Conferences: Academic Word Vomit

Conferences are one of those things I vaguely remember hearing about in undergrad, though I mostly only remember them being the reason my professors cancelled classes. But I am only now learning more about "Why the f*ck would people want to sit around and listen to other people talk about random shit they decided to study or research?!" It's a subtle art, you see.

My experience goes like this: I presented at two undergrad conferences one in 2007 and again in 2009. These were the kinds of conferences everyone got into. I talked about fairy tales in one and surrogacy in another. Neither of which are topics I decided to pursue at length. Not a big deal, but it was still something to put on a resume (or as I now call it, a vitae. Fancy). Last weekend I had the opportunity to present at PCM, a conference for students at the college where I attend grad school. I assumed this conference was in a similar vein --though one guy was pissed he wasn't accepted and presented a poem during the doggerel about his experience in which the conference judges were equated with a cup that he then smashed. It was a mess. Did I mention there was free beer?

Anyway, this weekend I am traveling with two lovely ladies (Katlyn and Andi...actually, let me just change that to "ladies." Mmmkay.) to Savannah, GA to present at The 21st Annual British Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies Conference. Now that sounds fancy. I am hoping this will feel like a different sort of conference. More relevance, but without any additional nervousness. I hope the only vomit that spews from my mouth is of the academic variety.

Our panel is on the living dead as seen in modern film. That's right, folks: zombies. I talk about The Walking Dead. There's also Children of Men and Firefly  among a plethora of other super-interesting topics of discussion. In short, our panel is going to rock! So I guess it doesn't matter if the conference seems more legit or not because we intend to have a blast!

As my professor said, "we are letting the zombies loose onto the world"...or something like that. He also said "May the force be with you" which was nice.

I hope to provide updates on our awesome adventures in the days to come!