You people are pretty impatient. And some of you (ahem, caraf, cgb) are a little touchy about my image searches. Of course I did a google image search, for crying out loud.
Anyhow, thanks to the rest of you for being patient while I put blogos on hiatus.
I am checking in from San Antonio, where I am attending the annual meeting of the National Communication Association. The conference is only on its second day, and I've already eaten too many tortilla chips, paid wwaaayy to much for internet access, arrived at a lecture late and left a lecture early. It was the same lecture: I was late because I had to go around--below?--the San Antonio Car and Truck show by means of an elaborate escalator setup, and I left early because I thought I'd forgotten to attend the business meeting for the American Society for the History of Rhetoric. Turns out I had the wrong night for the business meeting, which I confirmed when I phoned President Graff, who, as it turns out, was about to miss the meeting of the Alliance of Rhetoric Societies. That's right: a Society of Societies. Awesome. It's like our campus's committee on committees. Slather on the bureaucracy. We can take it.
Speaking of slathering, this conference differs from any of the other conferences I attend in that it's overtly a venue for institution-pushing. Which is to say there's no shortage of swag. To wit: I was browsing the Oxford UP exhibit today, when a guy crept up to the table behind me, opened up his conference issue totebag and helped himself to one Oxford UP pen and one Oxford UP notepad, looked at the book request forms and decided against taking one of those, and made his way to the next booth.
Then there's the graduate program fair, during which each institution gets assigned purchases time in a booth fully decked with school emblems, logos (as in plural of logo, not logos, though I guess there's that too in the form of brochures), and swag, swag, swag. Its faculty and grads hang out and meet with prospective candidates who "happen" by. It turns out I'm not so good at this.
First of all, I don't like enclosed spaces. These booths are about 8 x 8 with blue curtains for walls, and people crowd around. The only safe place was behind the table, where I joined AH, a graduate student who took my gestures and rhetoric class not too long ago and who also played college sports. In the SEC. AH is very cool and funny, and she recently dropped by my office to tell me that she's decided to switch into another program on campus.
Anyway, AH I were talking with one prospective grad from Pepperdine (PGP) who is VERY interested in our PhD program, and who was was steered our way as soon as she mentioned the word rhetoric. PGP asked me a question about our program's design, and I said "Oh, the curriculum is very flexible. We're so flexible that AH here is currently having a disciplinary identity crisis." [AH thought this was hilarious. Like I said, she's cool.] And then PGP asked us what it's like to live in Urbana. And before properly reflecting, I said "cheap and easy." AH was laughing pretty hard by this point, which usually just makes me worse. Thankfully AH took the reigns and told PGP, who is interested in political rhetoric, that our students seem to be getting "less conservative." Nice. AH and I are a great team! This prompted PGP to ask about the political demographics, particularly the reputation that Illinois (as a state) has. My response was simply the truth: Chicago is the blue state, and the rest of the state is Indiana. And then AH and I loaded up PGP with Illinois swag--a five point highlighter and a pen, both with our department's insignia on it, an Illinois notepad, a (free!) brochure, a party invitation (for the select few--this means we liked you PGP!)--and sent her on her way. PGP joked that she was going to take the banner that was decorating our table, and I asked her to please, help herself.
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