Thread by @raulpacheco

It's July 7th, 2021, and I have finally gained an insight I had obscured for years.

I TRAVELLED TOO MUCH THROUGHOUT MY EARLIER CAREER.

Yes, obviously, I'm a senior professor now and I can get away with saying "thanks for the invitation but no thanks".

I didn't feel that way.

I felt that, in the absence of many publications, I HAD to travel the globe, attend conferences, network and showcase my research. I wasn't publishing enough, and even more so, I wasn't publishing A LOT in English, which is the lingua franca of academia whether we like it or not.

I've also the "Publish A Metric Tonne" strategy for Fear of Being Missed Out (FOBMO) raulpacheco.org/2019/12/on-imp…

At the time, my decisions made sense, even if I knew that travelling that much had many downsides (particularly for my health) raulpacheco.org/2013/11/the-do…

(typo in earlier tweet- I've also implemented the ...)

Anyhow, 17 months after being basically grounded, I am delighted to say that I don't plan to do the academic conference circuit the way I did (AAG, APSA, ASPA, ISA, MPSA, PMRC, IASC, ICPP).

I'm going to be SUPER SELECTIVE.

Can a junior scholar, graduate student, contingent faculty member, scholar from the Global South afford NOT to do the academic conference circuit (the way I'm doing now, because I have the privilege of a permanent job and seniority?).

Not really, and that's SUPER fucked up.

We need to increase accessibility to contingent faculty members, junior scholars, graduate students, scholars from the Global North.

And yes, associations, that means: don't fucking establish membership fees of 500 euros, conference registration fees upward of 200 USD, etc.

I would say that in addition to travel and lodging costs, registration fees and membership fees are the two top financial barriers that inhibit access to scholars at the margins.

Want to make academia LESS elitist? Lower conference registration and membership fees.

Also, increase hybrid/online participation.

PATNET, CPSA, IASC (the only three conferences I did this year), all did very low registration fees, and very low membership fees too.

It can be done. Yes, I'm probably going to get backlash for this.

But I'm a senior prof so...

(the privilege of being a well-connected, senior professor with a large Twitter audience is that I can advocate for contingent faculty, students and early career scholars without fearing much backlash - I am well aware of my privilege and I wield it for good).

Having said all of the above, if i get an invitation to Paris or Madrid, it’s going to be really hard to say “no” :)