Settlement & Survival: Mission Critical Components
Do not forget: your room key; your gloves; the bitters; the projector dongle; to be kind.
There’s a lot to keep track of when you chair a panel at an academic conference, but it’s so much less than when you’re a presenter. As a lazy person who nonetheless enjoys organizing things, I highly recommend it. I posted about my plan for chairing this session a while ago, so here’s the report.
W’s
- We recruited panelists first under a really loose idea, then tailored our proposal, comment, and vibe to their specific work. I think this makes for a more cohesive, intentional panel, and helps people feel like they’re not just squashing their work into a box to fit the theme.
- Everyone really liked the illustrated visual identity I did for the panel, and I think it made us really memorable! You don’t need to draw anything if you want to replicate the effect. Choose a specific image, font and text color and just use that to make opening and closing slides. We also sent semi-formal email invitations to people we as organizers know and anyone the panelists wanted us to invite.
- If you like overdoing it, you can make some simple panel swag with your visual id elements. I did bookmarks (print online at kinkos!) and also made simple business cards for panelists with their name and email so they could use them for networking. I laid the cards and bookmarks out on a standard postcard size and cut them apart myself so I could have a smaller minimum on printing (it was about $30 for 50 prints making 50 bookmarks and 150 total cards)
- Nathan wrote a lovely comment that brought the papers together in really interesting ways and primed everyone for a rich discussion. We also asked panelists what kind of feedback would be most useful for current projects and let the audience know to help guide the discussion. I recommend doing a comment instead of a fourth paper. Edward James Imhotep did one for us at SHOT in 2018 and it was one of the nicest things I’ve ever experienced hearing someone read and consider my work so closely.
- We all went out for a celebratory bite and bubble at the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the old sears tower. the view was amazing and hopefully it was a memorable experience. Food is awful there though, just fyi.
L's
- The hotel was very wack and expensive. If I want to take a shower where the temperature fluctuates between “garden hose in partial sunlight” and “brewing a pour over” I can do that at home. If I want to be kept up by banging radiators, I can also do that at home. Being on the Magnificent Mile felt like a ridiculous joke. The food options weren’t great, a 711 was like 8 blocks away. If I needed something from Dior I was all set but I really think we need to expand our neighborhood selections. It feels extremely hostile to be a grad student or contingent scholar and have to pay a premium for literally everything just because old white scholars are afraid of actual neighborhoods where people live and where there’s some decent fucking tacos.
- I didn’t have an acceptable cup of coffee all weekend.
- I didn’t bring a fucking hat?? to Chicago?? in November????
Box Score
- best meal: kumiai oysters, anti hero ipa, and half of Nathan’s french fries at Hugo’s Frog Bar and Fish House
- best pun (self nomination) “bitter late than never”
- best dressed: Kate Sheppard in a very chic navy blue shift with puffy sleeves and no tights because she’s a madwoman Kate it was 14 degrees out.
- best paper: a galaxy of husbands from Luis Campos’ new queer history of biology project
- best overall accomplishment: HSS finally FINALLY giving Margaret Rossiter the Sarton Medal
- best activity: watching the snowstorm and looking for ufos in Hyde Park
