[SIGCIS-Members] SIGCIS Conference 2020: Regretfully Canceled

[Laine Nooney]

To our fabulous SIGCIS community,

It is with great regret that I write to announce the cancellation of the
SIGCIS 2020 fall conference. The organizing team was incredibly excited to
share the conference call and keynote selection for our annually co-located
event with SHOT, scheduled for this year in New Orleans. Yet as the time
for launching the CFP approached, we felt it was essential to take an
unvarnished view of current events.

Travel and large gatherings seem likely to remain restricted in the fall
and will certainly remain high risk for many members of our community.
Furthermore, many of us are experiencing greater institutional and economic
precarity than ever before, as we watch hiring lines pulled, offers
withdrawn, and research funds frozen. The full impact of COVID-19 is going
to run a long course through our community.

This decision is not a message about the likelihood of SHOT happening.
Rather, as a small set of volunteers with no economic liabilities/contracts
in play, we made the decision that we did not want to go through the labor
of pulling together a conference if there was a probability that it would
need to be canceled or it would be challenging for members of our community
to attend.

We considered keeping our call and holding the conference virtually, but
virtual events have their own logistical challenges, in addition to all the
standard labor of conference organization. In short, we did not think it
was prudent for the mental health of any of us to take on a set of new and
unfamiliar burdens in the middle of a pandemic that is rapidly changing our
research, teaching, and service. Furthermore, we all shared an unease about
putting out a call for scholarship during these obviously turbulent times;
moving forward as if business was usual did not sit well with any of us.

We do intend to organize some kind of connecting event, probably virtually,
during the weekend that SIGCIS would usually occur. However, we want to be
able to be responsive to where people are, professionally and emotionally,
in several months. Therefore, we are not making commitments to format just
yet.

This decision was made with a grim certainty that this was the right course
of action; that doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard to make. For all of us on the
organizing committee—myself, Stephanie, Morgan, Andy, and Kera—SIGCIS is a
key intellectual and interpersonal community, a space of not just
colleagues, but friends. Personally speaking, SIGCIS has become one of the
highlights of my academic year, and I have tremendous gratitude for how
enthusiastically so many of you have supported the work this team does, as
we work to build a history that imagines a better future.

Stay safe--until we meet again,

SIGCIS Conference Committee
Laine Nooney, Vice-Chair of Meetings
Stephanie Dick
Morgan Ames
Andy Russell, SIGCIS Chair
Kera Allen


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Laine Nooney <http://www.lainenooney.com/>

MCC <http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/mcc/> @ NYU <http://www.nyu.edu/>
Assistant Professor

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-Probably typed by voice recognition, so please cherish typos
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