Upholding the sanctity of academic seminars

Academic seminars are particular subject-specific ones where an expert, who has specialised knowledge on a particular subject, presents a research-based paper and usually one or two discussants, who are experts in the subject, give comments on it and finally, the floor is opened for further discussion on the paper. Research, scholarship, discourse, independence, and freedom are the essential elements of an academic seminar.
In our system, however, there is a resource person (also called a guest speaker), one or two discussants (optional), and guests - chief guest, special guest(s), and guest(s) of honour. It should be noted here that in our academic seminars, guest speakers are not always experts on the subject; in many cases they are invited because of their social position and status. The guests are categorised differently and are thus discriminated. The adjectives 'special' and 'guest of honour' do not make sense in an academic seminar. This categorisation is done on the basis of their social status and position. They are all important persons in their respective organisations. An academic seminar is not a place to differentiate their social status nor for their glorification. It is a brain-storming session focused on a specialised topic for creation of new knowledge; chief guest, special guests, and guests of honour are not relevant here.
Do we differentiate among our guests at home? Guests are guests no matter how big or small they are. The purpose is social gathering and entertainment; we give them equal treatment and do not discriminate among them. In academic seminars too, the hosts invite knowledgeable people to be engaged in 'thinking of things'. Categorising the participants, their discrimination or glorification is irrelevant, injustice and unfair.
PROBLEMS WITH 'GUEST': Guests are invitees and thus always honoured. But seminars deliver and discourse on strengths and weaknesses of the paper presented. Criticism and aesthetic evaluation are the vital part of academic seminars. But 'guest' and 'criticism' do not go together. Neither the guest (speaker) nor the resource-person (in many occasions s/he is the host) are involved in critical appreciation of each other. They may say one or two critical words but mostly they bank on appreciative terms.
It is important to note that when a paper is presented in a seminar it is usually in preliminary or half-way stage. Flaws, imperfections and even mistakes are very usual phenomena. The resource-person earnestly looks after the seminar participants and sometimes provokes them to unearth the weaknesses of the paper. The more his/her hypotheses and findings are contested the higher is the acceptability of his/her thesis. Given the time limitation, there is no scope for saying more on appreciation. Importantly, when one is invited to speak on a subject, it is implied that he or she has expertise and is valued. More value is added on criticism than on appreciation remembering that the seminar paper is yet to be accepted.
There are, however, guest speakers and guest artists in radio and TV programmes but these are arranged on popular topics. There is another type of TV programme with a single guest speaker who is a celebrated person. There is no scope for a discourse, it is rather speaker-centered and a one-way communication.
Academic seminars, on the other hand, are not the speaker-centred rather centred on the discussants and other participants in the floor who do their best by finding flaws and lapses in the paper to help the author produce a good thesis. It is like an examination where the paper presenter is a student and the designated discussants and other participants in the seminar are his/her examiners.
 Academic seminars are focused on specialised topics or areas of knowledge. Here an expert on a particular area of knowledge presents a written paper and he or she defends his/her theory and findings contested by designated discussants and participants in the seminar. If we invite chief guest and special guests by positions, who have no expertise in the topic, it becomes a ritual and does not add to the value of an academic seminar. Here we single out one to three persons and are busy in glorifying them. As a result, the main purpose of seminar - creation of knowledge becomes secondary. More time is spent on the chief guest and less is left for the discourse on the seminar paper.
When the guests are based on positions, then the organiser has to provide for ornamentation to please the guests. Flower bouquets, dais, ornamental chairs, and good entertainments are common. But in academic seminars, the resource-person and the expert discussants do not care for ornamentation. Their words, sentences, ideas, innovations, and their knowledge are really the ornamentation.  They care more on principles and substance than on forms and formalities. They rather feel embarrassed to be garlanded before their paper is accepted in the seminar.
In academic seminars, the discourse is conducted without fear and favour. The stakeholders (hosts, guests and others) are independent from each other. Such an environment is the prerequisite for creation and dissemination of knowledge. But if there is a chief guest, special guests and guests of honour, the other participants hesitate to speak openly. And if there is need for displaying loyalty to these guests then independence is lost, free thinking is at bay, and knowledge creation is seriously hampered.
Academic seminars are more about expertise, knowledge and innovation rather than guests and their glorification. When we consider the speakers as guests, we are more inclined to invite those who are related to us (hosts) but when we consider them experts then knowledge and innovation are primary and relation is not relevant at all. Adam Smith in his The Theory of Moral Sentiment (1759) called them 'impartial spectators', 'strangers', and 'rest of the mankind'. Thomas Nagel in 1986 treated them as 'view from nowhere than from delineated  somewhere'.

Dr. Dhiman Chowdhury is Professor of Accounting, Dhaka University.
dhiman_chowdhury@yahoo.com