Do you miss seminars? I sure don’t. Don’t get me wrong. There are some things that I miss terribly. I really miss spending time with my cohort, seeing my advisors regularly, and going out for the occassional post-seminar beer. However, there were a lot of seminars that I took before my qualifying exams that I would like to forget. (I am still waiting for the day that my nightmares about my methods and historiography seminar stop.) And there is a lot of good drink to be found in Japan.
This past weekend, I sat in a seminar-like event put on by Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE) New Scholars group. While there are about 20 participants total, the sessions were small and focused on one or two works-in-progress papers. Around 5 – 8 people per session talked about academic papers at different times of the day in different time zones. The number of people in attendance made it feel seminar-like.
However, the sessions were very different from many — not all — of the seminars that I have suffered through. To begin with, the sessions happened everywhere. They happened wherever the participant was located and had a reliable internet connection. In one of the sessions, we talked about 2 papers on histories of fisheries in Australia and Canada with people siting in London, Ont., Melbourne, Ottawa, Toronto, and Atsugi. People spoke from their offices, bedrooms, and favourite coffee shops. We even had one person participate from his sleeping bag!
There were, of course, challenges to talking to people about their work without seeing them, of course. During the wrap up session, in which we had 10 people online at the same time, some people commented that it was sometimes challenging to talk to people without physical cues. Many of the calls were punctuated with moments of silence. However, I often took the silence as moments of thoughtfulness. People were just preparing themselves to say something brilliant. Besides, there some physical cues that I could do without. Yawns in seminar aren’t usually times when people are warming up to say something fabulous.
And despite being on the computer all day, I think that most people were focused on the conversations and not on email, Facebook updates, or on who won the game. During the conversation, you didn’t have the time goof off. Because the physical cues were not there, you had to be totally focused on the conversation. I was always worried that someone was going to blindside me, catch me off guard when I wasn’t listening. Nobody really worries about this in a seminar, discussion section, or conference. You know when people are not listening.
Last weekend, everyone in attendance had done their reading. Everyone paid attention. Everyone talked. Everyone was respectful. And everyone had a great time. Weird, right?
For me, the success of the conference was yet another reminder of why I stay so engaged with NiCHE New Scholar’s monthly workshop. If you are a graduate student or postdoc studying environmental history or a related field and are interested in getting involved in the NiCHE New Scholars Reading Group, please following link. CLICK HERE. Or you could contact me directly through this blog. Just write a comment, and I will put you in touch with our leader.
Great idea to run this remotely and digitally, Colin — and you’re right that people actively choosing to do something like this are likely to be plugged in throughout the day, contributing.
What technology did you use? Skype, or something different?
Thanks for the comment, Richard. Yes, we used Skype, and it worked wonderfully. There was something about not being able to see someone face-to-face that required all of the participants to be at their most attentive. One of the conference organizers, Will Knight, compared the experience to listening to a good radio drama. No one wanted to fade out of the conversation in fear of missing something crucial to the plot.
I like Will’s analogy. We’re talking about ways for ALECC folk to remain connected in our disparate locations, for similar reasons to those behind NiCHE’s assorted efforts, and this model is one of several we’ve been pondering. I’ll be sure to pass on word about your good experience.
Great. If you try it out, please let us know how it works for you.
For anyone interested in learning more about this particular virtual workshop, I did an interview with one the workshop organizers, Will Knight, on my blog here:
http://www.seankheraj.com/?p=881
I also recorded an interview with the other main organizer, Lauren Wheeler on this episode of the Canadian environmental history podcast:
http://www.seankheraj.com/?p=807
I will also echo all of Colin’s comments. The virtual workshop seemed to be quite a success. It was incredible to connect with environmental history researchers from so many different parts of the world. In my session, we reviewed a Masters thesis chapter by a graduate student in British Columbia. Other graduate students from Australia, France, Alberta, Ontario, and Georgia (US) all participated in this session and shared thoughts and comments on the draft chapter.
I hope that participants will remain active in the NiCHE New Scholars community and consider taking part in the regular reading group. More info on that here:
http://niche-canada.org/new-scholars/reading-group