ResumeCamp

September 6, 2012 5:13 PM

What's the best way to list participation in an unconference/$Camp on an academic CV?

I'm preparing my CV for tenure, and I'm not sure where or how to list the unconferences and $Camps I've attended. I've found a few examples (1, 2) of CVs with unconferences, but they're lumped in with other presentations or with other conferences attended.

Currently, I have a section for publication and presentations, and another for conferences attended passively, but unconferences are their own thing. Should I just make an Unconferences section on my CV? And for each individual unconference, should I list all the conversations I participated in? Or is it enough to just list the unconference title/date/sponsoring organization?

posted by bryghtrose to Writing & Language (6 answers total)

I am in academia, and I have never heard of unconferences or $Camps until now. If they are a common thing in your field, you should ask someone in your department what they do. If they are not, then you should assume the committee, like me, may be clueless, so there's no point in listing them separately. You should lump them in with the closest other thing they are like. (E.g. reading the wikipedia entry on unconferences, I would guess they should be in the list of "conferences attended" if you have that).

That brings me to my second point: in academic CVs, I've only ever seen conferences that were passively attended listed by grad students or other people trying to "pad" their CV. In my field it would look very weird and suspicious to have a section for this on a CV included with a tenure application.
posted by lollusc at 5:42 PM on September 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Lollusc, as I understand it most unconferences require all attendees to present something to their peers during the event (the "conversations" bryghtrose mentions), but from what I've read there usually isn't a traditional peer review process vetting attendees before the event. Most require a proposal/application that is evaluated by the organizers, though. I would characterize participation in an unconference as less exclusive than presenting at a conference, but more exclusive than attending a conference as a non-presenter. I'm not sure where it should fit under a CV, though.
posted by Alterscape at 5:55 PM on September 6, 2012

I'll second lollusc that including passively attended conferences would strike me as very odd. If you do make some sort of presentation as part of an unconference, then I'd just list that as a conference presentation or proceeding. If you have lots of them and unconferences are accepted in your field maybe call the section "(un)conference presentations"
posted by pseudonick at 6:20 PM on September 6, 2012

My category for miscellany of an activist bent is Service. It comes after Research and Teaching, and also includes committee work, etc.
posted by feral_goldfish at 6:53 PM on September 6, 2012

as I understand it most unconferences require all attendees to present something to their peers during the event

Not at the two I'm familiar with. I would consider attending an unconference the same as attending a workshop or slightly more interactive than usual conference - neither of which I consider resume material, but apparently you're already listing those. So given the structure you already have, I would list 'attended unconference' right next to 'attended normalConference'. Maybe word it differently, like 'attended participatory conference on X', if you felt it was significantly different to attending a regular conference.

Presenting at an unconference I would put under your 'presentations' section, but I might add a 'peer-reviewed' marker to the conferences you presented at that were peer reviewed.

Basically unless everyone reading your resume has been to those specific unconferences, I would be trying to make it as clear as possible what actually happened.
posted by jacalata at 7:57 PM on September 6, 2012

In my field, we usually label conferences that aren't based on peer reviewed material "tech talks" or, occasionally, "invited talks." You can also try something like "participated in a roundtable discussion" or "contributed a talk to an open forum." If you presented something interesting, then convey that information on your resume. Don't make it seem like you simply attended it.
posted by spiderskull at 12:08 AM on September 7, 2012