What Do All-Online Conferences Mean for Junior Researchers?
Throughout 2020, conferences were first canceled, then moved online. This is devastating for young researchers who want to engage in meaningful academic debate and build their networks. However, online seminars and lectures also have the potential to break down barriers related to unequal mobility rights and funding sources. Institutions should, therefore, think carefully about how to enable both good discussions and freer sharing of knowledge online to harness the full potential of virtual conferences.
When I ask my PostDoc colleagues and other more senior researchers how they got to know the people they work with now, the answer is often “I met them at a conference,” or “I had met them at a conference before, and then they had this project… .” For me, as a second-year Ph.D. student, 2020 would have been the year when I would start presenting my work at conferences and workshops, and I was excited about meeting people working on similar topics and building my academic network. And then Covid happened.
A recent report by a big publishing house on the impact of the pandemic summarizes it perfectly, “Academia is a community of knowledge and the Covid pandemic is starving researchers of the lifeblood of their profession.” The lack of real-life interaction does not only mean less travel or after-conference beers. It also takes away much of the excitement I feel when engaging in meaningful discussions and co-thinking with others. And this also impacts my day-to-day motivation to move forward with my Ph.D.
Online Formats Are Good For Some Things
Despite all the above, I also learned throughout 2020 that online formats may be useful for some things. Departmental colloquia and thematic workshops moving online meant that I could discover relevant research that I might have missed otherwise. And the pandemic has probably also lowered the barriers for people to reach out by e-mail after such sessions, which shows that at least an embryonic form of networking is still possible. Online formats are good for targeted, specific feedback, and I have benefited greatly from this in workshops where senior academics were highly engaged and motivated to help advance the work of younger colleagues through constructive comments and suggestions. Online formats also make it easier to invite senior scholars so that more people benefit from sharing knowledge and ideas, independently of their travel budgets, visa restrictions, or academic affiliations.
All of this is great. At times, I even felt excited about sharing knowledge and experiences in a virtual format. However, even the best online discussions can feel a bit bloodless; the academic debates I witnessed were purely focused on content. What was missing were more random discussions, things you did not know were interesting beforehand or connections made between others’ and one’s research during a coffee break discussion. And, of course, the discussions that happen when the official part is over. With all of that, the joy of research as a collaborative enterprise can be left wanting. While this is unfortunate for more senior colleagues, for Ph.D. students it can be devastating.
To Create Real Online Knowledge Sharing, We Need Institutions and Senior Academics to Care
I think it is okay to be discouraged and to complain about what we are missing out on. At the end of our Ph.D., our networks and job prospects will not be the same as those of earlier cohorts of Ph.D. students in similar institutions. However, as young researchers, we can and should also take advantage of the possibilities of online interactions. However, to proceed we need the support of those who organize them and the more senior scholars. We need acknowledgment from the institutional side that informal debate is important. While somehow it was normal to fly across the planet for a keynote lecture or a 2-day-conference before 2020, it now seems as normal that online seminars are reduced to “pure” paper discussions. In both cases, I think, there was and is a lack of reflection on why we choose a specific format, and how format and goal fit together.
Because the classic panel-style format only allows for targeted discussions, some creative thinking is required. Above all, organizers need to adjust the format of an event to its purpose, instead of reproducing digitally what has been done in person before. Virtual conference drinks can work well if there are motivated persons animating discussions, while not dominating them. Online tools can help to engage people who might otherwise not speak up. Dedicated “junior meets senior” sessions in small groups or a speed dating format can be helpful too. Another simple idea is to leave space for informal discussions after a paper presentation – some structured “unstructured” time where there is room for questions that you normally do not ask after a presentation, because they are not directly linked to the paper presented. Virtual coffee breaks during which a Zoom session simply stays open have worked less well in the conferences that I witnessed. People need breaks from screen time, and without some external structure, the barrier remains high for Ph.D. students to reach out to researchers they do not know yet.
Finally, the potential of online events to break down barriers related to unequal mobility rights and financial resources needs to be harnessed purposefully. With the pandemic exacerbating disparities between those with and without care and teaching responsibilities (and so all too often between men and women) and between those who are already well-connected and those who are not, attention to inclusiveness is needed now more than ever. Ph.D. students from less well-off countries and universities need to be explicitly encouraged to take part in online conferences they would otherwise not have considered. Beyond the pandemic, the possibility to participate online should become a regular feature of in-person-conferences, while organizers would need to make sure virtual participants are included in a meaningful way.
To sum up, there are good ideas out there. An upside of 2020 is definitely that more people are willing to engage online. If we think hard about what young researchers need in these times and what formats are good for sharing experiences and serendipity, we can use this pandemic to make academic debate more inclusive and to make it easier, not harder, for young researchers to connect with fellow academics.
Paula Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik is a PhD student at the University of Geneva and works in the project Migration Governance through Trade Mobilites within the nccr – on the move.
Acknowledgments: This blog post was inspired by well-organized workshops that have shown the potentials of sharing knowledge and experience online. Among them were junior scholar conferences organized by the Standing Group on European Studies and Comparative Regionalism within the German Political Science Association and by the Cologne Center for Comparative Politics, as well as by UACES. Thanks also to Daniel Bischof, who pointed at the lack of serendipity during online events with young researchers in a Twitter thread that stimulated much of the thinking behind this blog post.
