{"id":5949,"date":"2021-04-15T23:46:10","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T20:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/turkiyekanttoplulugu.org\/?p=5949"},"modified":"2021-04-18T00:59:24","modified_gmt":"2021-04-17T21:59:24","slug":"interview-with-karin-de-boer-on-leuven-kant-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/turkiyekanttoplulugu.org\/?p=5949&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Karin de Boer on Leuven Kant Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Interviewer: Selda Salman<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her y\u0131l d\u00fczenlenen bir Kant konferans\u0131 organize etme fikri nereden \u00e7\u0131kt\u0131? Konferans\u0131 kimler organize ediyor?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the idea of organizing an annual Kant Conference started, and who\nis organizing it? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early 2013, it turned out that\nthe abstracts I myself and two PhD students at the Institute of Philosophy had\nsubmitted to the NAKS biennial conference had been rejected. We decided to host\na conference on Kant ourselves at the same dates, in particular to provide European\nscholars who could not attend the NAKS conference with an alternative. The\norganizing team consisted of Arnaud Pelletier, who was a postdoc in Leuven at\nthe time, Simon Truwant, Dennis Vanden Auweele, and myself. We had only three\nto four months to set everything up, and only a small budget, but all went well.\nThe three keynotes we had asked immediately after our decision accepted the\ninvitation and those who had a research budget agreed to pay for their flights\nand hotel themselves. Apart from the three keynotes, we selected 22 speakers.\nSince that first edition, LKC has retained the same structure: a two-day\nconference on Kant without specific theme, with three keynotes, 22 papers\ndivided over sessions of 2-4 papers and two parellel sessions. The team of\norganizers currently consists of Arnaud Pelletier, who became a professor at\nthe Universit\u00e9 libre de Bruxelles, myself, and four junior researchers who are\npart of my research team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you tell us about the past editions and what have you achieved so\nfar with the conference?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LKC aims to provide a platform that\nenhances the exchanges and debates between (junior and senior) researchers from\nall over the world. From the very beginning we have tried to be inclusive. We single\nout neither a specific topic, nor a specific part of Kant\u2019s oeuvre, nor a\nspecific approach. We have had many papers on themes that are not often\ndiscussed outside of specialized workshops, such as Kant\u2019s philosophy of\nreligion, his thoughts on mathematics, his pre-critical works, or his relation\nto lesser known predecessors such as Wolff and Crusius. Despite the parallel\nsessions, this has allowed participants to attend sessions outside their own\ndomain and broaden their perspective. In 2019, we deviated from the normal\nformat: we organized a conference on the Transcendental Dialectic and, by way\nof experiment, invited no keynote speakers. This was a positive and interesting\nexperience, and something we might repeat in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all other cases, we invite\nkeynote speakers who are specialists in different areas of Kant\u2019s philosophy\nand ideally represent different perspectives on his thought. We have invited speakers from the\nUS, various parts of Europe, Australia, Brazil, and Argentina, and the\npresenters come to Leuven from many different parts of the world as well. The\nthree keynote speakers always included one or two women. The positive feedback\nwe have received over the years, as well as the fact that we received  almost 160 abstracts for the 2020 edition, suggest\nthat LKC has become a significant event for junior and senior Kant scholars\nalike. Many participants told us they were impressed by the quality of the\npapers and inspired by the open-minded and stimulating discussions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you evaluate the submissions?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The abstracts and personal\ndetails are gathered by a PhD student who is not involved in the selection\nprocess. The abstracts are ranked between 1 and 4 by three to four organizers.\nTheir rankings are combined in one file. During a meeting of at least 4 hours, we\ndiscuss the abstracts in two rounds, especially the ones about which our views\ndiverged. We try to focus on quality alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does the conference on campus mean to you? How do the conference\ndays pass?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I have probably valued\nmost over the years is the sense that 50 researchers or so with very different\nbackgrounds and views become part of an ephemeral community, one that exists\nfor two days only even though part of the participants knew each other\nbeforehand and would stay in touch with people they had met for the first time.\nThe sense of being part of a community is of course strengthened by things such\nas the pre-conference dinner, the coffee breaks, the city walk, the conference\ndinner, and the drinks after the conference, but the backbone of the conference\nis made up of the talks and discussions during the panels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, you have organized the first online conference due to the\npandemic. What was the reasons of your decision?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program was ready. From\nsomewhere March onward, the Philos-L list became flooded by annoucements of\ncancellations or postponements due to the Covid-19 crisis. I had started to\nteach a small seminar on Zoom and was positively surprised about the quality of\nthe meetings. I thought that researchers \u2013 especially junior researchers \u2013 would\nprofit greatly from working on their papers and sharing their ideas with others\nduring the lockdown. It might help them to focus on something uplifting,\nsomething unrelated to the crisis, and keep up morale. I had seen a few\nannouncements of online talks and workshops, and thought we should try to go\nagainst this depressing stream of cancellations. The other organizers \u2013 we are\na team of seven at the moment \u2013 agreed. From that point onward, we started to\nrethink the conference step by step and to prepare everything.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the pros and cons of the online conference? Do you plan\norganizing online events for the future editions?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evidently, participants missed\nthe opportunities to socialize and continue the discussions in an informal\nsettings. We tried to make up for this by leaving open the Zoom meetings after\nthey had formally ended, so that participants who wanted could ask further\nquestions or talk about something else. We also had \u2018post-conference drinks\u2019\nwith the speakers and organizers: they could join Zoom meetings hosted by three\nof the organizers. I think this was nice and that we might come to appreciate group\nconversations online even more if we get more used to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of us agreed that the\nbiggest advantage of the online version \u2013 and online conferences generally \u2013 is\nthe fact that many people who would never have been able to attend the\nconference in Leuven could participate. We decided to close the registration\nafter 120 people had registered \u2013 about two weeks before the deadline \u2013 in\norder to have no more than 25 to 35 participants in each panel and guarantee a\ndegree of continuity between the panels. The participants came from many\ndifferent countries and had much more diverse backgrounds than those who\nnormally attend the conference. This was a very enriching experience. I also\nthink that an online conference, especially if the papers are being distributed\nbeforehand, makes it easier for everyone to participate in the discussions. We\nhad the impression that female participants felt more at ease to ask questions.\nThere are simply less barriers: no financial, geographical, or political\nbarriers, a level playingfield, and a sense of equality among everyone who\nparticipated more generally. To be sure: this requires that one take into\naccount the different time zones and that the majority of participants has\ntheir camera\u2019s on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to future conferences\nnothing has been decided, but it is likely we will continue to organize online\nconferences or workshops from time to time. Of course: we do not know how many\ngood abstracts we would receive if researchers know beforehand the event will\nbe online, but since many more researchers will submit abstracts I see no\nreason to worry about this, and it is definitely something that should be tried\nout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, a number of\nconferences, including philosophy conferences, have been moved online. Speakers\nand audiences are adapting. I hope researchers and organizations will continue\nto host part of their events online independently of the current crisis. It can\nbe done with a very low budget or no budget at all, one can be much more\ninclusive, it is good for the environment, and much of what we value in a\nconference can be gained from online exchanges as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See. https:\/\/hiw.kuleuven.be\/cmprpc\/events\/leuvenkantconference<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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