[SIGCIS-Members] SIGCIS Conference 2020: Regretfully Canceled

[LO*OP CENTER, INC.]

Dear SIGCIS Members,

If any of you or your students find you have extra time on your hands I
could really use some help with the History of Computing in Learning and
Education (HCLE) Virtual Museum project. I am not associated with any
schools or universities and so do not have a stable of students looking for
tasks and topics. My archive could probably spawn 100 masters degrees and
many PhDs but first I need help to get the material organized and the ed
tech pioneers interviewed. Much of this work can be done remotely. Sadly I
have no funding but would be happy to collaborate on grant proposals.

Please circulate this plea among your colleagues.

Sheltering with 1000 documents,

Liza

Liza Loop
Executive Director, LO*OP Center, Inc.
Guerneville, CA 95446
www.loopcenter.org
650 619 1099 (between 8 am and 10 pm Pacific time only please)
Volunteer with sonomacounty.recovers.org, rocsonomacounty.org,
campfirebutte.recovers.org



On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 7:28 AM Laine Nooney <laine.nooney at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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 withdrawn, and research funds frozen.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
>
>
> ---------------------------------------
>
> Laine Nooney <http://www.lainenooney.com/>
>
> MCC <http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/mcc/> @ NYU <http://www.nyu.edu/>
> Assistant Professor
>
> -Need to make an appt? Click, don't email: https://bit.ly/2GIHuK0
> -Probably typed by voice recognition, so please cherish typos
> _______________________________________________
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