Hu Demain?
It looks like my academic career is officially launched. Sunday night I got back from my first conference in the field, and last night I got to explain what I do to a group of a dozen skeptical senior faculty for three hours.
I rocked. It was good times.
The conference was great: I learned a lot, met a few people, landed an internship with a group I respect and admire, whose work has done a lot to catalyze my thinking in the field. It wasn't the rush of my first space conference ten years ago - it didn't have anything like that kind of energy. That may have been due to the size of the event - 60-80 or so versus 500 for The Mars Society's founding conference, the greater maturity and establishment of the virtual-worlds field, or just the tenor of the times. But still, a very good coming-out as a baby scholar in the field.
Now, I'm ready to poke my nose out of my library and start networking with other academics and professionals in the virtual-worlds area, and tentatively start expressing some opinions and chronicling my studies and observations. I've started an academic blog, Avatar|Anima, for that stuff, so if you're interested, I've set up an lj feed:
avatarandanima.
There's a group of senior faculty on campus who have a grant from the Templeton Foundation to study religion and transhumanism for several years. They do a monthly book discussion, bring in guest speakers, and will run some larger events and conferences. The professor I'm doing an independent study with this semester invited me to present last night on Katharine Hayles's How We Became Posthuman. It felt a lot like a dissertation defense. Plus I was the Ambassador From The Weird to the Republic of Old Academics. I had a blast. Even better, a couple people I want on my committee got to see me rock the house. Good times.
And, special thanks to
faith74 for getting someone to cover the LSAT class I teach, so I could go.
Of course, now I've added a new internship, a new blog and expanded social networking onto my schedule. I thought I was busy before - this is venturing rapidly towards the batshit.
OTOH, I still have no clue as to how to use my phone...
I rocked. It was good times.
The conference was great: I learned a lot, met a few people, landed an internship with a group I respect and admire, whose work has done a lot to catalyze my thinking in the field. It wasn't the rush of my first space conference ten years ago - it didn't have anything like that kind of energy. That may have been due to the size of the event - 60-80 or so versus 500 for The Mars Society's founding conference, the greater maturity and establishment of the virtual-worlds field, or just the tenor of the times. But still, a very good coming-out as a baby scholar in the field.
Now, I'm ready to poke my nose out of my library and start networking with other academics and professionals in the virtual-worlds area, and tentatively start expressing some opinions and chronicling my studies and observations. I've started an academic blog, Avatar|Anima, for that stuff, so if you're interested, I've set up an lj feed:
avatarandanima.
There's a group of senior faculty on campus who have a grant from the Templeton Foundation to study religion and transhumanism for several years. They do a monthly book discussion, bring in guest speakers, and will run some larger events and conferences. The professor I'm doing an independent study with this semester invited me to present last night on Katharine Hayles's How We Became Posthuman. It felt a lot like a dissertation defense. Plus I was the Ambassador From The Weird to the Republic of Old Academics. I had a blast. Even better, a couple people I want on my committee got to see me rock the house. Good times.
And, special thanks to
faith74 for getting someone to cover the LSAT class I teach, so I could go.
Of course, now I've added a new internship, a new blog and expanded social networking onto my schedule. I thought I was busy before - this is venturing rapidly towards the batshit.
OTOH, I still have no clue as to how to use my phone...