FoolsCap

1. Further thoughts on C & W
2. Responses to two articles I’ve read
3. Response to Spivak’s into to <i>Of Grammatology</i>
4. The usual excoriations of my own limited talents

A compendium of lessons learned and thoughts thunk during the 2007 Computers and Writing Conference, May 17-20, at bee-yoo-tee-ful Wayne State.

1. Holy damn, putting on a conference is a lot of work.  I do not envy the organizers of larger conferences (the Cs, for example) their task.
2. The best way to learn your campus is to tell a stranger where they’re going.
3. The Ferry Street Inn is on Ferry Street.  And, on Friday morning, had the most scrumptious fresh-cinnamon roll smell wafting through the lounge/dining area.
4. The C&W community likes the following stuff: free crap, beer, bowling, helpful grad volunteers, accessible parking.
5. The C&W community does not like the following: unreliable wireless access, the staff at the Towers dorm, lunch shortages, name-tag shortages, program shortages.  For all participants who suffered through these and other inconveniences: apologies and gratitude for your patience.
6. Geoff Sirc is, in person, as interesting and engaging as his writing and nowhere near as intimidating as his UMinn faculty pic.
7. Richard Doyle reminds me of a favorite line from <i>Hamlet</i>: "Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t."
8. Who is the fellow with the mutli-colored mohawk?
9. Oh, that’s [insert respected scholar’s name here]!
10. Helen Liggett is a terrifically nice person and I wish I had been able to make it to her talk.  Still, I had the chance to drive her and Keith Dorwick from the Ferry St. Inn to McGregor and had a nice chat about WSU landmarks.
11. If someone compliments me personally one more time, I’m going to get paranoid.  But thanks, Richard and Jeff, anyway–it meant a lot.
12. I think Vered would be huge here.
13. McGregor has the ugliest doors in Christendom.
14. A (partial) standing ovation from one’s peers and colleagues for all one’s hard work?  Priceless.
15. I love free books.
16. These publisher people are really helpful.
17. I’m horribly underdressed for this museum banquet.
18. A flitting uncertainty as to who’s faculty and who’s still grad students.
19. Open Source Software: I understand its importance and all, but I’m not sure I really quite care yet.  Although Pruchnic’s New Order-themed panel was pretty sweet–in particular, I liked the extrapolation from this one phenomenon to broader social/pedagogical/theoretical concerns.
20. If you want to, you know, attend panels, volunteering to work the conf is not the best way to do it.

Other thoughts that require more in-depth explanation:

I admit I’ve been hesitant to send out paper proposals/abstracts because I didn’t feel like I had had the necessary "Big Idea."  But from what I’ve seen during the conference, the BI doesn’t seem to matter so much.  This is in no way a diminishment of the work presented at the conference–all the panels I was able to attend offered creative, engaging, rigorous scholarship.  Rather, though, one thing I’ve learned from the conference is that the conf paper doesn’t have to be a major statement or a field-changing intervention, but rather can be a work-in-progress, some half-formed-thoughts, a way to present ideas and conjectures and get feedback from one’s peers.  A major relief, then, as I start hypothesizing ideas for next year’s C & W.

I am not a natural schmoozer, but need to work on it a bit.  The few participants I had a chance to talk to at length were gracious and warm, so I’m encouraged about future attempts to meet and/or greet.  I admire those whose crippling personal doubts and anxieties don’t stand in the way of successful networking.

My impression is that the event was a huge p.r. smash for WSU and the Detroit area in general.  Which, as we WSU students eagerly assured each other, bodes well for the next round of hirings and future grad applications.  In particular, conf participants seemed impressed by the dedication and efforts of the grad volunteers, by the accessibility of most campus points of interest, the close proximity of two bars to campus, the proximity of Detroit’s cluster of museums to our campus, and the attractiveness overall of Wayne’s cmapus.  This last point is of interest, I think, because too often Wayne folks take their surroundings for granted–at least I do.

I’m sort of getting sick of writing this, but I’ve more to say about various panels I attended, and a possible realization about a direction of study for yours truly.