As we mentioned last month, guest blogger Sarah Barringer Gordon is helping us launch a new, reader-driven feature here on the blog:Readers have responded so enthusiastically to [Gordon's] posts that we have invited her to stay on as a sort of advice columnist in residence -- someone to respond to questions about everything from applying to graduate school to publishing a third or fourth book.
She is doing this for nothing -- a peppercorn consideration, as they say in contract law -- and offers her advice with the proverbial grain of salt. With a nod to advice columnists past ("Dear Abby," "Dorothy Dix"), we will title these occasional posts "Ms. Peppercorn Considers."
Today Ms. Peppercorn considers how to survive the academic conference: DEAR MS PEPPERCORN: I am planning to attend the ASLH meetingfor the first time. I am a graduate student in history, and I have been to the AHA, where nobody talked to me other than a couple of equally lonely grad students. I have heard that nobody at ASLH goes to any panels, and that the conference is full of people who all know each other. Like many academics, I’m kind of geeky, so I’m really excited to meet some fellow legal history geeks but terrified at the prospect of 72 hours of social awkwardness. Should I cancel my registration and come back when I am a more established scholar?
JOYLESS IN CHICAGO
DEAR JOYLESS: you have raised a fundamental question about “how to survive the conference.” One could write a treatise on the subject. For certain, the AHA is its own beast, and Peppercorn has nothing to say about that. The ASLH, however, has distinct qualities, some of which are virtues, and others are tolerable. First, the panels. Very very substantive, and full of strong new work. Yes, you are right, there is a coterie of those who spend their time drinking coffee, and doing things like laughing and gossiping. Believe me, when you get to that point, you have arrived! You may well be the next in line for president of the society.
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