As experts in our field, academics pride themselves as the "knower". Being the knower is how we are being valued at work. We are ranked on how many people know us and our work, so we strive harder at being known as the knower. But knowing can be an institutional and organisational problem, when only some people are valued as knowers.

Throughout this conference, we would like to challenge this notion of us being knowers. We would like you to be the "The Curious One", seeking the unknown and even "re-seeing" the presumably known. And here comes the warning: because we've been comfortable being the knower, it will be uncomfortable being The Curious One.. Ian Leslie alerted in his book, "Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It (p. xiv)" :-

Curiosity is unruly. It doesn't like rules, or at least, it assumes that all rules are provisional, subject to the laceration of a smart question nobody has yet thought to ask. It disdains the approved pathways, preferring diversions, unplanned excursions, impulsive left turns. In short, curiosity is deviant.

Please see this conference as a gift from us to you to be mindfully curious. Please use this space and time to be present and unknowing. There is no shame in unknowing, and it takes courage to be curious. And yes, learning IS lifelong, so unknow the known today, and always.