Tag: conferences

  • Some thoughts on technology in the post-pandemic university

     One of the curious spectacles of the pandemic (which at least anecdotally it seems many have observed) is the figure of the gifted speaker who we have seen hold an audience in rapt attention struggle to engage or connect through digital media. The obvious parallel to this is the speaker who thrives through the mediation […]

  • Scholarly centres of gravity

    This is a term which Andrew Pickering uses on pg 10 of the Cybernetic Brain to describe the conference series and dining club around which cybernetics coalesced, as organisationally loose and somewhat self-selecting gatherings substituted for the secure institutional base which the majority of participants lacked. Scholarly centres of gravity are what bring people together […]

  • When a conference has a meta-conference: reflections on the first day of live blogging at #undisciplining

    Though Pat, Kate Thomas and I made initial contributions to the live blogging project yesterday, it really kicked off today when the main Undisciplining conference began. The day started with a short meeting for our co-researchers, before we all set off on our way through the conference. These are the results of day one: Trying to […]

  • more spam directed at international event organisers

    This time trying to sell something rather than asking for money on behalf of presumably fictitious delegates: Hi Mark I hope this email finds you well. Are you in charge of organizing Conference on Power, Acceleration and Metrics in Academic Life? I am not sure if you’re the right person to speak with. I was […]

  • #TwitterGate: the ethics of live tweeting

    Some useful resources: A storify of the hashtag If you don’t have social media, you are no one: How social media enriches conferences for some but risks isolating other The Academic Twitterazzi An idea is a dangerous thing to quarantine Tweeting out loud: ethics, knowledge and social media in academe Some live tweeting policies and […]

  • The Chronopolitics of Academic Conferences

    It’s possible to trace out an awful lot of interest about contemporary higher education from this seemingly peripheral phenomenon: No-shows are a common feature at conferences nowadays, but nearly every panel I went to was missing someone and most of them canceled at the last minute and could not be replaced in time. Several of […]

  • The Chronopolitics of Academic Civility

    I noticed an unfamiliar precondition placed at the end of this interesting call for papers on Story’s Place In Our Lives: Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this […]

  • CfP: What are conferences for? The Political economy of academic events

    The Sociological Imagination invites short articles (500-1500 words) critically reflecting upon the prevailing forms of intellectual meeting within the contemporary academy. What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? How could they be done differently? What are the sociological implications of these standardised forms of intellectual meeting? Whose voices do they amplify and whose do they suppress? […]

  • Dear Twitter: can you suggest ways to digitally enhance conferences?

    I asked this question yesterday as I was searching for inspiration prior to a meeting about a conference I’m helping organise. There are so many ideas here, it seems unlikely we’ll be able to adopt many of them. I’m keen to explore ways to go beyond the usual repertoire of filming talks and live tweeting […]