Equitable Conferencing: Caregivers Perspectives and Prospects

The Abstract Academic: Why We Need to Radically Change Conferences

by Nuri Heckler, University of Nebraska

We were awake for most of the night worrying. We just moved to Omaha and did not yet have a babysitter, much less a network of friends to help us care for the children when we were unavailable. Yet, she had an important meeting with several elected officials and I was scheduled to be at a national conference. Which of our careers would take the hit? Both of us felt guilt, hurt, and distrust. It is no wonder, I thought, that so many my fellow tenure-tracked colleagues were leaving the profession.

Feminist organizational scholar, Joan Acker argues that most workplaces are designed for an abstract worker who has few to no private life or health concerns, and is generally imagined as a white heterosexual man. 

What, then, is the abstract academic? 

You probably imagine someone who looks a lot like me. I am a white heterosexual man with a wife, two children, two advanced degrees, and a tenure-track appointment at a state university.

If we look any further, this ideal starts to break down. Women now hold more than half of all jobs in the American workforce, and a recent survey showed that 53 percent of assistant professors are women. Unlike the abstract academic, my wife is a lawyer and lobbyist for wageworkers, which is why I spent four years as a stay-at-home dad. We work consciously to share the childcare, and that means that when I leave for a conference, her life is significantly disrupted.

Conferences conflict with my values in two ways. Conferences disrupt my family’s lives. If I bring my children to a conference, they cannot be at their school, but research shows that absences profoundly impact their education. If I leave them home, my wife must negotiate her responsibilities to underserved clients to spend time doing logistics I normally manage. It is clear that conferences are designed for the abstract heterosexual academic man with a stay-at-home wife.

In the long term, conferences are even more irresponsible. Parents are keenly aware of the global climate crisis we face, and every time we get on an airplane, a part of us is thinking about the consequences for our children. In my case, flying to conferences accounted for more than half of my family’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2019. When I get on an airplane to fly to a conference, I force my children to clean up the mess that I know I’m creating.

It’s time we do better.

Conferences must enter the 21st century. Membership organizations, like ASPA, ARNOVA, APSA, PATNet, and APPAM should work on establishing regional conferences with opportunities to attend sessions electronically. Shorter regional conferences can accommodate working parents by establishing timelines that mostly overlap with weekends, and by enabling more participants to drive or take busses/trains with substantially lower carbon footprint. 

Connections between regions can be maintained using stable online technology. Used well, these systems can encourage working relationships across wide geographies. This process not only reduces the burden on parents, but also opens up conferences to participation from underrepresented areas in the global south.

Regional conferences like SeCOPA, NeCOPA, and MPSA already provide terrific opportunities. Adding a means of accessing panels and colloquia over the internet would enhance these conferences. Additionally, working on ways to facilitate topical conversations related to conference or panel themes would enable borderless collaboration. As these systems develop, it is crucial to include paywalls so that this technology does not unintentionally hollow out these important organizations.

Pursued carefully, these solutions can support a new image of the abstract public administration academic. A parent who prioritizes their family and their children’s future. This academic lives the values that the field of public administration advocates both in their public and their private lives. They live in a world that is more sustainable and cleaner, and they enjoy conferences even when they have young children. This abstract public administration academic is ready for the middle of the 21st century.

                                                  

Nuri Heckler is an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha studying administrative and Whiteness and Masculinity in public organization including governments, nonprofits, and social enterprise. He was a stay-at-home dad before going back to school to pursue his PhD. In his free time, he enjoys taking his kids hiking and cycling, introducing them to musical theater, and teaching them how to enjoy good food.