[TYPES] Could we temporarily stop having conferences in the US?

[Beta Ziliani]

I second this position strongly. Thanks Gabriel for bringing this up!

To anyone reconsidering locations, do have in mind that poorly connected
places in North America will likely need a jump from the US, so that's also
a no-go.

On Fri, Sep 19, 2025 at 11:11 AM Gabriel Scherer <gabriel.scherer at gmail.com>
wrote:

> [ The Types Forum, http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/types-list 
> ]
>
> Dear types-list,
>
> I'm sure many people are anxious about the political situation in the US
> right now, and I wish them best.
>
> Could we temporarily stop organizing conferences in the US?
>
> It is pretty clear that the US are not a safe place for universities right
> now, and also unpalatable-to-unsafe for people (especially foreigners)
> working in universities. The situation is also volatile and evolving
> rapidly from bad to worse. Surely it would be unreasonable to commit now to
> organize a large conference in the US next year, right? Well, PLDI 2026 is
> planning to be located in Boulder, Colorado. Could the PLDI people maybe
> reconsider? (If being in the Americas is important, maybe Canada?)
>
> Note: I'm aware there is no good choice of where to hold conferences, every
> choice has downsides. (For example Europe is bad for people working in
> various non-western countries due to very stringent requirements.) But the
> US seems especially bad right now.
>