Doing what you're supposed to

Confessions of a Community College Dean - a very good blog if you haven't come across it before - recently had a post about not doing what you're "supposed" to do with your degree.

I think it's possible before your degree to not do what you're supposed to do either. (Of course I think this because I do not yet have my degree.)

Not doing what you're "supposed" to in your academic career seems to be what I've been doing myself.

In my second year of course work, I attended a faculty-sponsored seminar in which we were explicitly told that it was not worth going to conferences or publishing unless we did it at the very best conferences and with the very best names. I found the talk disheartening, wondering how someone like me could ever get the very best names and places to pay attention to me.

But then I went on my merry way. I attended my second PCA/ACA conference later that year and had a great time. I met all kinds of neat people - established scholars, professors, and graduate students - who liked to study popular culture and I knew I'd found my niche. The warnings of that seminar lurked in the back of my brain, but I was enjoying the study of pop culture so much that I tended to push the warning back to the nether regions of my brain. (Not to mention the advice was doled out by the same individual who told me studying film was a waste of time... even though I already knew several people who were building promising careers around the study of film)

At my first PCA, my advisor recommended me and I presented part of a chapter from my MA thesis. For the second PCA, I returned even further into the past to resurrect my honors thesis from undergrad. See, at the time I'd written the thesis, the novel series I was writing on had only reached volume #4, but by the time second PCA rolled around, the full 7 volume set had been produced, and in paperback. I'd always wanted to revisit the work I'd done once the series was complete, and this seemed the perfect opportunity.

The paper went really well; the panel was even better; and getting to know the scholars working in the area was an even better experience. For third PCA, I presented on a different topic with a different group, but I hung out with the gang from the previous year for dinner and again enjoyed myself. PCA number four had me working with some of the same people in a different area.

So as the deadline for abstract submissions for my fifth PCA approaches, I'm again thinking of the networks I've connected with. I'm working hard on trying to figure out a paper that emerges from the dissertation to submit instead of working up something entirely new.

But the point of the story is that the panel chair for that second PCA convention just emailed me. She's signed a book collection deal, and remembering my presentation, has indicated she would like to include that paper in the book.

How cool is that?!

Okay, if you're not in academia, you might not think that's cool. But belive me, it's way cool!

By embracing this pop cultural connection, I may be eliminating myself from the upper echelons of academia; the Shakespeareans and the Classicists and other similar scholars may no longer want me in their clubs. I realize I'm painting myself into a niche which - like the careers of some movie stars - might be hard to break out of. But, you know, I'm enjoying the work I'm doing. And if you don't enjoy your chosen career, then what's the point? I'm beginning to suspect that I just might be comfortable building a career on the academic B-list.