Conference fatigue

So, NASSS. Interesting conference. I don't really have anything to compare it to except for the other conference I've attended, NASSH (North American Society for Sport History). You'd think that a sport history and a sport sociology conference would be reasonably similar, but they definitely are not. I'm not really interested in assessing their respective strengths and weaknesses in this space. But NASSH is definitely an easier conference for me to attend, because people there tend to be more interested in my work. Case in point: I received literally zero constructive feedback about my presentation here on Thursday. There was barely anybody there to begin with, and, other than the TG support group (Western people + a really awesome dude named Travis from Indiana University that I met at NASSH), everyone else was clearly there for the other guy in my session (Jonathan Magee). I think I got two questions after my presentation (both were softballs), and nobody sought me out afterward for follow ups (which usually tends to happen).

So yeah, I've found it difficult to talk to people here because there simply aren't many people who are interested in the kind of stuff I'm currently working on (sport and national identity, sport media, sport in the developing world). There have probably been 4 or 5 presentations about national identity (compare this with probably over 20 sessions about gender), barely anything about sport and media. Probably 97% of the presentations (if not higher) have been concerned with the English speaking West. And that's fine, it's not as though I dislike presentations about gender, race, obesity etc. etc. But these conditions make mingling and networking, which I'm not particularly good at to begin with, extraordinarily difficult. There have been a couple of occasions where I've introduced myself to someone, explained what it is that I did, and then had that person mumble something and then walk away rather quickly. This is not to say that people here are unfriendly, just that people would rather mingle with peers whose work they're interested in. And that's fine. But it also makes for some awkward mingling sessions.

It's been pretty cool to be around people who are so passionate about their work. It has rubbed off on me a little, but I still remain pretty down on academia.

Truth be told, I'm suffering from acute conference fatigue. I just don't have the personality to be around people as frequently as a conference dictates. I could use some TG time before I head off to Montreal on Sunday, but I'm not sure that's going to happen.

NASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

So I presented yesterday. It went fine. My goal at these things is to avoid being humiliated, and I wasn't humiliated. I haven't gotten any feedback from anyone at my session, so I'm not sure whether it was well received or not.

Ottawa! (kind of)

I haven't updated this blog in a long time because there hasn't been anything in my life worth writing about - specifically, there haven't been any travels from May until now. My summer was a complete waste on the travel front. I had to study for my comprehensive exams and couldn't get out of the province, much less the country (I passed, by the way).

My wild and impetuous travel days are basically finished, methinks. There are two reasons for this. First of all, I'm getting to an age where I'm supposed to take work seriously. I'm not really in a position to travel while I'm writing my thesis (because, you know, I have to write my thesis), and then presumably I'll have a job of some sort, where I'll be expected to work and not encouraged to strap on the backpack every so often for a grand adventure. Sure, I guess that there's always the chance (hope?) of a debilitating quarter life crisis where I quit my job and board a one-way flight to Algeria. But I doubt it; I'm just not the type of person to dynamite my Plan A without a coherent Plan B.

I realize that lots of people manage to squeeze in trips even while having demanding and time consuming jobs - it's just a matter of capitalizing on the small amounts of time I'll have. And this brings me to the second problem: should I spend the small amount of travel time and money I have to go off on grand adventures, or to go see my family and friends? I live in London, Ontario. My parents live in Toronto during the winter and Greece during the summer. My sister lives in Calgary. I have cousins in Vancouver, Edmonton, Ottawa, Toronto, and Greece. My closest friends live in Yellowknife, Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, and Sweden. I have other friends that I would love to visit in places like Halifax, Washington, Nashville, Boston, England, Germany, Italy, and Korea. But to do so takes time and money so by doing so I'm basically putting paid to any opportunity of having another grand adventure. It's a terrible, terrible conundrum: I'm basically being asked to chose between my friends/family, and my single most favourite activity. So far the friends and family are winning out. I only had the time for a one week trip this summer, and rather than jet off to San Francisco or Chicago or New Orleans or Philadelphia or one of these cities that I so desperately want to visit, I went to Toronto and Montreal. And I'm perfectly fine with that, because I like both of those places and I like the people I see when I'm there... but at the same time it kills me that I'm not using that time to explore new places. I dunno.

My last hope is school-related travel. Going to conferences for me is a professional obligation, and I even get a little bit of money back from my school as reimbursement. I've been fairly unlucky with conferences so far: two of the three so far have been in places I've already visited before (and the next one I hope to attend will be in Buffalo, New York - which I checked out in 2004). Still though; Ottawa IS preferable to London, and a conference is still infinitely more exciting then my everyday life. The conference is that of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport. I'm giving a 20 minute presentation about sports blogging. I don't actually know how to do sociology, so it should be a pretty intimidating experience. Mercifully, I present very early in the proceedings - I'm scheduled for the first day (Thursday) during the second session (the morning) - so I'll be able to relax afterward and enjoy the proceedings.

The conference runs through Saturday night. On Sunday, I head to Montreal for three days of research, beer and merriment. Wheeeeeee!!!!!!