S. Worthen | Weblog

If you like book history and don't follow rhiannon76's journal, you might like to read her current post. It's the results of an assignment she did for a rare books class. I, at least, enjoyed reading it.

What is your name?
How did you hear about the Middle Ages?

a. A friend
b. A newspaper
c. Historical fiction
d. Fantasy/Science Fiction
e. Other fictional book.
f. Non-fiction.
g. A search engine
h. Primary/Secondary School
i. University
j. Graduate School
k. Other (please explain)

Did I have an actual point to make? Yes, but I was sidetracked, thinking of marketing surveys and free registrations to online newspapers and self-introductions.

About a week ago, an LJer started a new community, middle_ages. They're only at the point of doing self-introductions, but given the intuitiveness of the name, it might prove to develop into a relevant discussion area.

For the first time ever, I think, I was able to make a stab at asking someone's question online that was actually relevant to my area of research! I feel so gratified. All this work on these degrees, and a casual public enquiry justifies the whole thing. Well... the Discovery Channel thing did too, but for much the same reason. Both were public forums where I just happened to come in handy. (I say this now. It's entirely possible that the recipient of my advice will not find it as useful as it was intended. Oh well. My thought still applies.)

My father also consulted me for advice today on something actually relevant to my dissertation, not just the degree, and yes, I could confidently answer.

Now if only I can finish writing this chapter draft in the next two weeks and do lots and lots of grading next week.

Note: I should add that one of the reasons that my area of study doesn't feel nearly useful enough on a daily basis is that people keep asking me the sorts of questions I really don't know the answers to. Just because I'm in the history of Medieval technology doesn't mean I know too much about military history, for example.

Not that I needed more to do, but I've volunteered to coordinate packet stuffing for Vagantes, since it's coming up and various packet-related issues have been floating through my head regularly as of late. Having heard nothing about the conference in several weeks, I ran into two people at different points in my day who could, happily, tell me lots about what was happening. Last year, about 60 people came to the conference, so we were expecting about that many to prereg, with some more just showing up at the door. But no... instead, about 100 people have preregistered for the conference!! The space is still big enough to hold them all and still feel comfortable. The acoustics aren't great in the Chapel, but it's certainly a pretty space, with paintings and stained glass. Housing has been found for all speakers, just some minor housing details to be worked out. It sounds like things are going together nicely, and I finally have more news to send out for the Vagantes newsletter. Really, that's why I was asking all those questions. I write the newsletter for this year's conference and it seemed odd that I had nothing to send out when it was this close to the conference happening.

Speaking of conferences, has anyone received their Kalamazoo program book yet? I'm positive I had mine before this last year. It makes me paranoid. Maybe mine's lost in the mail somewhere?