Despite the fact that my department has already wrung itself out doing Skype interviews of several candidates, we've decided to do short 30-minute meetings with top folks who are going to be in Seattle in January at the annual Modern Language Association conference.The MLA has famously been covered on CM and RYS in the past (like here, and here), so I'm interested to know if anyone is going to report from there.
It's rather close to me this year so I'm going to go. I know many younger faculty treat it just as a job fair, but it really is chock full of good seminars (and lots of lousy ones, I know). Plus it's a nice way to catch up with friends around the country.
ReplyDeleteSeattle is a cool city, too.
I'm not in that field, but my heart goes out to the poor bastards lining up for the MLA interview cattle calls. Everything I've read makes it sounds dehumanizing and self-esteem destroying. I can get that for free at my current institution without spending money on a plane ticket and hotel room.
ReplyDeleteBison?
ReplyDeleteIs that you M. Bison? How goes it with Shadaloo?
I'll be there. Two interviews. Going to spend as much time as possible away from the conference itself, though (have some college friends in the area on whom I'm going to be imposing, so I won't even have to endure the downtown hotels much), so I don't foresee much reporting. Hiram, it's all you.
ReplyDeleteSeattle has a giant statue of Lenin and a giant concrete troll under a bridge, both in the same neighborhood. If that's not a recommendation, I don't know what is.
I'm similarly interested: who's going to the AHA or the AEA meetings in Chicago?
ReplyDelete@Dr. Colossus
ReplyDeleteThat's the Fremont area; it's an artist's colony.
When I think of Seattle, I still associate the place with flannel, bands using loads of distortion, strong coffee.
Good luck to everybody going.
@Strelnikov,
ReplyDeleteAccording to Wikipedia, M. Bison from Street Fighter II is bent on becoming a global dictator using..."an inherently evil energy known as "Psycho Power"".
Does that sound like tenure to anyone else?
I found I actually enjoy these huge meetings when I am not on the job market. I meet some cool people. See a new city. Get some fun interaction on a topic I love. Drink lots of Starbucks and beer. Walk around the lobby trying to figure out who Archie, Bubba, Darla, Strel, Cassandra, Stella, Monkey and other CMers are. If there were a summer meeting, I'd go just to spot Darla's shorts.
ReplyDeleteThe last one of these I was at actually had a fire alarm in the middle of one of the sessions. Was anyone else at that one? It wasn't MLA.
We CMers should have a way to id each other. Something subtle, like a carrot hanging from the handbag / messenger / other.
ReplyDeleteOmigod, everyone in carrots! Brilliant. I'm doing it.
ReplyDeleteI would love to hit up that conference some year when I'm not on the market. Last year I didn't get to see a single session and there were some scholars there I would have loved to see.
ReplyDeleteThis year is not that year though. Have fun ya'all.
I'll be there, surreptitiously trying to hook up with all the keynote speakers.
ReplyDeleteALL OF THEM.
MLP, wear your carrot anyway and I'll buy you a drink to ameliorate the soul-sucking suckiness that is the MLA when you are on the market. Or you can go carrotless, because I'll probably be the only one there with a carrot and then you can all point and laugh at me.
ReplyDeleteCARROTS, I say.