PIC Conference Thank Yous!

The PIC Conference is now over, and I am safely back in GA writing up exams and editing papers. The conference itself seemed to go well from my perspective. It was my first time organizing a conference, and there are changes I would make, but I think it went well regardless.

There are many, many thanks I need to give out:

First of all, a huge thank you to Cecile Lawrence, who was called a conference co-organizer but who actually took on the lion's share of work for the conference. It would have been nothing but a CFP without her tireless work at the conference.

Matt Applegate, who gave me a place to crash, drove me around, picked up Peter Gratton when my flight got canceled, help set up everything, and generally kept me sane and grounded.

Gabriel Piser, who became a tech support person for the conference, with zero warning or official training.

The various PIC students who came, asked questions, moderated panels, and generally helped make the conference run.

Peter Gratton, who was an excellent choice for a keynote. He wrote a very smart address for the conference. He looked over the abstracts accepted before hand, and tailored his address to take up themes from various papers that were given. He helped promote the conference on his blog, in person, and over emails. He came to panels, asked questions, socialized with presenters, and treated everyone in an egalitarian fashion. He was also remarkably nice about all issues concerning payments and what have you. So, think about asking him to keynote at your conferences.

Besides those thank you, I met lots of people I really enjoyed. Glad to meet you (and I hope you know who you are if you are reading my blog). In general, the blogging community was really great in person. Devin Shaw was a delight to meet and hang out with, though he encouraged my drinking more than I should! Ben Woodard gave an excellent presentation, and my only regret was not getting to talk to him more. Dan Barber was remarkably fun to spend time with, and has convinced me to the virtues of the phrase "buying back in" as opposed to "doubling down".


Anyway, now that it is over, I hope to get back to my regularly scheduled blogging. Email if there are important posts I have missed, and also email if I have forgotten to respond to your comments or emails!

More on Sex, Gender, Species Conference

I've been really busy since I got back from the SGS conference, but I wanted to expand on the awesomeness, and give out some much needed thank yous.

First, thank you to my Judith Butler panel mates: Eric Jonas and Stephanie Jenkins. They were amazing to work with and plan with. Stephanie also deserves a special thank you for helping me with logistics, picking me up from airports, letting me crash at her place, etc. Eric deserves a special thank you for getting himself there in the face of opposition and adversity.

Also, a big thank you to the two organizers: Lori Gruen (who has a new book out), and Kari Weil, who will shortly have a new book out via Columbia UP. I am gaining new and profound respect for conference organizers, and this one was particularly well done.

I also want to thank all of the participants. Missing were all of the carefully practiced put downs and ego-centric 'questions' that do nothing to advance the other person's project. Instead, there was a real generosity of thought. The type you wished you saw at conferences but so frequently don't find. The conference, really displayed the robust and rigorous depth of animal studies (critical and otherwise).

All that, and excellent vegan food.

Awesome conference

I am currently at the SGS conference, and it, simply put, amazing. I am sure I will have more later. Two weird/cool things: Tim flew into the same airport on the same day I did. Also, someone asked about OOO during the very first q&a period.

More later.