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Ok buckle up, it’s thread time. So, my #ASECS2021 talk was about Marina MacKay’s autobiography of Ian Watt, a book that is very interested in where ideas come from and how these seemingly arbitrary life experiences shape a person’s intellectual outlook.
And I’ve been thinking about my own position in the field, especially, why I’m at #ASECS2021 this weekend instead of at #ACLA2021, and which conferences I attend regularly (ie, which I choose when they’re all at the same time AHEM), etc.
And the fact is that a big part of why I attend ASECS is because of the people I’ve gotten to know there, as much as anything else. My first time at ASECS was on a panel that @S_Insley_H organized — that’s how we met. And I think you all know that I now can’t live without her.
I’m not going to list and tag all the amazing people I’ve met in almost 10 years of going, though I kind of want to because I love you all so much, and I have learned so much from your fantastic work. And one of the best things about 18C Twitter is the way people love each other.
But the real point is that, despite all my frustrations with some of its institutional aspects, really, to me, ASECS is all those brilliant people. And that’s why I feel optimistic about the its future, because I selfishly think that that’s what it really is — it’s all of you.
(No shade to all those other conferences, where there are also many people I adore and want to hang out with more and talk ideas with! I really really do. And you all shape my thinking in so many ways too. I’m a comparatist through and through.)
I’m just saying, these last few days, this conference, some of the problems of ASECS have been in the spotlight — and I’m glad they have been! But I really believe that it’s going to get better, and I’m really excited about it. It’s going to be awesome. We can do this.
The End.
The End.
