Let me preface this post by saying I have been super-privileged to be able to go to so many academic events around the world. But therein lies the exact problem with Congress (and similar events). Michael Holden writes, in defence of Congress, that "Congress isn't just an event, it's a community." Right. Exactly. It's an exclusive community where you need institutional and financial backing to have a seat at the table. And as more and more of these take place, the more attendees retreat into their own community and away from the wider world. In a way I'm not only been privileged, I've been lucky. The life of someone like me is that you're never actually a member of any of these communities; always an outsider, I can (sort of) see the wider world, and the incongruence insider societies foster is plain to me. I've always argued for open, and always made my presentations open (despite some reluctance from my hosts), and always wondered why more (or any!) academics don't do the same.
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