Academic conferences & rivalries

[The Seamstress]

Admin note: split from discussion here: https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5086.msg155330#msg155330

Sounds like par for the course at an academic conference, yes

That's why I'm glad that the only conferences I ever visited were online.

[Jubal]

Honestly most of what I've been to in my career so far has been very relaxed and people have been lovely: some niches are much more collegiate than others for reasons I can never fully fathom!

[dubsartur]

Honestly most of what I've been to in my career so far has been very relaxed and people have been lovely: some niches are much more collegiate than others for reasons I can never fully fathom!

Yeah, I think the reason people gripe about academic culture is 1) a few people stuck in nasty niches, and 2) the fact that happy busy people don't post and unhappy understimulated people do.  Maybe competition for jobs at big conferences can be a third nasty element.

I would always recommend attending smaller face-to-face academic conferences if you can scrounge up the money and handle the airborne infection risk.

[The Seamstress]

I was just kidding, but it seems I started a discussion!
Fortunately I didn't encounter nastyness at said conferences, either, as my research field seems to be made up of mostly friendly people. Dress historians, they're nice. 

[Jubal]

I was just kidding, but it seems I started a discussion!
Fortunately I didn't encounter nastyness at said conferences, either, as my research field seems to be made up of mostly friendly people. Dress historians, they're nice. 

In fact I think it probably makes sense to split this, as a disconcerting lack of murders have been beginning for several posts in a row

But yeah - I'm sadly not sure it's just a few people stuck in nasty niches, there are a lot of sections of academia where hyper-competitive people or people with old grudges or indeed just regular creeps ruin the atmosphere. And I think also those of us who are white guys often need to remember that bad atmospheres can easily be less visible and obvious to us. It's one reason why I'm very invested in organising academic spaces, I hope it's a way to help ensure good spaces exist and might provide some better space for people whose other academic connections or home department run in a toxic way.

[dubsartur]

All fair points by Jubal.  Tired.