A (Partial) History of chi.queers
Tonight’s chi.queers party was another big success. I think it was
one of the larger parties at CHI this year, and I was proud to be a
co-host, along with J, CV, and CL. CL asked about the history. I
realized that I didn’t really remember the history, even though I was
there for most of them. So, to whit, a reconstruction of chi.queers
over the years, based on surviving journals, e-mails, and photographs.
I started attending CHI in 1997, and have registered for 18 CHIs since
then. The exact number gets tricky because there were several years
where I “crashed” CHI. I would go to the city that CHI was in, hang
out with friends, but not worry about actually going to any of the
sessions. (In many conference centers, you can even hang out in the
hallways; you just can’t go into the rooms themselves.) I’m pretty
proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish with chi.queers, and
make it into one of the better parties at CHI.
Anyway, here’s my notes of when we had parties over the years. At some point, I’ll try to put together a similar list for CSCW. If I wasn’t in the city, I don’t even try to see if there was an event that year.
| Year | City | Attended | Role | CHI.Queers |
| 1997 | Atlanta | A | SV | Maybe 1 |
| 1998 | Los Angeles | * | ||
| 1999 | Pittsburgh | A | SV | Maybe 2 |
| 2000 | Den Hague | A | SV | No 3 |
| 2001 | Seattle | A | DC | Private 4 |
| 2002 | Minneapolis | A | SV | Maybe |
| 2003 | Fort Lauderdale | A | SV | Maybe |
| 2004 | Vienna | A | SVC | No |
| 2005 | Portland | A | R | No |
| 2006 | Monteal | * | SVC | |
| 2007 | San Jose | * | ||
| 2008 | Florence | A | R | Private 4 |
| 2009 | Boston | * | ||
| 2010 | Atlanta | A | R | Maybe? |
| 2011 | Vancouver | † | - | Maybe? |
| 2012 | Austin | A | R | Maybe? |
| 2013 | Paris | † | R | No |
| 2014 | Toronto | A | R | Yes |
| 2015 | Seoul | A | R | Yes |
| 2016 | San Jose | S | R | ?? |
| 2017 | Denver | A | R | Yes |
| 2018 | Montreal | A | R | Yes |
| 2019 | Glasgow | A | R | Yes |
| 2020 | Virtual | * | * | No |
| 2021 | Virtual | * | * | No |
| 2022 | New Orleans | A | Yes |
Attendance Records: * - Did not attend; † - Did not register; S - Got sick and missed much
Roles: SV - Student Volunteer; DC - Doctoral Consortium; SVC - Student Volunteer Co-Chair; R - Regular attendee.
-
This was my first CHI; I might have tried something, but it’s at that uncomfortable point in the past that it was far after paper was a viable way to archive e-mail, but far before the limitless plains of storage we have now. ↩
-
AH or “Nokia Man” might have helped in planning out CHI.Queers around this time frame. (I should ask YJ if she knew Nokia Man! I have a few pictures for reference). ↩
-
A lot of my student efforts were put into the SV program, so chi.queers missed that energy. ↩
-
For several years, I would host a private party at the time the CHI.queers party would have been held. This was mostly getting an astoundingly large suite in Seattle, and then a very well-placed hotel with a massive roof-top deck in Florence. ↩ ↩2