Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Question to readers re going to a Conference
Next Fall I have to present my papers to go up for tenure. While everything is under control as far as I can tell, of course I am anxious about it. A few days ago, somebody sent me an invitation to present a paper at a Conference in one of my very specific fields. The Conference is next Fall. At this point, unless I get something out of my dissertation that got left behind because it is not the direction my research went, I would have to start from zero to present something. Moreover, the Conference is not in a particularly attractive place (it is not exactly one of those places where you go more to visit the location than to attend a conference). On the other hand, going to the Conference might be a good opportunity to get in touch with people with similar research interest. However, because I am up for tenure next semester, I feel that if I accept I will be adding to myself some extra stress that I don't need. Do you think I am overreacting? Or should I decline the offer to focus only on my tenure file (going to the Conference would make no difference in my tenure case)? What do you think?
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I don't see this as being unrelated to your tenure case - you will want to show evidence of your plans for future research, so a new paper (even at an early stage) would be useful there. Also, if this is a conference in your specific research area, it's possible that tenure letter writers (or people your tenure letter writers talk to) will be there. Those kinds of connections are very good to make. And wouldn't it be fun to interact with a group of scholars doing work you find interesting?
ReplyDeleteI agree. If it's your specific field, then you'll want to make an appearance if only for networking reasons. And then since you know this field very well, it's only a conference paper, giving people a taste of your research and thinking. Couldn't you do something on one of the books you'll be teaching for that class you'll be teaching in English? You'll be reading the research anyway to prepare the class, so might as well get a conference presentation out of it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's really nice to be invited to do things, right?
If it's in Grand Rapids, Michigan, then do come. :-) You and I can hang, gossip and all. :-)
ReplyDeleteI guess you are all right. I should go. For some reason, I am becoming incresingly phobic regarding conferences. It is weird. I am a charismatic teacher, and I don't mind (to a certain extent) rejections in papers I send out for publications. But I don't like conferences nor networking.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: great idea regarding the conference presentation
@Clarissa: not, not Grand Rapids. More like Texas, and not even one of the big cities. But you know where I live. If you ever see a Conference around here, you should come and we could hang out and gossip.
After having been to four disapointing conferences in the last two years, my new philosophy with conferences is to go only if 1) friends you miss are going too, or 2) it is in an attractive place, or 3) it is a conference with schoalrs specialized in the very same specific field than yours (say... representations of urban spaces in Mexican literature/cinema). Otherwise I sincerely believe that conferences are pointless.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, nobody hates networking more than I do. So perhaps I have been missing wonderful networking opportunities recently.
I'm happy to see I am not the only person who dislike conferences. As I said, with me, it's weird. I don't like networking. But I also dislike presenting papers. I guess I have no problem receiving critical feedback as long as it is not face to face, but there is something in a conference presentation format that makes me feel exposed.
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