Joni Young, an associate professor at the Anderson Schools of Management, is one of three people organizing the national conference of the Academy of Accounting Historians in Santa Fe Nov. 15-17.
Young has been involved with the academy for the last six years and has been on its journal editorial board for five years. She, along with O. Finley Graves, the academy's president from Kansas State University, and Vaughan Radcliffe of Case Western Reserve University, are working to bring together individuals interested in historical and research perspectives dealing with accounting.
The researchers involved are encouraged to write papers, which are then reviewed and organized into logical patterns. The purpose of the conference is to allow people with conservative and liberal perspectives to exchange ideas on a variety of topics, she said.
When asked why she decided to help organize the conference, Young said that she benefited from such forums at the beginning of her career and feels a responsibility to help others in the same way.
"It's a matter of giving back," she said.
During a sabbatical in 1998, she was a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics, presenting papers in Copenhagen; the University of Cork, Ireland; and the University of Essex, in the United Kingdom; among others.
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She said her sabbatical allowed her to talk with people of different backgrounds, giving her insight into different perspectives on her work and her field.
"Being an academic is about an exchange of ideas," Young said.
She said her time in Europe gave her many rich life experiences.
"Anything that enriches your life enriches your classroom experience," Young said. "There is something intangible about it."
Such experience plays out in ways that you can't really measure, she added.
Young grew up in Illinois and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana with a dissertation in accounting regulation and standard-setting. Before joining the faculty at Anderson Schools of Management in 1992, Young taught at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa.
She said she appreciates teaching at UNM.
"The students are great people, they do a great job balancing family, work and school," Young said.
