Within the cohorts affected by the Covid/post-Covid disruptions, do you think that the various in-person conference debacles will exacerbate grad program prestige/initial placement effects? Or might it actually reduce them? Conferences can be incredibly cliquey and unfriendly environments to those not in the right circles, plus I don't think enough people appreciate just how expensive it is for many academics to get to them.
My sense is that there are more venues that matter more now than the big conferences, including subfield-specific seminars and various hand-picked "emerging scholars" events.
“Even during the off-peak times, however, they had large inflatable rats at some of the hotels. They played vuvuzelas or automated noise machines connected to loudspeakers to disrupt hotel functions.”
I worked online years before it was a thing and once moved out of a building because the manager apparently discovered that the PA system was there just for her. She believed she was an unappreciated entertainer and proceeded to “entertain” the residents with announcements and bits and pieces about her day. Since this was meant to be an emergency PA system it screamed WAYHAWAYHAWAYHA each time it was turned on. My job required great focus and deep concentration. I suppose you can imagine how well it went, as I literally fell off the chair a few times, startled by the sudden loud WAYHAWAYHAWAYHA.
After a few weeks in my new building, Local 98 of the IBEW set up the huge union inflatable rat at a tiny condo building across the street complete with loud speakers playing annoying and indistinguishable messages. Moral? Look for rats before you pick a new place.
This sounds about right! I think that the disruptions for our juniors are even worse than this--a lot of sections and APSA have tried to bring grad students in through increased travel subventions, but we are now talking about a micro generation of scholars for whom Covid and related disruptions comprise their experience--arguably a worse disruption even than to undergrad education. As for the conference, my takeaway is that the market for virtual conferences is so small that even in a bad-case scenario you will have people voting with their feet for a crummy in-person experience.
Within the cohorts affected by the Covid/post-Covid disruptions, do you think that the various in-person conference debacles will exacerbate grad program prestige/initial placement effects? Or might it actually reduce them? Conferences can be incredibly cliquey and unfriendly environments to those not in the right circles, plus I don't think enough people appreciate just how expensive it is for many academics to get to them.
My sense is that there are more venues that matter more now than the big conferences, including subfield-specific seminars and various hand-picked "emerging scholars" events.
“Even during the off-peak times, however, they had large inflatable rats at some of the hotels. They played vuvuzelas or automated noise machines connected to loudspeakers to disrupt hotel functions.”
I worked online years before it was a thing and once moved out of a building because the manager apparently discovered that the PA system was there just for her. She believed she was an unappreciated entertainer and proceeded to “entertain” the residents with announcements and bits and pieces about her day. Since this was meant to be an emergency PA system it screamed WAYHAWAYHAWAYHA each time it was turned on. My job required great focus and deep concentration. I suppose you can imagine how well it went, as I literally fell off the chair a few times, startled by the sudden loud WAYHAWAYHAWAYHA.
After a few weeks in my new building, Local 98 of the IBEW set up the huge union inflatable rat at a tiny condo building across the street complete with loud speakers playing annoying and indistinguishable messages. Moral? Look for rats before you pick a new place.
This sounds about right! I think that the disruptions for our juniors are even worse than this--a lot of sections and APSA have tried to bring grad students in through increased travel subventions, but we are now talking about a micro generation of scholars for whom Covid and related disruptions comprise their experience--arguably a worse disruption even than to undergrad education. As for the conference, my takeaway is that the market for virtual conferences is so small that even in a bad-case scenario you will have people voting with their feet for a crummy in-person experience.