ASTR

This year's ASTR was, in my opinion, the best I have attended. It was a wonderful weekend full of great scholarship and discussion. I really enjoyed the plenaries that I attended, especially the one with Scott Magelsson, Lisa Peschel, and John Fletcher. Not only was the scholarship excellent and engaging, but more importantly, the community they established both among themselves and the audience was unique. Lisa inserted into her paper three performative interludes, performed by the three speakers, that created a new sort of model that I hope others follow in the future. This model of teamwork carried through to the Q & A portion of the presentation. There was a moment when Lisa was searching for a phrase; an audience member helped her out so that the very meaningful discussion could continue. It was a moment of collectivity and support that I have not seen before at a major conference.

My own seminar was very interesting. I thought the level of the papers was remarkable - they were of extremely high quality of thought and execution. Even better, the discussion that we shared before and during the conference was very helpful and meaningful. I thought we were able to touch on very contentious issues of identity and identification in an ethical manner that opened up the possibility for dialogue and change.