The Graveyard Slot is Political

The 'graveyard slot' at a conference is a session which, due to the timing of the session, has a high probability of low attendance. Being scheduled for the graveyard slot can be interpreted as a neutral programming decision, or we can point to the marginalisation of particular knowledge and/or knowledge producers which are arguably more likely to be scheduled for these slots. Unfortunately, the neutral-seeming nature of programming means that accusations of marginalisation are likely to be rejected as lacking proof. This think piece encourages further politicisation of discussions of conference programming; the piece is based on the authors' experience of organising a session on sexuality at a teachers' professional conference, which was scheduled in the graveyard slot and ultimately cancelled. This incident is situated in wider discussions of the politics of the graveyard slot, which are particularly salient for gender and sexuality researchers presenting at mainstream conferences.