[csaa-forum] Cultural Crossraods registration fees

[Marcelo Svirsky]

Dear Tony,

I find your clarifications helpful only in the sense that they reflect an irritating state of affairs I reject.

1) Any comparison with other conferences is irrelevant. If others do wrong, they can't stand as a reference for good.
2) Someone earning less than $15,000 a year should not be paying at all.
3) As I explained, I'm a tenured (whatever that means in our precarious academic system) Senior Lecturer at UOW and I'm not able to pay hundreds of dollars to take part in an event that is supposed to be an integral part of my job duties.
4) I applaud the pre-conference event for postgraduate and early careers; though, why not to extend this generosity to the conference itself?
5) Again, if the alternatives are between paying exorbitant fees to bring international colleagues or not having them (or just fewer of them), so, it is clear to me what the right choice is.
6) People don't need the coffee, the cakes, and the food (which anyway at conferences are mostly distasteful). We can manage and find where to have coffee or a sandwich. We just need the space - to socialise and interchange thoughts.
7) Hence, as I see it, a Conference Steering Committee can do good by negotiating with the University management for not to pay for the venues. It is an act of violence that Universities charge academics to use academic spaces. Not, I'm not naïve. I just do not take things for granted and reject to accept them as they are.

-----------------
Marcelo Svirsky
Politics & International Studies
School of Humanities & Social Enquiry, LHA
University of Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia

From: csaa-forum-bounces at lists.cdu.edu.au [mailto:csaa-forum-bounces at lists.cdu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Tony Bennett
Sent: Saturday, 18 June 2016 4:30 PM
To: 'csaa-forum at lists.cdu.edu.au'
Subject: [csaa-forum] Cultural Crossraods registration fees

Dear Marcelo and Alana


Regarding your criticism of the fees, Crossroads is in fact a moderately priced event. It compares well with other professional association conferences. CSAA is not running this year, so the most similar domestic association conference is ANZCA. Our early bird full fee at $119 per day for an association member is less than the $133 per day charged for ANZCA 2016. Our rate for mid income registrants/students is $81 per day while ANZCA is $96 per day. In addition we have a category below this for anyone earning under AUD15,000 per year that works out at $63 per day. The three fee tiers are mandated by the ACS.



This comparison is not of course a criticism of ANZCA in any sense - the costs and organizing challenges of association conferences differ and are not always apparent to conference goers. However, the comparison does illustrate that Crossroads is not overpriced.  That this is so reflects the generous support - cash and in-kind - of the two host universities as well as that of other sponsors, including UTS and CSAA itself.



 We believe that you might not have considered the fees and what is included closely. Crossroads is a conference of considerable complexity that is being organized by volunteers to avoid the additional costs of professional conference organizers. As you yourself noted part of each fee contributes towards costs of a bursary scheme for disadvantaged registrants, and the scale of the conference requires hire of venues outside the University of Sydney.  We are also running, for the first time in Crossroads history, a free preconference event specifically for postgraduate and early career researchers.



There will be no grandiose receptions at Crossroads. One will be mainly covered by a publisher. The other two will be modestly catered spaces for conference goers to meet and socialize. An accessible social program is requirement at the heart of hosting Crossroads, which fosters international engagement and community through cultural studies. Clearly one of the other costs of such internationalism is that of bringing numerous invited speakers to Sydney from around the world. Only a few of these speakers are in a position to contribute towards their own costs.



We hope you and other members of CSAA will find these clarifications helpful.



With best wishes



Tony Bennett

On behalf of the Steering Committee

Tony Bennett FAHA AcSS, Research Professor of Social and Cultural Theory
Institute for Culture and Society.Building EM,Parramatta Campus,Western Sydney University.
Locked Bag 1797,Penrith South DC,NSW 2751,Australia

Tel: (0)2 9685 9596; Mobile: 0457 888 014

westernsydney.edu.au

[WSU_Logo_hex_142x56px_email signature]



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