The 2011 Congress will devote one or more public forums to the topics surrounding politics, advocacy, scholars, boycotts, the academy and governmental regimes. Our key note speakers will participate in these discussions, which will ask "Is a boycott of scholars from a country with politically problematic policies a reasonable academic protest strategy, particularly given that scholars tend to be the people most critical of their own governments?" Clearly it is not appropriate to hold one person responsible for the reprehensible actions of their university administration.

It is important to expand the discourse to focus on boycotting academics in general. This already happened to S African scholars during apartheid. It could have happened to scholars from many other nations, including U. S. scholars during the Bushist regime in America.

A relational and civic ethic demands that we keep conversation open in an attempt to provide an edifying understanding that allows all voices to be part of the conversation. These and related issues require debate. international scholars are invited to participate in this dialogue and public forum at the 2011 Congress.