Academic desperation

I just spent the week in Cincinnati at the USITT conference. It covers design and technolgy for the theatre. The whole family came with which was great to see them. I would be able to have dinner with them and sometimes be able to do bedtime as well.

The conference on the whole was fruitful. I did a poster presentation on podcasting for educators, and that was well received. I submitted an idea for a full presentation for next year’s conference, we’ll see if it gets chosen.

You see, academics are expected to share their research in some way. Books and articles are the most respected, and the most competitive. That is followed by presenting at conferences. So that makes presenting at conferences is very desirable.

That makes these sessions highly sought after. Especially for all these assistant professors that need to get tenure and promotion, or can only get their school to pay for the trip if they are presenting.

There were two people at the conference that proposed seven different sessions when there were only ten spots available. They were visibly desperate to get a session and had a shotgun approach to proposing sessions.

We’ll see if my presentation/session gets accepted. If not I have a plan ‘b’, don’t you worry.