Saskatoon bound...

Well I head off to Saskatoon on Tuesday. It'll be my first trip to the "Paris of the Prairies." (I got that phrase from somewhere, honest) and I'm looking forward to doing all of the conference things - giving a paper (see link on the right), catching up with some friends and colleagues I don't see very often, and providing some support to what feels like a gazillion grad students attending this year. I've never been to Saskatoon before, so this should be a shock to my central Canadian sensibilities. Seriously, though, I'm really looking forward to it, and I've heard great things about the city. I found this photo of the 1940 Saskatoon Quakers hockey team from the image gallery of the City of Saskatoon Archives and thought I'd post it. That's not an indicator of how ignorant I am that I think it'll be wintry there this week. I just like the pic, that's all.

People complain about how much they don't like conferences because the papers are of poor quality, or because the decision to run many panels concurrently means that it's possible that about 6 people will attend your paper and those that do have very little they can offer in terms of feedback. I suppose those are legitimate beefs, but I always say that is partly function of the overspecialized nature of academics nowadays. We always like to tell our undergraduate students memorizing all of the specific facts of a situation isn't all that important -- but synthesizing them with larger ideas is what we're really trying to test. The fact that some scholars don't live up to that credo in practice can be a little depressing.

I also something more interesting is going on, which is that people don't know how to give criticism that is constructive (ie: will help you as your research and writing continues to take shape) nor do people know how to accept criticism as anything more than ad hominem. In light of that many people figure, why bother even trying? This is one of the strangest things about academic life -- how little debating we really do when face-to-face. I thought of that again while watching Christopher Hitchens and Al Sharpton debate on religion a little while ago at the New York Public Library and thought, man I would kill to see some of big names in my field have a spirited discussion. If everyone in the room recognizes the fact that the work is hard, the journey is frustrating, and one's hold on knowledge is always fleeting, the spirit should be more generous than it usually is. That being said, aside from the pre-paper jitters I always have, I generally like conferences a lot.

The Canadian Communication Association annual conference is odd bird. That's because all of the societies in social sciences and the humanities meet in a different Canadian city every year over a course of about a week. So, it stands to reason that while walking around campus talking about reality television you'll hear people coming out of a social work conference, or a literature conference, or whatever else is running concurrently with yours. I actually like that a lot. It gives off the impression that a) you are not working alone and b) that belong to a wider community of ideas. And I'm sure that sounds a little schmaltzy, but like cooking chicken academics sans schmaltz can be a pretty dry enterprise. I also like the book fair, and usually walk away with a bunch of books that I could probably buy cheaper online just for the feeling of buying books at a conference. And yes, that's schmaltzy too.

So I'll send posts from the road when I can. Otherwise, I'll blog upon my return. I know that sounds like an empty promise the way the blogs been sputtering along lately, but I'll work on it.