Dear Committee Members,
the email below was sent to the AIW mail server today. Fact is, that I cannot send it in this form to the whole AIW mailing list. The AIW mail server cannot function as a platform for discussion, especially not for Business Meeting discussions. I thought I had made this clear when we discuss about platforms for the discussion of the AIW Journal. I can send out max. 2 emails per day through the mail server and I am sure there will be some responses to this email. If we calculate that only 5 % of the 850 members on the mailing list will responding to this email, there will be more that 40 emails sent to the mail server. We cannot handle this through the mail server, because it will be blocked for 20 days then.
Moreover, it is a discussion for AIW Business Meeting, not to the whole group.
I suggest to discuss this tomorrow during the Committee Meeting. Maybe the people who undersigned it, can suggest another solution for discussing this topic without using the AIW mail server?
Best, Renate
Von: Thomas Donald Jacobs thomasdonald.jacobs@ugent.be Gesendet: Mittwoch, 1. Juni 2022 08:17 An: members@list.american-indian-workshop.org Betreff: General Business Meeting Item: Hybrid Conferences
Dear colleagues,
During the last general business meeting of the 42nd American Indian Workshop in Nicosia, concerns were voiced by several people regarding the safety and well-being of LGBTQIA+ and Two Spirit scholars at future conferences. This was in relation to forthcoming AIW's set to be held in countries whose governments have enacted oppressive laws and/or promoted negative attitudes towards their own LGBTQIA+ communities. Unfortunately, these concerns were downplayed, invalidated, and ultimately dismissed by some AIW members. This reflected especially poorly on the AIW considering that the call for papers last year had resulted in a particularly large number of LGBTQIA+ and Two Spirit attendees and presenters. Not only do such microagressions have an accumulative, harmful psychological effect on minority groups (Johnson et al., 2021), but it gave the impression that LGBTQIA+ and Two Spirit people are merely objects of study, rather than respected colleagues with particular expertise and lived experiences.
Nevertheless, the link between the rise of reactionary political movements and an increase in hate crimes - whether verbal or physical - against sexual and gender minorities is observable. ILGA-Europe has tracked developments in human rights relating to the LGBTQIA+ community for over a decade, and its most recent annual report highlights this connection (ILGA- Europe, 2021). While ILGA-Europe points out that reactionary movements are inspiring hate crimes across Europe, countries whose governments have enacted anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation are an especial point of concern for members of that community, even when such policies are not widely supported among the general population. Such laws are a form of institutionalized hate speech that not only contribute to the erosion of anti-discriminatory norms (Bilewicz and Soral, 2020), but which also have a negative impact on the mental and physical well-being of their targets via increased minority stress.
It is unreasonable to demand that LGBTQIA+ and Two Spirit academics - many of whom already combat discrimination on a regular basis in their country of origin - deal with it abroad when they are simply trying to further their careers like other scholars. Indeed, we do not want to see anyone - whether as an organizer or as an attendee - prevented from participating in the AIW because of political developments beyond their control. Therefore, we propose that all future conferences be planned as fully hybrid gatherings. Since the first experiment with webcasting at the 35th AIW in Leiden in 2014, the necessary communications technology has become both easier to use and more reliable. Moreover, people have become much more familiar with it as a consequence of the pandemic. Indeed, online conferencing rate favourably against in-person events on many fronts - the exceptions being networking and social interaction (Raby and Madden, 2021). And these would not be entirely lost with a fully hybrid conference.
Thus far, two AIW's have been held entirely online. The experiences of those organizers can be compiled into a basic manual for future hosts in order to provide advice on the software, hardware, and personnel necessary for hybrid conferencing. Not only is this entirely feasible, but it would have additional benefits for the AIW and its membership. Increasing budget cuts are having a negative impact on international mobility among humanities scholars. Eliminating travel costs would allow greater participation, and encourage academics from further afield to attend the AIW. Finally, videoconferencing - while not carbon neutral - is undeniably greener and can be made more so (Ong, Moors and Sivaraman, 2014; Faber, 2021).
Thank you for your consideration,
The undersigned:
Thomas Donald Jacobs
Padraig Kirwan
James Mackay
Amy Ruckes
David Stirrup
Simone van Eik
Dymfke van Lanen