Niagara University Conference on Workplace Mobbing Builds Foundation for Future Research and Initiatives

More than 70 scholars from 15 countries across the globe participated in Niagara University's inaugural Conference on Workplace Mobbing, July 22-24, 2024. The event was intended to develop a clear conceptualization of the critical social process known as workplace mobbing that sets it apart from the broader term of bullying, and to establish it as a scholarly subfield to encourage scientific research on the topic, with the ultimate goal of informing policy and creating effective anti-mobbing frameworks.

The conference opened with a welcome from the Rev. James J. Maher, C.M., Niagara University president, and prominent scholars Dr. Gorazd Meŝko, professor in the faculty of criminal justice and security at the University of Maribor, Ljubljana Slovenia; Dr. Ian Pace, professor of music, culture, and society in the School of Policy and Global Affairs at City, University of London, UK; and Dr. Florencia Peña Saint-Martin, professor in the National School of Anthropology and History, Mexico City, Mexico.

"The academy needs to be a place of free expression, and it also needs to be a place where human dignity is respected, elevated, and part of the fabric of the community," said Father Maher.

Following the welcome, experts in the field led three days of dynamic discussion and dialogue on workplace mobbing in presentations that were available both in person and virtually.The 21 presentations covered diverse topics such as the conceptualization and measurement of workplace mobbing, the roles of unions and administrations, student power, gender politics, leadership in mobbing cases, and remedies for workplace mobbing.

Some highlighted presentations include:

• "How Mobbing Differs from Bullying" by Dr. Qingli Meng, senior lecturer in Niagara University's computer and information sciences department.
• "From Experience to Expertise: Naming, Framing, and Claiming Workplace Mobbing as Part of an Individual and Campus Biography" by Dr. Becky Pearson, department chair and professor at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces.
• "The Art of Mobbing: Francisco Goya's Visual Documentation of the Bullfight" by Dr. Emily Godbey, art historian, Iowa.
• "Exploring Cybermobbing through a Case Study Approach" by Dr. Herbert Richardson, founder of the Edwin Mellen Press in Lewiston, N.Y.
• "A Self-Represented Attorney's Experience with Workplace Mobbing as Part of Her Federal Case Strategy," by Dr. Maritza Reyes, Florida A&M College of Law.

A selection of eight conference papers will be compiled and published as an edited book by Edwin Mellen Press, and all papers were printed in a Conference Papers on Workplace Mobbing document. The full list of presentation topics and 17 of the 21 presentations are available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@ConferenceonWorkplaceMobbi-s1z

"The Niagara Conference on Workplace Mobbing represented a pivotal moment in the institutionalization and study of workplace mobbing," said Dr. Meng, who served as registrar of the conference. "It successfully established workplace mobbing as a distinct scholarly subdiscipline and emphasized its multidimensional structural nature, distinguishing it from broader terms like bullying. It also promoted research into the root causes, consequences, and profiles of mobbers."

With support from Niagara University's President's Office, Provost's Office, and Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, along with many other campus departments, the conference successfully laid the foundation for future initiatives, including the creation of the World Association for Research on Workplace Mobbing,the establishment of an annual Niagara Conference on Workplace Mobbing, and the launch of a Workplace Mobbing Research Institute, Dr. Meng added.

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