The American Philosophical Association (APA) recently concluded a brief, contentious experiment with its divisional meeting structure. Under the "2+1" model—a rotation where two of the three annual divisional meetings were held in person while the third moved online—the organization sought to balance the necessity of professional exchange with the growing demands for environmental sustainability. However, the pilot program was truncated, with the APA leadership deciding to end the experiment before the most recent virtual Pacific Division meeting had even begun.
Colin Marshall, the Program Chair for this year’s online Pacific meeting, reflects on a conference that was effectively "declared a failure before it even started." The initiative was originally spurred by Philosophers for Sustainability, a group advocating for a reduction in the discipline’s carbon footprint. While the virtual format offered a reprieve from the logistical and financial burdens of international travel, it also highlighted a deep-seated institutional preference for the physical hallways and serendipitous encounters of traditional hotel-based gatherings.
The premature cancellation of the virtual model suggests a discipline at a crossroads. For some, the online format provided an essential avenue for accessibility and ecological responsibility; for others, the loss of in-person networking was too high a price for the academic community to pay. As the APA returns to its legacy format, the debate over how to modernize scholarly discourse in an era of climate crisis remains largely unresolved.
With reporting from Daily Nous.
Source · Daily Nous
