(Originally posted 18 June 2013)
Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m a confessed conference junkie, but all of the conferences I’ve been to so far this year added together still don’t come near to the enormous scale of LASA. As the international conference for anyone working on any aspect of Latin American Studies – from politics and economics, to culture, geography and even medicine – LASA attracts several thousand attendees. The swarm of Latin Americanists in the lobby when I first arrived at the hotel in Washington DC where this year’s conference was overwhelming, but I quickly realised that, beyond the lobby, panels at LASA were much the same as at any other conference, thankfully.
Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m a confessed conference junkie, but all of the conferences I’ve been to so far this year added together still don’t come near to the enormous scale of LASA. As the international conference for anyone working on any aspect of Latin American Studies – from politics and economics, to culture, geography and even medicine – LASA attracts several thousand attendees. The swarm of Latin Americanists in the lobby when I first arrived at the hotel in Washington DC where this year’s conference was overwhelming, but I quickly realised that, beyond the lobby, panels at LASA were much the same as at any other conference, thankfully.
With Profesor Gisela Kozak Rovero and one of her former students
The amazing thing about LASA is how it attracts the leading scholars in my field, who I would never otherwise get a chance to meet. I got all fangirly in the presence of such academic stars: ”Professor X, I’m a huge fan of yours, I’ve read all your books, squee!” Most of this happened in my panel, embarassingly. When I was selected for LASA back in January, I had barely begun my PhD and had little idea of who the other four presenters in my panel were. Now I cite three of them in my thesis. In the audience were another three of my sources. Talking about a Venezuelan novel to a roomful of leading literature professors from Venezuela was intimidating, to say the least, but they were incredibly friendly and welcoming, and gave me invaluable feedback for my thesis.
With writer Dayana Fraile in the enormous Venezuelan literature section of the University of Pittsburgh library
Taking advantage of being on that side of the world (and the insanely cheap Megabus), after the conference I headed to Pittsburgh, for a – sadly far too brief - visit to some Venezuelan writers who I also cite, and in the case of Israel Centeno, have a whole chapter dedicated to. Once again, it was an incredible experience to meet people whose work I so enjoy and admire, and I learned so much for my thesis. Now I just have to write it all up!
No comments:
Post a Comment