I learned today that I’ll be getting a substantial summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support my research.
Man, I needed that jolt of happiness!
Edited to sound more dignified and less cryptic.
…with a bunch of people who study the eighteenth century.
I’ll be going to ASECS 2005 in a few weeks; I’m chairing a panel and giving a paper. If you’re going, please let me know. I hope to make the most of this trip. Sometimes it seems I miss out on networking opportunities when shyness kicks in. Any suggestions for overcoming this?
Also, for some reason the only flight home I could get leaves at 1:00 in the morning on Monday, so I’ll have all day Sunday in Vegas to entertain myself. Any suggestions? It’s a far cry from Boston.
Four or five of us plan to meet at 4:00 today (December 29) at the entrance to the book exhibit here at the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association. Be there or be square.
By the way, weird comment spam problems continue here on Wordherders. I have temporarily changed the settings on this blog’s comments so that you need to sign in to TypeKey in order to leave a comment. I anticipate being able to change back to open but moderated comments in the very near future.
Courtesy of the New York Times:
Every year more than 10,000 literature scholars gather at the end of December for the convention of the Modern Language Association, the 120th of which begins today in Philadelphia.
Past conventions have yielded papers with titles that were rife with bad puns, cute pop-culture references and an adolescent preoccupation with sex, from “Victorian Buggery” to “Bambi on Top” and the tragically hip “Judith Butler Got Me Tenure (but I Owe My Job to K. D. Lang): High Theory, Pop Culture, and Some Thoughts About the Role of Literature in Contemporary Queer Studies.”
The convention has become a holiday ritual for journalists, as routine as articles on the banning of Christmas crËches in public places, and every year a goodly number of those scholars tempt journalists to write articles, like this one, noting some of the wackier-sounding papers presented.
…What any of it has to do with teaching literature to America’s college students remains as vexing a question to some today as it was a decade ago. There is, in fact, something achingly 90’s about the whole affair. The association has come to resemble a hyperactive child who, having interrupted the grownups’ conversation by dancing on the coffee table, can’t be made to stop.
As I’ve written before, articles like this are fundamentally dishonest.
[Update: comments taking place at Crooked Timber]
While at MLA 2004, I’ll meet with two of my professors from grad school (not at the blogger meet-up, mind you), people whose approach to their subject matter has had an important influence on my approach to my subject matter. They are, I would venture to say, my mentors. Saying that, however, causes me to feel a bit of embarrassment, like a grown-up who still sleeps with a security blanket: “Do you still need a mentor? Don’t you have your PhD, now? Aren’t you a professor, yourself?” Well, yes. But I still have my doubts and uncertainties, and I’m still not entirely sure how best to accomplish certain things in my career, like getting my book published.
On the one hand, we all develop into mostly self-sufficient individuals, but on the other hand, it’s still helpful to have someone say, “Yes, I went through what you’re going through, and here’s what I did.” On the third hand, I am not always comfortable admitting to my senior colleagues when I am having trouble with something because it sounds, in my own ears, like whining.
My questions for you, dear reader, are these (answer anonymously, if you like):
If you’re in academia…
If you’re not in academia…