This year’s Iowa Language and Cultural Concerns Conference, with the theme "Diversity and Unity in the Heartland," will take place at the Airport Holiday Inn Conference Center in Des Moines. Preconference events will be held on February 19. The conference is sponsored by the Iowa Department of Education.

Keynote speakers will be Dr. Khatharya Um, Asian American Studies Program, University of California at Berkeley; Frank Sharry, National Immigration Forum, Washington, DC; and Patricia Davenport, Education Initiative at the American Productivity and Quality Center, Houston, TX. Conference strands will include K-12, Tutors and Parents, Refugees/Newcomers, Adult/Higher Education, Folklife, Migrant, Administration/Assessment, and General Interest. Early-bird registration (paid before December 10) will be $75; Pre-registration (paid before January 19) will be $85; late registration (after February 14, 2002) will be $125; and student registration will be $60.

For further information, see http://testing.state.ia.us/educate/programs/ecese/is/ell/index.html or contact Helene Kaplan, Conference Coordinator, at 515-270-9030 ext. 4635 or 800-244-0405 ext. 4635. She may also be reached via e-mail at hkaplan@aea11.k12.ia.us.

In addition to the program sessions, special events at this year’s TESOL Convention include the CALL Electronic Village, the Graduate Student Forum, Job Search Workshops, Pre- and Post-Convention Institutes, and the Swap Shop. Featured speakers will include Neil Anderson of Brigham Young University who will speak about "Using Telescopes, Microscopes, and Kaleidoscopes to Put Metagcognition into Perspective" and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas of the University of Roskilde, Denmark, who will speak about "Linguistic Diversity, Biodiversity, and the Future of Our Planet.
For further information, see http://www.tesol.org/conv/index-conv.html

The next conference of Region 7 of the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) will take place in Kansas City, MO on May 17-18, 2002 on the campus of the University of Missouri at Kansas City. The theme will be "Achieving Academic Success for all Students Through Multicultural Education: Our Collective Responsibility."

The sessions will open with a speech by Dr. James Boyer of Kansas State University, a NAME founder, and will include a banquet at which President Karen Gayton Swisher, President of Haskell Indian Nations University, will speak. Registration is $75 for members, $85 for nonmembers, and $45 for students. Add $15 for registrations after March 1, 2002.

For further information, contact the conference chair, Dr. Omiunota Nelly Ukpokodu, by mail at 4214 W. 12^th Street, Lawrence, KS 66049 or by e-mail at ukpokodun@umkc.edu.