14 Takeaways from the Virtual Pacific APA (guest post)

As reported in January, the American Philosophical Association (APA) recently began—and halted—an experiment with making one of its three divisional meetings each year a wholly-online conference. The experiment with online meetings was prompted largely by a campaign by Philosophers for Sustainability. The Central Division conference in 2025 was held online. This year, the Pacific Division meeting was held online. However, the decision to end the experiment was made prior to this year’s Pacific Division meeting. Colin Marshall was the Program Chair for this online version of the Pacific Division’s meeting. In the following guest post, he shares his reflections on the conference and on it having “been declared a failure before it even started.” 14 Takeaways from the Virtual Pacific APA by Colin Marshall I had the honor of serving as Program Chair for this year’s Pacific APA conference, which was held online. The experience was rewarding. It was also eye-opening—especially in light of the APA’s decision to cancel the virtual, ‘2+1’, experiment early. Over the past few months, the virtual APA has been a topic of some intense discussions. I learned a lot from conversations with APA staff, volunteers, participants in the conference, and non-participants. It seems to me that we are at a choice point in our discipline, so I wanted to share a few thoughts. To start, here’s some background about how the 2+1 experiment came about. The late Helen De Cruz proposed the 2+1 model back in 2021. Her idea was to have one of the APA’s three divisional meetings online, rotating between different divisions from year to year. Philosophers for Sustainability then launched a petition in favor of the model, which gathered about 700 signatures. After an APA-led survey of membership in September of 2021 and divisional votes in favor of the model (at conference business meetings), the APA announced that it would conduct a three-year experiment, starting in 2025. Those of us involved in the 2+1 campaign were impressed by the APA’s responsiveness to their membership. News about the decision spread to other organizations and groups, such as the interdisciplinary ‘FlyingLess’ initiative. At that point, the APA convened a task force around the virtual conferences. At least one member of that task force, who I was in touch with,.. The post 14 Takeaways from the Virtual Pacific APA (guest post) first appeared on Daily Nous.