Congress – Day #2

Posted on May 26, 2009 by

Today is a good one. Found a missing link in my research in the first session so by the time I arrived at Career Corner for the panel on academic blogging I was flying.

The panel was really interesting. If you haven’t thought much of using a blog to get your research out there and creating a community of people interested in the same specialized area as you, but which bores everyone else you know to tears, maybe you should. If you’ve never really seen an academic blog check out Henry Jenkins, the participatory culture guru at MIT. His blog is definitely one of the ‘go to’ sites for people interested in this area of research, and has helped establish Jenkins as the godfather of the field of popular culture.

The panel discussed issues related to posting unpublished ideas, establishing a blog, potential benefits and costs of academic blogging and a host of other issues related to blogging as both a research and a teaching tool.

I also conducted the first CV clinic at the University Affairs booth (#49) in the book fair. I critiqued CVs back to back the entire time. It looks like presonalized attention is in high demand these days. If you are at Congress, drop by tomorrow for the second (and last) CV clinic from 1:30-2:30.

There were so many people at the CV clinic that by the time I made it back to Career Corner for the panel on job opportunities in the federal government, I literally could not squeeze into the room. Hmmm, we’re in Ottawa and they are the biggest employer in town during yet another phase of almost no tenure track positions – go figure. Fortunately, my trusty and multi-talented editor, Phillip Todd, taped the entire session, which will be posted on the Career Resources section of University Affairs for your viewing pleasure this fall. I’ll let you know when it’s up, not to worry.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day starting with David Foot’s presentation at 7:45 in the morning – yes, you read that right. Then I am giving my presentation on CVs and Resumes – sounds boring to the uninitiated perhaps – but that’s because you’ve never heard my take on it! Besides, it’s at a much more civilized time – 10:30, at the Career Corner (279 University Centre) so feel free to drop by after your morning coffee if you’re in the neighbourhood.

Hope these posts are giving you the flavour of what Congress is like. If you didn’t make it this year – next year it’s in Concordia – try to make it out. It’s one of those rites of passage in academe.

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One Response to “Congress – Day #2”

  1. Peter Timusk says:
    May 28, 2009 at 2:18 am

    I enjoyed the session. I did find the panel’s answers were too gee whiz with complex answers involving yet more web 2,0 in the answers when what most people were asking would have been better answered in plain English IMHO.

    I was surprised that you all as blog writers focused on audience and developing your blogs socially. Like I said my blog is more self discovery and a tool for myself an as you can see I call it a notebook. I do intent for others to read it but do not make an effort for a particular audience or discipline.

    I also wanted to mention using LaTeX the math typesetting software on my blogger blog so that as a math guy I can write math notation.

    Check out my blog which has I said at the session is sort of a notebook of my wide reading interests.

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