Eastern Sociological Society
CONFERENCE CODE OF CONDUCT
OVERVIEW
The Eastern Sociological Society is convened for the purposes of professional development, the free exchange of ideas, and the promotion of scholarly debate within the spirit of academic freedom, while ensuring integrity, dignity, respect, and fairness. Its annual meeting serves as an important regional networking event for sociologists and often draws sociology faculty, students, and practitioners from across the United States. ESS is committed to ensuring that its annual conference is a productive space for its members and other participants including volunteers, invited guest speakers, sponsors, vendors, and conference facilities staff. The conference should be a positive experience for all, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, language, religion, age, disability, educational or socio-economic status.

EXPECTATIONS
All conference participants play a vital role ensuring that the event is a professional environment free from harassment and other unacceptable behavior, where diversity is respected and disagreement is framed in a manner that reflects commonly understood and accepted professional academic standards, ethics, and norms. Conference attendees are asked to adhere to a code of conduct that reflects the above expectations.
Please read this statement and acknowledge you understand the following definitions of harassment and unacceptable behavior:
ESS defines harassment as any action or actions undertaken individually or as a group that causes fear, distress, or alarm. This includes drawing attention to protected characteristics of another individual or deliberately engaging in actions which create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment for another conference attendee. Unacceptable behaviors may or may not be deliberate.
They can also happen in person and virtually, at the conference itself, or via online and social media platforms (including personal social media accounts). Such behaviors may include but are not exclusive of actual or implied threat of verbal and physical assault (including sexual assault); stalking; sexist, discriminatory, disparaging, or derogatory statements (including jokes and innuendo); use of foul or obscene language; unsolicited physical conduct; violating personal space; bullying; shouting down, threatening, persistently interrupting, or talking over participants; sustained disruption of presentations, Q&A sessions, or other events; and photography or video/audio recordings without permission.

REPORTING PROCEDURES
Any conference participant who experiences or is witness to harassment and/or unacceptable behavior which could be deemed to violate this Code of Conduct or cause distress is encouraged to speak confidentially with a member of the conference team (identifiable via their conference badge or located at the main information desk).
Alternatively, they can email ESS at ess@wpunj.edu. This can be done at any time during the conference or within 14 days after the conference has ended. ESS takes any violation of this Code of Conduct seriously and all reported instances will be recorded, investigated and where appropriate, result in administrative action.
ESS requires any conference participant who is asked to stop harassing or unacceptable behavior to comply immediately and cooperate with any subsequent investigation. ESS has discretion and, following the conclusion of an investigation where violation of the Code of Conduct is confirmed, reserves the right to deny an individual or individuals access to the remaining conference, disqualify them from participating in future conferences and/or cancel their membership.
ESS will not tolerate any attempted or actual reprisals or retaliation against the organization or any individual who, in good faith, either raised their concern that this Code of Conduct has been violated, or who may have cooperated with an investigation.
If any conference participant or ESS member has a query about this Code of Conduct, they may contact the ESS Executive Committee at the following address: ess@wpunj.edu Two or three members of the Executive Committee will comprise the Ethics Committee charged with review.