Sunday, May 16, 2010

Early American Borderlands Conference






























Dolphins!








On May 12-15, the Early Americanists Society hosted their annual meeting in St. Augustine, FL. At the conference, apart from giving a paper, I also served as Professor Arias's Graduate Assistant. It was my first time helping organize a conference, so it was a really good experience in terms of professional development.

The conference was a very intellectually stimulating environment. The panel presentations addressed a wide variety of topics, and the keynote speakers were amazing (José Rabasa in the line-up). The conference participants were very well known scholars in the study of Ibero - Anglo Early America, who were very collaborative in spirit. I ended up with a sheet of paper full of contact information, bibliographical references, academic organizations, etc. that were recommended to me over the span of four days that I was there.

Plus, after it was all said and done, there was even time to hit the beach on Saturday afternoon before the historical cruise of the St. Augustine bay that the conference organized to conclude the summit. Watching the sunset over the water was a spectacular reward for a successful conference!