[HPSG-L] HPSG 2020 Conference -- Call for online organizers

[Asudeh, Ash]

Hi everyone

I haven’t been involved in the HPSG community for a while, so I hope this is not an unwelcome case of interloping, but I want to endorse what Stefan said below. It is time to re-evaluate us academics flying all over the world, especially for a small and already relatively well-connected community such as this one. 

The climate question is a very important aspect of this, probably the most important, but there’s also a basic equity question, too, as Stefan points out. 

An in-person conference that ping pongs all over the world can only be regularly attended by academics from well-resourced universities, in wealthy countries (and whatever locals turn up, but my experience from the LFG conference is that this is hugely variable and not a major factor). 

An online conference is not only kinder to the planet, it is also fairer. Even if technology is not fairly distributed either, it is more fairly distributed than the ability to pay for international airfare and hotel accommodation for several days and the ability to take all that time away from other duties. 

Ash

Sent from a thing that makes typing difficult

> On May 19, 2020, at 9:11 AM, Stefan Müller <St.Mueller at hu-berlin.de> wrote:
> 
> Hi everybody,
> 
> I think I can do this. I am heavily involved in environmental issues and
> I think I have to do it. I think it is easy but I guess I will learn
> about the difficulties on the job. 
> 
> If you (pl) think that I could do this, I would happily take on the task.
> 
> I would also like to take the opportunity to make a suggestion to a
> wider circle of people: We could extend the rotation between Asia,
> Europe and the US to include a virtual meeting every four years.
> 
> We have a big issue in academics: half of our CO2 impact is coming from
> traveling (at least in Europe). We have to get to zero, so this means
> flying has to go down. Zero emission planes will be available in 2050
> (according to the industry, so who knows when they will be there in
> reality).
> 
> Having a virtual conference every fourth year seems to be a step in the
> right direction.
> 
> This would enable participation of those who cannot travel (for
> political, economical, ecological, or social reasons). Also think of
> families with young kids. (women)
> 
> I know that we are human beings and that social contact is very
> important. Who do you sit next to during the conference dinner? Who do
> you have a Apfelsaftschorle with? Some comments are given two days after
> the talk and so on. So it is not easy.
> 
> But we will have to change. There is now way around this. If we do not
> do this reorganization ourselves, our university administrations will
> impose it on us in some years.
> 
> So, let's see, how the virtual meeting in Leuven will work out and we
> could then think about having virtual meetings every four or seven years.
> 
> Best
> 
>     Stefan
> 
> PS: I also keep up my offer of hosting a non-virtual conference in
> Berlin once the turn is in Europe again, but if Leuven did it with ICCG
> next year this would be great. Then the next time for Europe would be in
> 2024 or 2025.
> 
>     St.
> 
>> Am 19.05.20 um 13:53 schrieb Rui Chaves:
>> Greetings,
>> I am writing to you on behalf of the Standing Committee for the
>> International HPSG Conference. We hope you and your
>> families are safe and well.
>> 
>> As you know, the 27th International Conference on Head-driven Phrase
>> Structure Grammar was scheduled to take place at
>> the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Out of respect for the
>> safety of everyone given the current pandemic, the Standing
>> Committee has decided that the conference cannot take place as
>> planned. This is a disappointing and painful decision to everyone,
>> but it is simply impossible to predict when international travel and
>> academic life will return to normal. we thank Frank Van Eynde and
>> Liesbeth Augustinus, the local organizers, for all the hard work that
>> they put into the conference.
>> 
>> Nevertheless, we plan to still hold a conference remotely, and to have
>> the papers that were accepted for this year's conference to
>> appear in the proceedings, as usual. We are therefore making a call
>> for volunteers from the HPSG community to organize a virtual
>> conference, to be held perhaps around the same time as originally scheduled
>> (17-19 August 2020). Those who are interested and able to
>> do this, please let me know as soon as possible.
>> 
>> An online conference is not ideal, of course, but it does have certain
>> important positives: it is more inclusive, more environmentally
>> friendly, and naturally much better than no conference at all. This is
>> an opportunity for us to rise to the occasion.
>> 
>> Rui Chaves
> 
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