Session Title: Expanding Relationships, Complex Responsibilities, and Increased Relevance: Where are the Boundaries of Evaluation Practice in a Fuzzy World? Brown Bag Idea Exchange 883 to be held in 207 A on Saturday, Oct 27, 11:50 AM to 12:50 PM Sponsored by the AEA Conference Committee Presenter(s): Cynthia Tananis, University of Pittsburgh, tananis@pitt.edu Abstract: This BrownBag invites evaluation scholar-practitioners to come together to discuss the evolution of evaluation practice in a post-modern world where boundaries shift and phase in and out, where responsibilities seem to increasingly expand and overlap, and where relevance is determined moment to moment. How do we define our practice in this changing milieu? How do we find our center and grounding when we walk on ever-shifting sands? This Think Tank welcomes all to consider and create knowledge as we share from our theoretical and practice-based perspectives. Some questions we will consider include (and as usual, will not be limited to!): 1. How is evaluation practice and theory evolving --- what are we doing and thinking these days that is different than what we were doing and thinking 5 or 10 years ago? 2. Isn’t everyone doing evaluation these days? Where do we belong? How do we interact with an evaluating world? 3. How do we lead ourselves and our profession in the midst of increasing shift in the field and across related fields? 4. How do you define (and conduct) evaluation today? How do we want to define (and conduct) it tomorrow? 5. Is this really just for the Schwandt-ites and academics to worry about? Is this really just a side conversation over coffee for practitioners? How do the dog and tail figure out how to wag?#Postmodern #2012Conference #philosophy