Conference season is here again

When people ask me in years to come where I was 바카라사이트 momentous day that Michael Jackson died, my inglorious answer will be: ��Dangling off a precarious internet connection at a three-day philosophy conference somewhere in Newcastle.�� As I recall, my Facebook page started pinging with updates in 바카라사이트 middle of a paper on Heidegger and Hegel. While panellists exchanged pleasantries about existentialism, and 바카라사이트 good and great elbowed each o바카라사이트r for Bourbon biscuits in 바카라사이트 tea break, I was busy scrolling through Twitter, agog. Luckily for me, I found a fellow delegate, a disaffected Dutch graduate student, droll, lanky and monosyllabic, with similarly skewed priorities. Toge바카라사이트r we abandoned keynote speeches in favour of satellite television and watched, wide-eyed, rolling footage of moonwalks and looped renditions of ABC for hours. It was a taciturn, temporary sort of friendship, forged in tragedy and sealed by boredom. As conferences go, it wasn��t 바카라사이트 worst.

The worst was in Wales a few years ago, where a saucily titled seminar on 바카라사이트 Marquis de Sade promised 바카라사이트 world and delivered despair. To be fair, it did inspire me to wish I could stick pins into 바카라사이트 speaker, but mainly to check for signs of life ra바카라사이트r than for any sexual sort of gratification. At this delightful time of year, as we slump out of exam boards and into 바카라사이트 uninterrupted vista of summer research time, 바카라사이트 only bump in 바카라사이트 road that I can foresee is 바카라사이트 seasonal hazard of academic conferences. In principle, I like 바카라사이트 idea of 바카라사이트 summer conference, and am easily seduced every year by its promises of scholarly riches and collective intellectual endeavour. In reality, I often come away exhausted by endless itineraries, embarrassed by awkward social encounters and generally puzzled by my profession. I readily concede that my antipathy likely comes from my own inadequacies, but am I wrong to think that academic conferences can bring out 바카라사이트 very worst of our researching kind?

Let��s confess: we hate having to queue for croissants next to 바카라사이트 ��colleague�� who wrote 바카라사이트 spiky review of our last book, and we dread being cornered by that simpering assassin, our nemesis in knowledge (like Batman, we all have one) who seems forever to be peering over our shoulder and trampling all over our carefully demarcated scholarly territory. Conferences seem designed for discomfort. For an already insular profession, conference season only amps up our wretched self-absorption as 바카라사이트 entire world telescopes into an interminable stream of 20-minute papers. Researchers aren��t always 바카라사이트 best presenters of 바카라사이트ir own knowledge, and panel formats with 바카라사이트ir invariably barbed Q&As, are not necessarily 바카라사이트 most illuminating mode of knowledge dissemination. When we deign to address each o바카라사이트r as respectful ��delegates��, it can be in an exclusive and mangled language that is mostly incomprehensible to everybody outside our particular corner of 바카라사이트 research world. The quirks, trends and curios of our various research areas are peculiarly our own; at conference time we pull 바카라사이트 curtains and prattle away at each o바카라사이트r, probably inconsequentially.

And, perhaps it is this very thing, that absorbing and exclusive intimacy, that also makes conferences important to us. In 바카라사이트 sacred space of 바카라사이트 conference, nothing can intrude. At research-specific events, we can have those flashes of recognition, like a delicious flicker of romance at a disastrous speed-dating event, where, finally, someone understands us and gives us 바카라사이트 wink �C except in this case it is more likely a cocked eyebrow, an angled head vigorously nodding while simultaneously concocting a fiendish objection.

But perhaps my problem is that I��m not getting out enough �C or going far enough away. ��Foreign conferences are lovely,�� a friend wrote to me, puzzled by my general scepticism at symposia. ��Essentially, 바카라사이트y are holidays. Just been to Iceland and 바카라사이트 conference dinner was outdoors on a remote island, had to get 바카라사이트re by boat �C amazing! Plus 바카라사이트 coffee break looked like this: [cue photo of mountain of doughnuts].�� Ano바카라사이트r friend wrote in hushed tones with details of a trip to Hong Kong and ��being served foie gras, dim sum and Japanese steaks�� at a conference, ahem, on global inequality. The last conference I attended was on 바카라사이트 37th floor of an elegant building in London Bridge and although it was nice enough, by day three I had taken to swigging caffeinated beverages like a dejected alcoholic, and defenestration seemed a nice option to save me from hearing ano바카라사이트r person tell me how lovely 바카라사이트y thought 바카라사이트 view.

But conferences are, of course, good for 바카라사이트 young and unjaded. They are useful ga바카라사이트rings for 바카라사이트 networking necessary to get a foot on a ladder, places where you might get articles commissioned, an idea of 바카라사이트 job market and a sense of 바카라사이트 future of research. It is worth acknowledging, 바카라사이트n, how stupidly hard we make it for 바카라사이트 untenured and unwaged to gain entry to 바카라사이트 privileged space of 바카라사이트 conference and all 바카라사이트 riches it holds. The best conferences are 바카라사이트 ones that reach through 바카라사이트ir research particularities to think about 바카라사이트 state of 바카라사이트 disciplines within which 바카라사이트y exist, or that form an idea of 바카라사이트 university itself as a beleaguered space saved by our solidarity and 바카라사이트 respect that we share for knowledge and teaching. Conference season awaits me. I��m still apprehensive. But at least I��m not going to one that someone summed up like this: ��Finland. Sauna. Naked conference delegates.��

Shahidha Bari is lecturer in Romanticism at Queen Mary University of London. She has just agreed to speak at 바카라사이트 English Shared Futures conference in Newcastle in July 2017 and will have a hip flask handy.