It seems to be conference season! Some of us have already gone, and I'm setting out today for one of my favorite conferences (why this week's check-in post is going up early). Even though NEWSCOMI isn't contributing anything substantial to the travel, I'm going. In a way it's freeing, knowing that I'm paying for it myself: I can choose what I want to do, where to stay, there's no need to document that yes, this IS the official conference hotel, or worry about whether I have a receipt for this or that. And if I decide that I'd rather skip a session to go sight-seeing, there's not the slightest need for guilt that I'm not doing all the conference things, because it's my trip, not NEWSCOMI's.
So for this week's prompt, if you feel like it, tell us about a magical conference experience! Maybe it's a recurring experience at your favorite annual meeting, or maybe it was a one-time event that worked out perfectly, or a serendipitous happening at a conference.
Alternatively, feel free to grouse about budget cutbacks at your own personal Scummy U that make it difficult or impossible to travel. There is, after all, bad magic as well as good!
Daisy
- URGENT work permit
- Continue paper revisions, aim for doing the figures first and then getting started on text
- Set lab/final exams
- Finish all term marking
- Sort out field school stuff
- Do something fun with friend
Dame Eleanor Hull
- Exercise: swim x2, cardio x3, trainer x1, yoga x4.
- Work: finish conference paper, upload PowerPoint, prep Latin, order fall books
- Social/outings: trip-related errands, annual physical, dinner with friends.
- Planning: arrange to drop off car for repairs, message VRBO hosts, pack, make sure Sir John has all necessary details.
Heu mihi
- Conference re-set.
JaneB
- self care: move intentionally three days, do seven household tasks, eat mindfully, make sure I rest as needed, journal daily, find out about Access to Work scheme
- Fun - read a novel, start a non-fiction book, knit/crochet, do some art, do some D&D prep, play D&D at least once.
- work and boundaries - employment advisor meeting (from local neurodivergent support charity; advisor is AuDHD like me and used to work in student learning support at my university, so I'm hopeful they'll at least understand some of my context), maintain boundaries and grey-rock the Interim Head of Dept check in meeting, do minimal work hours (I need to email some students, check emails, plus see 4)
- work projects - Mixed Volume paper's final-final deadline is Tuesday so I've promised to read over it tomorrow (Monday) to try & get SOMETHING off even if it isn't what we hoped for, and I need to write a couple paragraphs for the Consultancy Paper too.
- Carry on marking!
- Expenses claim
- Figure out travel to conference
- Prep for Berlin trip
- House/admin jobs - 1 urgent, 1 important
- Go to friend's bookshop and buy books for holiday reading.
Susan
- Return to the introduction to Big Collaboration
- Chase down the last 3 contributors on my list.
- Catch up on email.
- Organize desk
- Do something fun
- Eat/ sleep/ move
My favorite conference ever was a one-off in the summer of 2019, honoring an author's anniversary. Everyone there did work focusing on this author. The energy was amazing. It was in a beautiful place, with wineries and great views, and pretty much everyone who was anyone in Author Studies was there. And that was the last time we were all together, because one really significant person died well before time during the pandemic. But I have wonderful memories of the conference and the place.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
Exercise: swim x2, cardio x3, trainer x1, yoga x4. YES, all.
Work: finish conference paper, upload PowerPoint, prep Latin, order fall books. NO*, YES, YES, NO.
Social/outings: trip-related errands, annual physical, dinner with friends. YES, all.
Planning: arrange to drop off car for repairs, message VRBO hosts, pack, make sure Sir John has all necessary details. YES, all (I hope the details are in place, but we'll be able to communicate as necessary).
*I have a PowerPoint presentation and 4000 words of notes; what I need to do is cut down and arrange those notes into a readable paper of appropriate length.
New goals:
Finish the conference paper
Keep up some semblance of exercise (yoga, walking)
Have fun!
Have a wonderful conference trip! It is great to be on your own schedule and to choose what to go to. Hope it is fabulous!
DeleteThere's a lot of pleasure in being both senior enough and not funded that you can just do the fun bits of a conference! Have a great time!
DeleteConferences can be fun but are also very stressful for me - they cost a lot more energy than they hand back. I return with a lot of renewed enthusiasm and ideas, and a major deficit of mental and physical energy - I used to often get sick, and to always need to leave some space either side of the event for just being stressed and over-drawn on the old energy budget (which means anything in teaching time is extra problematic). I REALLY enjoyed some of the virtual events during COVID - I understand all the issues people list, but for me, the values of not having to travel, being confident about the food, drink and sleeping facilities, and having a lot less physical pain/environmental stresses (is anyone else always MORE hayfever-y in unfamiliar habitats?), and being able to use chat and digital tools to network which feel a lot more comfortable (I'd far rather add a comment or send a DM to someone to say what a great talk they did than try to work out when and how to approach them in person, partly because I have a very small social battery and it's usually all gone just greeting people in the halls and queuing for coffee). And to be entirely honest, conferences always leave me feeling inadequate, and that gets worse the older I get and the more successful those in my peer group become in terms of grants, full chairs, growing families, moving jobs, key note giving and funded attendance and all that stuff - now, I know RATIONALLY that a lot of this is because the people like me have far fewer conference funds, so the "successful" types might be able to attend 50% of field conferences due to their higher funding, lower teaching duties, higher number of invitations etc. where those in my position, us second rankers who are not stars but have solid jobs and do a solid job so have stayed in the field beyond the ECR insecurity stage (and therefore get less help/support/attention/opportunities because ECR representation is very important, but...), maybe only attend 10% of events, so although we are probably in a majority taken all in all, we can easily feel like a minority at any one event (especially with falling real terms salaries and cost of living crises - many in UK academe are not going to feel able to personally fund conference attendance internationally, or perhaps not at all, for the next year or so). And of course COVID concerns have not gone away, at all!
ReplyDeleteLAST WEEK'S GOALS:
The week started well, but then I quickly ran out of any kind of "getupandgo" and was very low energy and avoidant - this is probably partly the annoying old hormones, and partly that I am due to start phased return from the 22nd and my brain is falling into Dread and Waiting mode, which is a real waste of the time I do have left.
A very disappointing meeting with Interim Head about my workload for next year - I lose all but one of my module leaderships (i.e. doing the VLE, structuring, organising, grade coordinating work) and I gain several "units" (3-4 weeks of doing lectures and practicals) in modules I don't run on topics which are periphereal to my research interests and, in fact, are also ones I don't want to be involved with because I think they are not well designed and because I am increasingly fed up with lecturing large groups but that is required for those modules (between low student attendance, what I've learnt about blended and flipped learning, and my current feelings/opinions about education, plus disliking the spaces we tend to get assigned, the poor recording/audio set ups in those spaces, and personally having trouble standing anyway due to back problems and generally being an unfit fat mess). Yes, I can try to weave in some active learning, but that tends to be unpopular and cause students to get distracted/go off topic... because I've been assigned almost entirely first year teaching, and students seem to come out of school unmotivated, tired, ill equipped to take notes or read or engage in activities without being closely supervised and scaffolded, and... honestly, I don't blame them. Especially as first year in our system doesn't count towards their degrees! And I might have ONE admin role back. So it is nominally a lower workload, but there is even less of the things I feel competent at and that I feel are worthwhile, and a lot of "coming in to an already designed module which is not suited to my style and having to make myself and my content fit" which... does not make me especially motivated.
DeleteLord, I wish we still had sabbaticals. Although from the way Interim Head talks to me, I guess I'd be right at the back of the queue for one because having been ill makes me undeserving (I don't THINK she actually MEANS to convey that she thinks I'm swinging the lead/exploiting the system/being lazy/not trying hard enough, but she constantly manages to do that anyway).
Whine whine whine!
* self care: move intentionally three days, do seven household tasks, eat mindfully, make sure I rest as needed, journal daily, find out about Access to Work scheme two, four, hahahah no, yesish, no, no
* Fun - read a novel, start a non-fiction book, knit/crochet, do some art, do some D&D prep, play D&D at least once. yes, no, yes, no, yes, yes
* work and boundaries - employment advisor meeting (from local neurodivergent support charity; advisor is AuDHD like me and used to work in student learning support at my university, so I'm hopeful they'll at least understand some of my context), maintain boundaries and grey-rock the Interim Head of Dept check in meeting, do minimal work hours (I need to email some students, check emails, plus see 4) that went quite well, ish, 11 and a half hours of work
* work projects - Mixed Volume paper's final-final deadline is Tuesday so I've promised to read over it tomorrow (Monday) to try & get SOMETHING off even if it isn't what we hoped for, and I need to write a couple paragraphs for the Consultancy Paper too. yes and yes
NewCat's house nickname is currently ShoutyPants, because he has LOUD opinions and a very hard to ignore door that needs oiling kind of attention-getting mew. His opinions are mostly about how he needs feeding a lot more often, and are just starting to be about how he wants me to go downstairs and hang out in his space (the room he started out in, where his litter tray and food are) and pet him - he isn't sure about hanging out in MY main space yet, in my office, but I hope he'll get into that as time goes on.
DeleteNEXT WEEK'S GOALS:
I need to get OUT of waiting mode and I'd like to try to do some of the "not just the basics" things around the house/in terms of self-organising. But I always feel capable of making and following All The Plans later in the evening, it just all goes away overnight and takes a LONG time to come back the next day. And I'm still suffering from the "none of this is appealing or feels worth doing because Everything Is Disasterous and I Am Ineffective" feelings which go with burnout, and also with life under late capitalism. Although working on the Mixed Volume paper was actually quite interesting (we've gone outside our "just the data" comfort zone to also write about how Enlightenment thinking might be causing blind spots in our understanding of what prehistoric peoples were doing and why, and it's finally coming together...).
** self care: Needs changing up somehow because it isn't progressing really. So Daily Journalling is going first, because that at least stirs up the brain sludge, then physical care through movement and food choices and showering regularly and using moisturiser, then care for my environment through routine tasks, then adding in a couple of less routine tasks and paperwork type tasks like financial review and finding out about Access to Work scheme
** Fun - read a novel, start a non-fiction book, knit/crochet, do some art, do some D&D prep, play D&D at least once.
** Work and boundaries - follow up from employment advisor meeting, maintain boundaries and grey-rock the Interim Head of Dept check in meeting, do minimal work hours (I have some grad student meetings)
** work projects - nothing
I love the name ShoutyPants for your cat! But I'm sorry to hear about the unpleasant changes to your workload. That sounds so discouraging.
DeleteAwww ShoutyPants :) That is a great blog name. I'm sure he'll be in the office all the time very soon.
DeleteSorry to hear about workload and reorganized modules...
ShoutyPants is such a good name for a cat. I'm sorry your head of Department has such poor relational skills. The worthy poor should have gone out the window years ago.
DeleteMy all-time favourite conference was a small, specialized one that was held in Scotland, and came with an amazing field trip to places I would never have visited otherwise. I kind of want to move there, or at least do a sabbatical! In general I prefer smaller conferences, my field has some really huge ones where thousands of people show up and I don’t get a lot out of those. We have two small regional ones I love. I am going to make a point of trying to go to some small overseas ones in the next few years.
ReplyDeleteLast week’s goals
URGENT work permit IN PROGRESS, IT IS LOOOOOONG…
Continue paper revisions, aim for doing the figures first and then getting started on text IN PROGRESS
Set lab/final exams DONE
Finish all term marking DONE
Sort out field school stuff IN PROGRESS
Do something fun with friend SCHEDULED FOR THIS WEEK
Our classes are now over for the term, now we’re in exams for 2 weeks and then field schools, so I really have to get the paper revisions off my plate. Lots of student stuff going on and lots of thesis revisions going on so stress levels are pretty high all round, but there is sunshine, crocus flowers, and the odd patio beer (albeit in parkas) to help us make use of the slightly looser schedules!
This week’s goals
FINISH work permit
FINISH paper revisions
Help student with thesis revisions
Help student with thesis data
Sort out field school stuff
Do something fun with friend
Run 3 times
Those permit things are a pain, and so many details! But you've made good progress!
DeleteI also prefer small, specialized conferences. Much less overwhelming!
DeleteUgh to the permitting process (a pain... almost as bad as trying to hunt down the landowners and managers in a farming landscape...). Definitely agreed about small conferences - less overwhelming, more connection (because you usually have more in common with the people there), and less FOMO too! (I hate choosing which session to attend in big meetings - either there are three-plus that look equally good or nothing that appeals!)
DeleteHmmm. Probably the most amazing conference I ever went to was in Nanjing in 1987: the first international conference on the history of a country other than China held there since the revolution. 1987 was during an initial period of maybe opening, maybe not, but pre-Tianemen. What we saw was the debates among the Chinese scholars, arguing about the present through the lens of the past. And being in China before there were many western tourists. So not great in terms of scholarship, but in terms of experience?
ReplyDeleteI like conferences, mostly because I'm pretty intellectually isolated, so conferences are where I get contact with colleagues. I get ideas, have fun, etc. One conference I regularly go to has a regular dinner for "women who study women", organized by a friend who is a serious foodie. It's fun.
How I did:
Return to the introduction to Big Collaboration YES
Chase down the last 3 contributors on my list. YES
Catch up on email. HA!
Organize desk DREAM ON
Do something fun NOT REALLY
Eat/ sleep/ move YES
Lots of busy stuff last week: several candidates to be our new dean, a boring committee whose admin lead is not a good listener and not very collaborative, etc. But I did return to the introduction (still more to do, but it's close to there). We met with the general editor, since Big Collaboration is one of 5 volumes that are to be published all together. I wrote the three holdouts, all of whom are more or less the same generation and know each other, and they got a kick out of realizing who the other holdouts were. One came in this afternoon.
I spent today organizing our graduate Policies and Procedures document according to the accepted template, and I would like to curse Word and it's formatting idiosyncracies, which has given me a headache. Grumble.
My computer printer died.
Goals for the week ahead:
1. Finish revisions to introduction to Big Collaboration
2. Read last straggler essays and upload to google drive
3. Do preliminary check on sources for new project and potential research trips this summer
4. Keep up with all the admin stuff
5. Have fun (brunch with friend, dinner with another, and who knows this weekend!)
6. Sleep/ eat / move
The Nanjing conference does sound amazing!
DeleteOh, Word. I curse it regularly. If it's so smart, why can't it adapt to the way I always (try to get it to) reformat? Lately it doesn't even want to give me the drop-down menu for font changes, and I have to type in "Times New Roman" every time. WTF? And that's just for starters.
Nanjing sounds like an amazing experience! And I hope you fit in some more fun and rest this week...
DeleteI just got back from a pretty great (annual) conference--it's small, in a remote but beautiful place (the remoteness means that I don't go annually), with only a few concurrent sessions and meals all together in a giant faux-medieval convocation hall. Its size means that you can see old friends and meet new people, but also have the space to dodge anyone you might want to dodge! The other great thing about it is that each panel has a respondent; this means that papers are supposed to be submitted a month in advance, with the result that they're quite a bit better across the board, I think, than at most conferences.
ReplyDeleteBut I got back on Sunday, and then on Monday we drove into Canada to see the eclipse's totality--which was amazing--but the 3.5-hour drive turned into 10 hours coming home. And tomorrow (Thursday) I leave for a 3-day conference on general education.
So: I have goals this week, but they're mostly just about staying afloat, so I'm not going to post them! I just need to try to check off as many of the little necessary tasks as possible....
Welcome home and bon voyage! I hope you're still afloat and getting the little things done.
Delete