ABSTRACT Academic conferences are vital spaces for knowledge exchange and professional development, yet conventional structures often reinforce colonial hierarchies, environmental harm, and exclusionary practices. Here, we suggest an anticolonial reimagining of academic conferencing through the principles of authority and reciprocity. Based on our experiences organizing large scientific meetings, we suggest a place‐based approach to conference organizing that centers Indigenous sovereignty and relational accountability, enacting shared authority with local custodians and reciprocal engagement with host communities. Recent conferences illustrate how organizers can materially support Indigenous Peoples, and how conference decisions—particularly regarding timing, location, and services—might help to disrupt rather than sustain extractive tendencies. By unsettling default practices and embracing relational ethics, conferences can become transformative spaces that honor place‐based knowledge, strengthen community economies, and advance social and environmental justice.
Cannon et al. (Fri,) studied this question.