“You can't write like this”. Why not? “Because that's not how it's done”. Okay, well, who does how it's done serve? Who benefits from that? Whose disadvantages? When you do it “neutrally”, when you take ‘I’ and ‘me’ out of it, you're just telling a story of white supremacy, you're telling a story of colonization, you're telling a story of imperialism and slave-owning and all these types of things. And I just want to tell different stories.

The core of any academic conference is its theme. A particular subject or focus area specially chosen for each conference which shapes the entire event. But what exactly is a conference theme, and why does it matter? The chosen theme acts as both a framework for the conference and an invitation for response. It’s a call to action, if you will, to both delegates, auditors, and plenaries. It narrows the subject area of the conference ever so slightly to produce direction for presentations,...