Motivation

We are committed to providing an inclusive and safe summer school experience to all participants, both in-person and online. Our goal is to make everyone feel welcome and appreciated, independently of their background, experience and identity, and able to learn as much as possible from the school.

Some of you are postdocs; some are masters students. Your majors range from physics to maths, computer science and engineering. Some have published papers in quantum foundations, but many have never heard of contextuality or generalised probability theories. Some of you will attend the school from home using high speed internet; others may need request a room at a local library or school to have access to stable electricity, and special funding for mobile data. For some of you, the impact of the pandemic was a series of light lockdowns; but for many it had severe mental health repercussions, and some have lost loved ones to the coronavirus, or gone through long covid themselves. Many of you are lucky to have a socio-economical condition that enables you to focus on your studies; there are those among us who have to wade through different barriers every day, be them of access to infrastructure, dealing with discrimination, health issues, a scattered education, or hostile environments. What you all have in common is your love for physics and your enthusiasm for learning: this we treasure, and this we will protect.

We want the summer school to be a place where all participants can breathe, relax, and learn. In order to ensure this we need to place some hard boundaries, in particular around dangerous and harassing behaviour. These are described below. We expect everyone to be at their best behaviour, both in-person and online. We will deal with misconduct swiftly and discreetly.

Encouraged behaviour

• Ask for help when you don’t understand something. Ask questions before, during and after the lectures!
• Help your colleagues, when asked. Please don’t offer unsolicited advice unless you are an assistant at the school.
• Take a break when you need one! The schedule is fairly packed, but we don’t expect everyone to attend every lecture live. The lectures will be publicly available until the heat death of YouTube, you can always catch up later. If you feel like it’s too much, you can go for a walk, or to your room, or exercise… whatever makes you happy. Taking care of yourself is valued, and is never a failure.
• Be inclusive and welcoming. Let others know if you’re planning a study session, a city tour or a board game.
• Reach out to one of the organisers if you are not feeling well, mentally, emotionally or physically, or if you are having issues with other participants. We will handle it.
• You are welcome to list your pronouns if you feel comfortable doing so. There is no pressure one way or the other.

Forbidden behaviour

• Any kind of discriminatory remarks or actions, based for example on gender, race, religion, language and accents, physical appearance, age, health issues, disability, or previous education.
• Any kind of sexual harassment. If someone made you feel uncomfortable please talk to us. We will protect you and address it with the person. If you’re wondering whether what you’re about to say could be harassment, just… don’t? You can always ask the organisers and we will be happy to clarify it.
• Transphobic, misogynist and racist remarks in particular will not be tolerated.
• Covid conspiracy theories will not be tolerated. As mentioned above, some people here lost loved ones to the coronavirus.
• Note that this list is not exhaustive. If you really need a valve for meanness, you can mock people’s favourite football club. Or you can always say nothing.

Enforcement

Depending on the gravity of what happened, we may first talk to the offenders and see if an understanding can be reached. If that’s not the case, the participant will be expelled.

Health considerations

There have been several instances of outbreaks at conferences, research retreats and winter schools in Europe in the past few months, so we will err on the side of caution to protect the most vulnerable among us.

• A vaccination certificate for the covid vaccine is mandatory to attend the school in person. We recommend (but don’t enforce) having a booster shot shortly before the school.
• Depending on the epidemiological situation in June, we may require participants to take a quick test at registration on the first day, before joining the lectures. If this happens we will communicate this to you a week before the school, and we will provide free self-tests.
• Masks are required during the lectures for all students in the audience. We will provide masks for those in need. Depending on the epidemiological situation in June, we will decide a week before the school whether the lecturers should wear masks too.
• If you have additional health concerns, there is a small isolated part of the lecture room where only one of the organisers will be (wearing an N95 mask). If you would prefer to watch the lectures from there, let us know. You can also watch the lectures live on YouTube and join in person only for outdoor events. We will answer online questions live.
• If you start having covid- or cold-like symptoms, immediately wear a mask and contact one of the organisers. We will take care of you.
• Please make sure that you have health insurance valid in Switzerland (like the European health card). If you don’t, let us know in advance so that we are prepared.
• If have additional requirements or allergies, let us know.

After these last two years, we are all so tired. Let’s be kind to each other.