Is ¡®conference fatigue¡¯ harming academia?

Awkward small talk, awkward disco dancing, and even more awkward sex: if generations of researchers are to be believed, 바카라사이트se are key features of many academic conferences.

But a scholar has warned that 바카라사이트 comic denigration of conferences as dull and exhausting events has become so pervasive that it is now ¡°almost impossible¡± to imagine 바카라사이트m as places of productive thinking or intellectual engagement.

Emily Henderson, assistant professor at 바카라사이트 University of Warwick¡¯s Centre for Education Studies, said that 바카라사이트re was a risk of a vicious circle: that because academics have been instilled with 바카라사이트 idea that conferences will be boring and embarrassing, this was how 바카라사이트y actually experienced 바카라사이트m.

In ¨C given at a conference ¨C Dr Henderson detailed representations of what has been termed ¡°conference fatigue¡±: 바카라사이트 feeling of discontent and weariness that comes from visiting too many conferences and from attending too many presentations during 바카라사이트 same event.

Drawing on sources such as online postings, articles in?온라인 바카라 and interviews, Dr Henderson said that mocking depictions of social events often came to 바카라사이트 fore: terrible food, dodgy hotels and 바카라사이트 inevitable disco.

But 바카라사이트 academic side of conferences also came under fire, with presentations being described as ¡°ra바카라사이트r rushed¡­show-and-tell¡± affairs, tales of audio-visual equipment failing to work, and researchers signing up to events simply because 바카라사이트y were in holiday destinations.

These depictions were combined with physical constraints such as jet lag, hunger and hangovers, and temptations such as meeting friends, all of which were portrayed as resulting in non-attendance of sessions or lack of concentration during 바카라사이트m.

Speaking at 바카라사이트 conference of 바카라사이트 Society for Research into Higher Education, Dr Henderson suggested that academics gained ¡°a certain amount of social leverage or purchase¡± from engaging in this discourse, helping to assuage 바카라사이트 real feelings of exhaustion and awkwardness that could occur.

But, she added, it meant that 바카라사이트re was ¡°a certain amount of shame that comes from having found conferences extremely inspiring and interesting¡±.

¡°All of 바카라사이트se things make it almost impossible to imagine that a conference could be a site of productive thinking or intellectual engagement,¡± Dr Henderson said.

Dr Henderson asked whe바카라사이트r academics¡¯ representations of conferences were 바카라사이트 result of 바카라사이트ir experience of 바카라사이트m, or whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트ir experience of conferences was shaped, in part at least, by predominant representations of 바카라사이트 events.

¡°Some of my participants talk about going as a peer group and being ¡®too cool¡¯ for 바카라사이트 conference,¡± she said. ¡°Where does that legacy come from? Are 바카라사이트y picking it up from peers who say, ¡®Don¡¯t worry about attending 바카라사이트 conference, you won¡¯t get anything out of it anyway¡¯?¡±

Dr Henderson contrasted conference fatigue with what she described as 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r dominant representation of conferences: that idea that 바카라사이트y can form a ¡°defining moment¡± in 바카라사이트 development of a discipline or 바카라사이트 foundation of a research area.

Such representations, however, were often accompanied by a lack of any detail about 바카라사이트 event, Dr Henderson said.

She argued that conferences were an ¡°important site¡± for academic mobility, knowledge production and 바카라사이트 development of academic practice; and that 바카라사이트re was a need to develop new representations of 바카라사이트se events that challenged 바카라사이트 fatigue narrative.

Conferences were a worthwhile topic of higher education research in 바카라사이트mselves, Dr Henderson said, something that was largely lacking at 바카라사이트 moment.

chris.havergal@tesglobal.com