Since we're debating conferences again, I will say that what I miss in my career stage is seeing old dear friends (who make this job bearable TBH); & wandering into random talks by ECRs who are saying things I haven't heard a million times & invigorating the field, & then +
Conversation
bumping into those folks & getting to know them a little. Renewing (& forging new) ties are how the profession sustains itself.
(Yes, we shd be mindful of accessibility & carbon; & need to include *meaningful* remote access looking ahead.)
The job is way worse w/o these things.
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My last 4S was NOLA in 2019. I stayed a couple extra days to catch up with an old friend, & I had nice chats w jr scholars thru mentorship program & informally, & have stayed in touch w several of them. I also told a few ppl I bumped into on the street that I liked their talks.
That was a good note to go out on I guess, but it really stinks if we don't find our way back to some of that. I haven't had good connection/thinking in concert experiences w online conferencing, except for one or two, & they were much smaller, more intentional than the big ones.
Put differently, for me the profession is really not the same without the conf. If Covid is what breaks conferencing, & employers (those that even did cover it) decide we no longer need confs to do the job, there will be major impacts on what our fields & jobs are. Even if+
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various aspects of the "old way" weren't great & could stand to be tweaked/improved, IMO ditching the interactions will over time have a major, not-good effect on knowledge production and reproduction of fields.
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Scholarship is not just brains in vats or words on pages. We need trust & fellow-feeling to do this work together & some of that is generated in conf's.
(Lol, OF COURSE this 🧵 is what an STS person would say, too. Fight me!) (please don't)
Replying to
Every time an STS person flies for a conference, a sea turtle dies from a plastic straw caused by the emissions
I don’t make the rules

