With a focus on connecting, we hope you can recharge and engage with us at ASB 2023. ASB has a long tradition of being a friendly, developmental conference where new connections are made and old ones rekindled. Sometimes those connections are between people, and sometimes they happen through ideas. Other times, we experience connection with a particular place. Often, these connections enrich and energize us. It is our connections that shape us as colleagues, teachers, researchers, community members, and friends.

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Connecting can imply both reconnecting and disconnecting. For example, many of us are eager to reconnect given the social isolation of COVID-19. However, disconnecting can allow us to recharge, which is needed in our plugged-in and fast-paced world. Despite these positive connotations, disconnecting can evoke critical thought. For example, the community of Africville suffered deeply when disconnected from their land and home, a disconnection which simultaneously served to connect the communities of Halifax and Dartmouth through the construction of the Mackay Bridge.

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Connecting is enabled by building bridges to different lands and different communities with respective ideologies. Connecting allows us to engage with the Other. There is a dark side to connecting, however. Connections can have a detrimental impact on persons and communities. Policies like the ‘Right to Disconnect,’ intended to thwart the always-connected work ethic, are beginning to appear in organizations across Canada. Connections are also at the basis of ideas which shape our academic endeavours. When we connect with one another, we are open to different ways of thinking and seeing. Connecting can expose us to diversity of thought.

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Whether you are coming to ASB to connect with our community for the first time, disconnect from your virtual meetings or reconnect with face-to-face modes of communication, we look forward to celebrating connections with you.