mobbing, and establish a connected and interactive community of mobbing scholars, labor experts, and committed attorneys, with the following objectives:
  • A clear conceptualization of workplace mobbing: Identify clear empirical distinctions that set mobbing apart from the broader term of bullying, emphasizing the multidimensional structural framework of workplace mobbing.
  • Mobbing as a scholarly subfield: Establish a disciplinary framework for mobbing, acknowledging its presence in psychology, sociology, administration, political science, economics, and many other disciplines.
  • Scientific research on workplace mobbing: Creating a peer-reviewed journal: The Journal of Workplace Mobbing. Encourage theory and research on root causes and common consequences, profiles of mobbers, and implications for organizations.
  • Policy impact: Identifying directions for future research and promising initiatives for policies aiming for generalizable findings and effective anti-mobbing policies and laws.

This is a program for 2024.  Check back soon for 2025!

All daytime sessions in Dunleavy Hall, Niagara University

TimesDescription
8:00am-8:30am

Free transportation to Niagara University from DoubleTree Hotel, 401

Buffalo Ave, Niagara Falls, New York

8:30am-9:00amCheck in at registration desk
9:00am-9:50am

Opening session: the conference agenda

Chair: Richard Peltz-Steele, University of Massachusetts Law School
Welcome from James Maher, President, Niagara University
Remarks: Kenneth Westhues, University of Waterloo
Greetings from abroad

  • From Gorazd Mesko, University of Maribor, Slovenia
  • From Ian Pace, City University, London, UK
  • From Florencia Peña Saint-Martin, National School of Anthropology
    and History, Mexico DF

Welcome from Herbert Richardson, Founder/Lektor, Edwin Mellen Press

9:50-10:00amShort break, coffee and juice
10:00-11:15am

Conceptualization and Measurement of Workplace Mobbing

  • Chair and presenter: Qingli Meng, Niagara University: “How Mobbing Differs from Bullying”
  • Gail Pursell Elliott, HR consultant, Iowa: “Mobbing in our Lives”
  • Becky Pearson, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces: “From Experience to Expertise: Naming, Framing and Claiming Workplace Mobbing as Part of an Individual and Campus Biography”
  • Emily Godbey, art historian, Iowa: “The Art of Mobbing: Francisco Goya’s Visual Documentation of the Bullfight”
11:15-11:25amShort break, coffee and juice
11:25am-12:25pm

Case studies from Mellen Press

  • Chair: Kenneth Westhues
  • Kimberly Lewis, educator near Buffalo NY: “A Scholar Cut Down, a Son Lost.”
  • Martin Sawma, independent scholar: “Administrative Mobbing in a Graduate School, a Case Study”
12:25-1:25pmComplimentary light lunch
1:25-2:25pm

The current context – unions and administrations

  • Chair: Qingli Meng, Niagara University
  • Peter Wylie, University of British Columbia, Okanagan: “Shoot the
    Messenger: A Personal Account of Academic Mobbing on a Canadian
    Campus”
  • Gina Hanson, “‘You Can’t Sit with Us’: Mobbing in
    Academic Labor Union Work”
2:25-2:35pmShort break, coffee and juice
2:35-3:35pm

The current context – politics and student power

  • Chair: Walter DeKeseredy, West Virginia University
  • Janice Harper, independent scholar, anthropologist, “The Brave New
    World at Work: from the Me-Too Movement to Donald Trump, Political
    Litmus Tests Transform the Workplace”
  • Eve Seguin, UQAM, “Students and the Worsening of Academic Mobbing”
3:35-3:45pmShort break, coffee and juice
3:45-4:45pm

The current context – gender politics

  • Chair: Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University
  • Walter DeKeseredy, West Virginia University, “Hidden Toxicity:
    Psychological Abuse in the Academy”
  • Kerstin Hecker, Pacifica Graduate Institute, “Behind Closed Doors: On Covert Aggression and the Abuse of Power by Women in the Workplace”
5:00-5:30pmFree transportation to DoubleTree Hotel
5:30-7:00pmInformal 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.

TimesDescription
8:00am-8:30am

Free transportation to Niagara University from DoubleTree Hotel, 401

Buffalo Ave, Niagara Falls, New York

8:30am-9:00amCoffee, muffins and croissants
9:00am-10:00am

What has been learned so far

Chair: Richard Peltz-Steele, University of Massachusetts Law School

  • Caroline Crawford, University of Houston: “Supporting Others While
    Surviving as a Target: Community Supports and Jousting with Windmills”
  • Kenneth Westhues, University of Waterloo: “Top Twenty Takeaways from Research on Mobbing”
10:00-10:10amShort break, coffee and juice
10:10-11:10am

Mobbing in industries and disciplines

  • Chair: Qingli Meng, Niagara University
  • George Triantafyllou, University of Crete: “Mobbing in the Hospitality
    Industry: Recent Evidence from Greece”
  • Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University: “Disciplinary mobbing: exclusion from an academic field”
11:10-11:20amShort break, coffee and juice
11:20am-12:20pm

The key role of leadership

  • Chair: Peter Wylie, University of British Columbia, Okanagan
  • Ann Marie Flynn, Columbia University, “Executive Action as the Cure: the Essential Role of University Leadership in Mobbing Prevention”
  • Burcu Erdemir, PhD from NYU, now working in Bahcesehir University, Turkey, “Unethical
    Leadership-Originated Mobbing in Academia: A Turkish Case Study”
12:20-1:20pmComplimentary light lunch
1:20-2:30pm

Mobbing and Academic Freedom

  • Chair and presenter: Rick Peltz-Steele, University of Massachusetts
    Law School, “The Failure of Academic Freedom to Protect Mobbing Victims”
  • Robert Ashford, Syracuse University: “Mobbing and Academic Freedom”
  • Frances Widdowson, Mount Royal University: “Woke-ism and
    Mobbing: my Firing from Mount Royal University”
2:30-2:40pmShort break, coffee and juice
2:40-3:40pm

Toward remedy and prevention of workplace mobbing

  • Chair: Eve Seguin, UQAM
  • Karen Moustafa Leonard, “Why Mobbing?”
  • Maritza Reyes, FAMU, “A Self-Represented Attorney’s Experience
    with Workplace Mobbing as Part of Her Federal Case Strategy”
  • Mingda Huo, “When do you fight and when do you flee from the
    bully? The role of emotional response to bullying for employee
    effectiveness”
3:40-3:50pmShort break, coffee and juice
3:50-4:30pm

Organizational meeting: toward an Association for Researchers on Workplace Mobbing (ARWM)

  • Chair: Qingli Meng, Niagara University
4:30-5:00pmFree transportation to DoubleTree Hotel
6:00-8:30pmDinner 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.
TimesDescription
8:00amPick 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-2:00pmItinerary 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.

Sponsors

Aerial View of the NU Campus

Niagara University has graciously offered to host this inaugural event alongside the nonprofit World Association for Research on Workplace Mobbing (WARWM).

If you would like to become a sponsor, complete the Contact form below.

Hotel Accommodations

View of the American Falls

The conference contract rate hotel room reservation will be available from January 1, 2025, to May 1, 2025. After May 1, 2025, no conference rate room is available. The conference rate hotel room is valid on July 20, July 21, July 22, and July 23).

The conference will arrange free shuttle bus from the hotel to NU campus.

Space may still be available at this 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.

Double Tree

401 Buffalo Ave
Niagara Falls, NY 14303
Phone: 716-524-3333

Contact

Please direct all questions and inquiries to the Conference Registrar, Dr. Qingli Meng, using form below.

Scientific Committee of Niagara Conference on Workplace Mobbing

  • Chair: Peter Wylie, Socioeconomics, University of British Columbia, Okanagan
  • Registrar: Qingli Meng, Criminology, Niagara University
  • Robert Ashford, Law, Syracuse University
  • Walter S. DeKeseredy, Criminology, West Virginia University
  • Joseph Donnermeyer, Criminology, Ohio State University
  • Eve Seguin, Political and Social Science, University of Quebec in Montreal
  • Richard Peltz-Steele, Law, University of Massachusetts
  • Tim Ireland, Provost, Niagara University
  • Gorazd Meško, Criminology, University of Maribor, Slovenia
  • Kenneth Westhues, Sociology, University of Waterloo

Technical/Logistical Support:

  • Yonghong Tong, PhD, Niagara University
  • Michael Jeswald, MBA, Niagara University
  • Valerie Devine, Assistant Director of Support and Web Development, Niagara University
  • Michael Ebbole, Audio Visual Systems Coordinator, Niagara University
  • William Stott, Audio Visual Systems Specialist, Niagara University
  • Chang Huh, PhD, Niagara University

IN THIER WORDS

“Every danger loses some of its terror once its causes are understood.”
Konrad Lorenz

 

“One of the hardest things to learn about mobbing is that it can happen in any organization, even those that pride themselves on their ethical standards. It’s often invisible until it becomes unbearable for the victim.”
Kenneth Westhues
Canadian Sociologist

“Learning about mobbing is learning to see a group’s collective cruelty, not just the actions of individuals. It is a lesson in how the power of the majority can be used to crush the individual.”
René Girard (paraphrased)
French Historian

“Mobbing is a ‘psycho-terror'”
Heinz Leymann

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