Conferencing

I'm back from Montreal. ICA was really great, and it's nice to go to a conference where theory is valued. Not that I ended up going to as many sessions as I wanted... there is always something shiny to do, like sleep or venture to Chinatown for lunch. It's also hard when you're presenting every day to get to much more than your own stuff, but that's why papers are posted online!

The first presentation, a grad student panel on the crazy world of international research, was really fun even if it wasn't well-attended. Mostly the Hopkins folk really like it and want us to do the panel at school, which I think would be great (I think stuff like that would always be great for department seminar, but no one has ever listened to me when I say that outside speakers are fab, but we also have cool people here).

The second session, with ye ol' Honduras theater paper that still isn't in a journal, also went well. I got a few questions, which was cool. It was first thing in the morning, though, so also not super heavily attended.

Top paper panel? Lots of people, because it's right before the health comm business meeting and reception. I was having a bad personal day, and the crowd was huge, so I felt like I nervously rushed through the talk, but it seemed to gather the second most number of questions after (mostly stuff that I'll be answering at NCA with my dissertation work). It wasn't my best talk, though.

In other news, please don't ride Amtrak's Adirondack to Montreal. It may be cheap, but unless you're traveling alone it's probably still the same price/cheaper to drive. It took us 12 hours each way to and from New York Penn Station. Horrible. On the way up we were stuck behind a group of 20 high school girls who never shut up. On the way back the bathroom smelled. The guy in the cafe car was awesome, though, and I did get a lot of magazines read.

As for future conferences, I got emails last night from APHA that one of my abstracts (main dissertation results) got a roundtable and the other (stigma measurement stuff) got a poster. I was sort of miffed at the lack of oral presentations, but then I got an email today that the roundtable abstract won best abstract on an international HIV/AIDS topic, so that's cool. I have to see where the NCA paper lands before deciding whether I'm going to both conferences. I dunno what's up with San Diego this year, but these conferences are a month apart there.

So, I'm back at the office today, feeling kind of refreshed. Rather, I think I felt stressed about presenting before I left, so I feel comparably better today. I also got more sleep in the past week (although not last night, since boy is still in NJ). My house is disgusting, though. I need to start looking for a new place and packing. I also need to get on damn Blackboard already (well, I'm on, just not attached to my course) so I can plan my class. I also need to get my thesis defense presentation together. Fun.