It's always decadent to attend a conference without doing anything for it. I'm not presenting, organizing, moderating, or volunteering. I'm here to help swell the audience, to listen to interesting papers, to see old friends, and meet new people. And so I have.
Most exciting meeting: I've finally met the historian of astrology who's a friend of my grandmother's!
Just-in-time knowledge: During coffee break, a new friend gushed about an archaeology paper she'd heard first thing this morning. She even pointed out who the speaker was from across the room. There are about a thousand people at Leeds. Guess which one sat down across from me at lunchtime, only two hours later?
Hardest-to-follow Logistics:
There are three people scheduled to be in a session, 1, 2, 3, plus M, the moderator.
Person 1 has to cancel.
Person 4 is found to take Person 1's place.
Person 4 has to cancel at the last minute, but has already written the paper.
Person 4 asks Person 2 to give her paper.
This puts Person 2 in the awkward position of giving two papers.
Person 2 recruit M to read Person 2's paper.
So... Person 3 gives his own paper; M reads Person 2's paper; Person 2 reads Person 4's paper.
Series launch: Brepols is starting a new series of books on the theme of "Medieval Voyaging", meant in the broadest possible way - metaphorical journeys, journey of the mind, journeys made by information or objects, or, indeed, journeys in the more literal sense. In a paper made in a session sponsored in honor of the series' beginning, I finally saw an image of a Nilometer. I've been wondering just quite how they were done for ages, since they show up in histories of invention. Brepols is soliciting, if you've a relevant manuscript or might consider writing one.
Most exciting meeting: I've finally met the historian of astrology who's a friend of my grandmother's!
Just-in-time knowledge: During coffee break, a new friend gushed about an archaeology paper she'd heard first thing this morning. She even pointed out who the speaker was from across the room. There are about a thousand people at Leeds. Guess which one sat down across from me at lunchtime, only two hours later?
Hardest-to-follow Logistics:
There are three people scheduled to be in a session, 1, 2, 3, plus M, the moderator.
Person 1 has to cancel.
Person 4 is found to take Person 1's place.
Person 4 has to cancel at the last minute, but has already written the paper.
Person 4 asks Person 2 to give her paper.
This puts Person 2 in the awkward position of giving two papers.
Person 2 recruit M to read Person 2's paper.
So... Person 3 gives his own paper; M reads Person 2's paper; Person 2 reads Person 4's paper.
Series launch: Brepols is starting a new series of books on the theme of "Medieval Voyaging", meant in the broadest possible way - metaphorical journeys, journey of the mind, journeys made by information or objects, or, indeed, journeys in the more literal sense. In a paper made in a session sponsored in honor of the series' beginning, I finally saw an image of a Nilometer. I've been wondering just quite how they were done for ages, since they show up in histories of invention. Brepols is soliciting, if you've a relevant manuscript or might consider writing one.
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owlfish- S. Worthen
- S. Worthen
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