Two major conference CFPs in the last couple of weeks.
North American Conference on British Studies, October 2005. (Deadline 28 January 2005)
American Society for Legal History annual conference, November 2005. (Deadline 1 February 2005)
I feel I should do something for one of them (probably NACBS rather than ASLH). My excuse this year is that I’m not far enough on with the new research, but I’ve done enough already with previous work… Next year it’ll be a different excuse. (I’m also not quite sure if I could get financial support for a trip to the US, but I know that’s the sort of thing I’d work out one way or another if I really wanted to do it.)
The truth is that I don’t really want to go.
I like gadding to conferences, but I’ve never felt particularly keen about these massive ‘big organisation’ events. I can be awkward and socially inept enough at smaller events… The Oxford violence conference I’m going to this summer is likely to be plenty big enough for comfort. (But I don’t only go to conferences about crime or violence, by the way…)
Maybe when I really do have some new writing to work with I’ll feel more amenable to the idea. But do I need to force myself? How important is it to be seen at events like these, get them on the CV, use them for networking (bearing in mind that if I withdraw into my shell, which can happen if I feel overwhelmed by numbers, I’m not going to get much networking done anyway)?
There’s been some discussion lately about post-grad student/early academic career publishing strategies (will get the links later, need to get this posted now and get back to work): that’s something I’ve not had problems with, but I do find myself worrying over conferencing strategies. Am I doing enough? Am I going to the right ones? (When submitting papers, should I stop worrying about little details like whether my research really is relevant to the conference topic?)
Any advice from experienced conference goers?
3 comments on “Big huge conferences (are scary)”
Yes - go to lots of conferences and observe. Especially if someone else is paying. After all, even if you are a wallflower, you’ve got to be pretty damn inept to make an actively bad impression. And by definition, if you’re going into your shell at a conference with 1000 delegates, nobody’s going to notice you (and think: “Ah - too shy to appoint!”) anyway. Avoid dressing too flash, and blending in is easy.
Take the OBSP conference this summer, for example. Did I notice you? No. That’s cos I only had 6 hours to catch up with a whole bunch of people I hadn’t seen for bleedin’ ages. Or maybe because you weren’t there. Either would do.
Me, I love conferences. They almost make up for the pension-related difficulties. My problems are (a) converting the 12-15 conference papers that I have lying around into articles, or bits of books. And (b) childcare.
So - who’s coming to the IISH in Amsterdam in 2006? The RAE will be settled by then, one way or another.
Well, the OBSP conference is precisely the kind of conference I like and will happily go to plenty of. Not too big, not too long, not too flashy. It’s not that I don’t like conferences. It’s just the (idea of the) mega, 1000 delegate ones that give me the heebie-jeebies…
My problem with NACBS is that they have almost no medieval stuff! I organized a medieval session there 2 years ago and it was the only one. I went to some early modern ones - they do have good early modern stuff - but basically ditched the rest of the conference.
Not that this comment is at all useful to you, of course.
I quite like conferences, but only if I’m actually presenting something - otherwise I feel like a 3rd leg or 5th wheel or whatever. Of course my major conference is Kalamazoo, which is about 2,000 medievalists in one place - so you can always find a paper to hear (well, USUALLY), find someone you know, or hide from the folks you don’t want to see.
I am however REALLY bad at the whole conference reception thing and tend not to go to them…