7 VA Quick Takes

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1. Last weekend The Southern Baron presented at a European Studies conference in DC, so I got to see my family AND get my academia fix. Win win!

2.The conference was at the Omni Shoreham, a 1930s brick hotel and historic night life spot that is on the National Register of Historic places. The Woodley Park neighborhood was adorable and the lobby was gorgeous - but there was not enough wi-fi or free coffee. C'mon, grad students cannot live on aesthetics alone! 

3. My favorite panel was one about Europe's new role as a mission field for Christian re-evangelization. Evangelicals from Africa and othe former European colonies are now ironically planting churches in the same nations that once worked to Christianize them. One speaker referenced a definition of this reverse evangelization trend as "meridionalism" - the romantic perception of the global South as a source of salvation for the tired West. 

Meridionalism does appear to be on the rise in Catholic consciousness, especially since the election of a Latin American pope. US dioceses short on priests now import clerics from Africa or South Asia. Are the believers of developing nations our only hope for redemption from "First World" progressive modernity? Or is the modern world enabling a more integrated global Church? 

4. Both sociologists on the panel offered evidence that this trend is far more complex than noble savages. One had done extensive field work interviewing different church groups, and found that missionaries had a complex web of international connections. In her experience, Catholic priests were more blasé about moving from place to place - foreign assignments are par for the course. 

The second presenter was researching the history of American missions in Europe. To his surprise, 1920s mission magazines weren't as concerned about converting Jews as they were about bringing the "true gospel" to the "superstitious" Catholics of Eastern Europe. 

5.  While we were in town, we got to celebrate Brother #3's Confirmation a few days early! St. John was the saint he chose, and he got to receive the Holy Spirit on the feast of his patron St. Joseph. Sweet! 

He's now 14, the same age I was when he was born. How did he grow up so fast?

6. This weekend we made a shorter trip back down so I could attend a friend's baby shower. I met Mary when we were both 14, and last summer we got married within a week of each other. How did we grow up so fast? It was so nice to catch up with her whole family and be back in the Manassas Catholic community. You know it's a Papist baby shower when the attendees include 5 infants, 3 pregnant women, and 2 parish staffers who worked First Communions that morning. 

7.  Because I started my job so suddenly, many of my NoVa acquaintances don't know the details of my NJ-NYC life. It's fun to hear reactions to museum patron antics. Lately my cross has been cranky complaints. Why do some donors act like demanding customers? "If you want to keep getting my $35 donations you better do what I want!" 

The other day someone sounded upbeat on the phone but spouted passive-aggressive insults. "Gee, I thought computers were only as smart as the people who used them!" Listen buddy, at least I'm smart enough to know that generosity and arrogance don't go together. 

So yeah, one my goals for Lent is to work on being patient instead of thinking up all the blistering comebacks I'd like to say. As the Southern Baron pointed out, this is a way to "offer him your coat as well." Respecting other people's dignity when they insult yours - that is the challenge of the Gospel. 

Homeschool Conference Bingo

For the record, I was never homeschooled myself. My early education was a patchwork of public and independent Catholic schools, driven by my parents' determination to get me the best education possible. Once I was settled at a tiny yet awesome Catholic high school, my Mom did homeschool two of my siblings for a few years. She's getting back in the saddle homeschooling Brother #3 this fall, and so that is how I found myself at a  homeschooling conference this June.

If you live in the DC area, you may know that the IHM conference is the biggest Catholic homeschool event of the year. There are tons of notable speakers, and the people watching is amazing. I felt like some sort of anthropological participant observer. I understand who these people are, and I can speak their language, but I am still not quite one of them. Nevertheless, I made sure to layer several modesty tanks under my v-neck shirt and wear my flowiest skirt, lest I be pegged as an outsider. Nobody sniffed out that I have two degrees from heathen public universities, and I had a great time. I found some good books at vendor tables, and now I am kicking myself for not inventing Piusmedia, a Netflix-like service for Catholic movies.

A gathering this huge showcases how Catholic homeschooling is its own subculture, and thus a huge business market. Parents this dedicated to their children's education invest plenty of time, money, and energy, and it's encouraging to meet others doing the same thing. Just walking through the parking lot makes you realize how many like-minded people are jostling around the hotel ballrooms and vendor booths. Large families and ankle-length skirts are just the beginning. If you'd like to give home education a closer look, try this Bingo game next time you go curriculum shopping.

Conferences rock my socks

They really do. I know that there will come a day when they feel like a tired, boring, routine, but for I now I love having an excuse stay in a hotel and share my work with other scholars. It's really encouraging to see that there are other people out there who care about nerdy things. It's even better to present a paper and prove to yourself that there can be a final product from all that research. Extra bonus: I got to meet up with two dear friends from high school, and pretty much hang out in Old Town Alexandria in some perfect fall weather.

My presentation was about a project I did years ago on 20th century Catholic churches. It had been a while since I looked at the material, and then I realized all over again what a monstrous pile of information it was. I also realized my undergrad-quality writing was a little clunky - I guess that's a good sign for my current abilities? After two days of editing, I am proud of what I wrote. At my panel I was pleased to find that there are at least 2 professors out there who are interesting in similar topics and liked what I had to say. Should I let this topic die or think about publication?

The conference as a whole was a pretty mixed bag; it was large and varied like the aisles of Costco. There was a pop culture focus, so many papers were about movies and tv. At first this seemed fun, but after 1 hour of scholarly buzzwords mixed with analysis of Twilight, I realized there is a reason academics tend to look down on such things. From what I saw, there were some intelligent points mixed with a lot of things anyone with internet access already knows.

Then again, I can't judge every talk. Here are a few other titles that looked, um, interesting.

"You don't even look Italian!": Counting Italian-Americans on Reality TV
Philosophy from a Pineapple Under the Sea
(Re)presentation of the Body in Pain on Survivor
Mayhem in Motherhood: Working Class Representations on The George Lopez Show
From Genesis to Torah: The Harry Potter "Such a Person" Happening

Oh, and there were 5 Twilight papers, 4 on Harry Potter, 3 on American Psycho, 2 on Avatar, but only 1 about Lady Gaga.

Deadlines

This pretty much sums up my life right now. Tomorrow a classmate and I head to the DC area to present at a conference, and right now I am up to my eyeballs in PowerPoint slides of 1970s church architecture. Oh, and I need to also be working on a thesis seminar presentation that I will give in 5 days. EEEEEK!

At 2:30am last night I hit the point where I usually ask "why do I do this to myself?" But I realized something - maybe I need this adrenaline rush of panic to get my brain to fire on all cylinders. I've been thinking about my thesis for weeks, but have had trouble making a concise argument. Likewise, it took a looming deadline to inspire some serious presentation editing, which was a hard decision to make.

How about you, 2.5 readers? How do you think through a project?

My very first conference

So before I went to grad school I had no idea conferences were such a big deal. They are sort of a cross between a nerd convention and research show-and-tell. The museum where I study has hosted several this year, so I've gotten to attend a few talks and see how things work.

Then this weekend I got to be on stage myself presenting my very first conference paper! (That sounds like a playset Fischer Price should sell, along with my very first thesis defense.) The Susman Conference at Rutgers is for graduate student research only, so it was a good place to start. It was encouraging to know the other presenters were people like me, who had also thrown together PowerPoints and final drafts the night before.

My paper was about a wax memorial picture from 1800 dedicated to George Washington. I wrote 3 papers on it last semester, so I had more than enough material for 20 minutes worth of talking/reading. Deciding what not to mention was a good exercise - let's be serious, no one but my professor would be clamoring to know about the invention of paraffin. Reading to an audience was also good - I realized I said "identity" and "patriotic" way too many times.

Even though my topic was a little obscure, people seemed to like it! That was the best part; having Rutgers faculty tell me that they found it interesting. My last minute PowerPoint was a hit too, again proving my faith in abundant illustrations.

Another cool part of the conference was hearing what other people were researching. Some were right up my alley: tourism and urban planning in 1950's New York City, dance as a way of understanding American social history. Others were completely new to me: medieval sermons, the role of androgyny in colonial India.

There was even another material culture paper of sorts: a gloriously fun look at the evolution of Mattel's Classically themed collector Barbies. Apparently early "Grecian Goddess" Barbie was schlock, but now Athena Barbie comes with armor and killer boots. I got really excited when the speaker brought American Girl Dolls into the discussion. Then I laughed at the people who got too academic and tried to relate Athena Barbie to Iraq. Puh-lease.