Thursday, April 2, 2015

SAA envy

Have fun, everybody who's at SAA! I keep seeing posts about it all over Facebook and blogs, and I'm a bit envious, while at the same time aware there are all sorts of reasons why it wasn't a particularly good idea for me to go this year. Will DEFINITELY be at the next two, which are both local-ish.

A thought: conferences are a totally different experience when you're grown-up faculty than when you're a grad student. Back then, it was all about building the CV, and I went to a lot of random conferences, and didn't enjoy most of them very much because I always felt weird and wallflowerish. My real peers were at home, where there was always a lively cohort of other grad students, and no shortage of early modernists, whether grad students or faculty.

Now, I don't give a damn about building the CV, I go to SAA (sometimes) and Kalamazoo (most years) and that's about it, and conferences are all about 1) hanging out with one particular cohort of friends; 2) being around other people who are geeky about the same kinds of things I'm geeky about; and 3) being immersed in medieval / early modern stuff, and learning odd and random things about it. When you're the lone early modernist on campus, the immersion is a rare and unexpected pleasure; in grad school, it was something I took for granted.

The grown-up kind of conferencing, need I say, is SO much more fun. Only six weeks to Kalamazoo!

3 comments:

Fie upon this quiet life! said...

Have fun at K-zoo. One of these days, I want to get to that conference. I am not loving SAA this year, but maybe it's because I'm hanging out with the wrong people and thus feeling very imposture-like. I am tired of meeting new people, telling them about my job, and immediately feeling pitied. Actually -- I think I'll go blog about that. :(

Fretful Porpentine said...

Fie -- Keep an eye out for the CFPs for the Shakespeare at Kalamazoo panels -- there are usually two every year, and it's a fun group of people.

Bardiac said...

I've missed seeing you, Fretful! I do hear great things about Kalamazoo!