Workshops Without Borders: Building an Online Community of Japan Scholars
Workshops Without Borders: Building an Online Community of Japan Scholars
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无国界研讨会：建立日本学者在线社区
DOI：
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发表时间：
2022
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Daniel M. Smith
中科院分区：
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作者：
A. Catalinac;Charles Crabtree;Christina L. Davis;Shinju Fujihira;Y. Horiuchi;Phillip Y. Lipscy;F. Rosenbluth;Daniel M. Smith
DOI:10.1017/S1049096522000270 2020 年 6 月，中东政治学项目 (POMEPS) 为初级学者举办了一次虚拟研究研讨会，以填补因 COVID-19 大流行而取消大量会议和研讨会所留下的空白。在 2021-2022 学年，我们大幅扩展了虚拟研讨会，包括 18 个专门针对书籍手稿或期刊文章手稿的研讨会。由于这种形式的灵活性、效率以及多样性和包容性的优势，即使旅行再次成为可能，我们也计划继续采用这种形式。然而，存在需要注意的成本和风险。总体而言，向虚拟研究研讨会的转变取得了巨大成功。自成立以来，POMEPS 已举办了 24 场研讨会，其中包括 82 名初级学者作者和 58 名高级学者讨论者。每个两小时的文章研讨会通常包含三篇论文，每篇论文都有一名指定的讨论者。作者被要求阅读另外两篇论文，而讨论者可以但不要求这样做。作为召集人和主持人，我阅读了所有论文并提供了第二组评论来补充指定的讨论者。图书研讨会的强度更大，通常一篇论文持续 90 分钟，两篇相关主题的论文持续 3 小时。每本书的手稿都有两位忠实的读者，除了我自己以及通常是评选委员会的另一位成员。我们在 2021-2022 学年举办了 11 场虚拟图书研讨会。中东政治学（以及更广泛的中东研究）界的支持是惊人的。虽然我们不能提供酬金，但几乎所有受邀讨论者通常都会同意参加。如果他们无法提供帮助，他们通常会提供替代方案的建议——当论文或书籍的主题超出组织者的专业领域时，这很有用。 Zoom 会议永远不会像现场研讨会那样有趣，但相对较小的小组规模可以让每个人都参与其中并允许进行个人互动。作者不会展示他们的手稿，假设他们已经提前阅读了手稿，这保持了很高的参与度，因为很少有长时间只听的情况。虚拟形式使我们能够更全面地纳入中东和欧洲的学者，否则对他们来说，费用可能会高得令人望而却步，并会带来复杂的签证问题。我们可以提供邀请，而无需考虑物理距离或所在国家/地区。因此，来自中东和欧洲的学者可能因后勤或成本原因而被排除在外，但可以高水平参与：82 篇文章作者中的 40 名和 11 本书作者中的 8 名来自美国以外的国家。这也使我们能够放弃大量的预先计划、旅行安排和物流以及多日的中断。选拔过程积极寻找来自通常精英机构网络之外的申请者，假设来自顶尖学校的初级学者已经得到了所在机构的支持，并已与学术界建立了联系。 POMEPS 有明确的计划，即使在世界痊愈之后仍将继续举办这些研讨会；然而，这种格式也有缺点。总的来说，我们还没有听到关于在线会议疏远、非互动或低效的常见抱怨。规模较小且以参与为导向的组织带来了充满活力和富有成效的会议。然而，变焦倦怠是真实存在的。我们发现，即使对于我们中最专注的人来说，持续超过几个小时的会议也很难维持。时区也是一个问题 - 我们有时很难为可能从美国西海岸和卡塔尔多哈打电话的参与者找到可行的时间。此外，在面对面研讨会后共享鸡尾酒或晚餐或晚上漫步新城市之后的非正式时间是无可替代的。我们担心，虚拟研讨会的便利性将导致一个两层系统，其中非美国学者从反馈和专业发展中受益，但仍被排除在面对面活动的更非正式的社会福利之外。对于自我毁灭的可能性，更重要的担忧是过度安排的倾向，因为这样做非常容易且成本低廉。虚拟形式带来的研讨会数量之大可能是巨大的，不仅对于几乎每周阅读和评论所有论文的组织者来说，而且对于更大的社区来说也是如此。如果我们耗尽了合理的读者群，并多次返回同一位资深学者，那么在某些时候，他们作为讨论者的热情将不可避免地减弱。此外，资助者可能会看到在线模式的成功，并不愿意资助更昂贵和笨重的现场活动。这将非常令人失望，因为许多新想法和持久的伙伴关系是在面对面会议和研讨会的非正式空间中发展起来的。▪
DOI:10.1017/S1049096522000270 In June 2020, the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) launched a virtual research workshop for junior scholars to fill the void left by the cancelation of so many conferences and workshops due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the 2021–2022 academic year, we expanded the virtual workshop dramatically to include 18 workshops dedicated to book manuscripts or journal-article manuscripts. Because of the format’s flexibility, efficiency, and advantages for diversity and inclusion, we plan to continue it even when travel becomes possible again. There are costs and risks, however, that require attention. Overall, the move to virtual research workshops has been a resounding success. Since its launch, POMEPS has conducted 24 workshops, including 82 junior-scholar authors and 58 seniorscholar discussants. Each two-hour article workshop typically features three papers, each with one assigned discussant. The authors are asked to read the other two papers, whereas discussants may but are not required to do so. As the convener and moderator, I read all of the papers and provide a second set of comments to supplement the assigned discussant. Book workshops, which are more intense, typically last 90 minutes for one paper or three hours for two papers on related themes. Each book manuscript has two dedicated readers, in addition to myself and typically one other member of the selection committee. We conducted 11 virtual bookworkshops for the 2021–2022 academic year. The buy-in from theMiddle East political science (and broader Middle East studies) community has been phenomenal. Although we cannot offer honoraria, almost all invited discussants usually agree to participate. If they are unavailable, they often offer suggestions for alternatives—which is useful when the topics of the papers or books are outside of the organizers’ areas of expertise. A Zoom meeting will never be as much fun as an in-person seminar, but the relatively small size of the group keeps everyone engaged and allows for personal interactions. Authors do not present their manuscript, assuming that it has been read in advance, which maintains a high level of engagement because there are few long spans of only listening. The virtual format allows us to more fully include scholars based in theMiddle East and Europe, for whom it otherwisemight be prohibitively expensive and pose complicated visa issues. We can offer invitations without regard to physical distance or national location. As a result, scholars from the Middle East and Europe who otherwise might have been excluded for logistical or cost reasons can participate at a high level: 40 of the 82 article authors and eight of the 11 book authors participated from outside of the United States. This also allows us to forego extensive advance planning, travel arrangements and logistics, andmultiday disruptions. The selection process actively seeks applicants from outside of the usual elite institutional networks, on the assumption that junior scholars from top schools already have support from their institution and are networked into the scholarly community. POMEPS has definite plans to continue these workshops even after the world heals; however, there are disadvantages to the format. In general, we have not heard the common complaint that online sessions are alienating, non-interactive, or unproductive. The small size and engagement-oriented organization has resulted in dynamic and productive sessions. Zoom burnout is real, however. We have found that a session lasting more than a few hours is difficult to sustain, even for the most dedicated of us. Time zones also have been an issue—we sometimes struggle to find workable times for participants who might be calling in from the West Coast of the United States and from Doha, Qatar. Moreover, there is no substitute for the informal time after inperson workshops sharing cocktails or dinner or an evening walk through a new city. We are concerned that the ease of virtual workshops will lead to a two-tier system in which non-U.S. based scholars benefit from feedback and professional development but remain excluded from the more informal social benefits of inperson events. A more significant concern about the potential for a selfdestructive dynamic is the tendency to overschedule because it is so easy and inexpensive to do so. The sheer volume of workshops enabled by the virtual format can be overwhelming, not only for the organizer who reads and comments on all of the papers almost weekly but also for the larger community. If we exhaust the pool of plausible readers and return multiple times to the same senior scholars, at some point, their enthusiasm for being a discussant inevitably will wane. Furthermore, it is possible that funders will observe the success of online models and become unwilling to fund the more expensive and unwieldy in-person events. That would be very disappointing because many new ideas and enduring partnerships are developed in those informal spaces of inperson conferences and workshops.▪