Conference Day 1

This morning the conference began. The subject is "Myths Revisited" which has been interpreted by the conference members very widely. The first thing I noticed when I entered the building for the conference was how utterly gorgeous it is. It looks like the whole thing is made of marble, and there is an incredible skylight over the stairs. The rooms where our sessions take place are floor to ceiling covered in incredible plasters and wood work. The desks and podiums are carved wood and very ornate. It is all very sumptuous and impressive! There is also an incomparable view from the windows of these rooms - the most romantic view of the Blue Mosque. I took a lot of pictures today, but I know they will not accurately reflect how gorgeous it was. It also helped that the sun came out today. Up to recently, I was hesitant to take my camera out and snap away because it automatically labels you a tourist and you are then accosted by men trying to sell you carpets. Now, however, I don't even care. The light was perfect today even for my bad camera.

There was a keynote speaker to start who gave an interesting overview of the status and history of the study of myth. She is apparently a very well-known scholar and writer, but I was ashamed to admit that I did not know her. It is possible that I read something by her, but I do not remember: Marina Warner. In any case, her speech was very interesting even if her British accent made it difficult to follow her every thought.

Then came the moment for my presentation. There are simultaneous sessions, so people have to choose. My experience is that my audience tends to be small because a lot of people do not even know who Rushdie is or why he is important. Today, however, there was a sizable crowd. I thought my presentation went well, and having learned from my earlier conferences, I did not over quote the book or focus on a "perfect" paper. It is so much different the way I write now when I am presenting versus when I am submitting written work for review. Especially, again, since my subject is Rushdie, I find that I have to make certain things perfectly clear about what he does and what he writes about so that people can follow my gist. There was a second presentation after mine which also focused on Rushdie - specifically on The Ground Beneath Her Feet (a good book especially if you like rock music history). I thought my paper was well-received, but it was this second paper that sparked the most questions, and even a mini-debate about Rushdie's view of postmodernism (hardly a simplistic view) as well as the "history" of rock that Rushdie presents. I thought her paper was very interesting, but I could tell that she cut out a lot to make it conference length and I would have liked to read it in its entirety. I had one question specific to my paper which was about Rushdie's views of postmodernism based on my readings of his children's books, and I got to talk with the questioner afterward a bit. It turns out that the woman who chaired my session is presenting on Video Game Culture, and was therefore very interested in Rushdie's use of the video game structure for Luka. I am looking forward to her presentation.

There was one more session and then a lunch break which I spent at an outdoor cafe watching Istanbul life and soaking up the sun. Then we had one afternoon session which focused, believe it or not, on the history of the harp in mythology - a combo panel with a harper (ist?) and a scholar studying them. Very interesting. I almost left after the last session because up to that point I had not really made a lot of friends. This conference differs much from my other experiences where either I already know everyone or no one knows anyone. This one has a huge Turkish contingent who, sadly, keep to themselves a lot. Luckily, at the last minute I overheard two girls and a guy talking in English. After we introduced ourselves and got some wine, we set about talking. Lucky me, one of the girls is presenting on the only other south-asian presentation besides the two in my session.

Afterward, we all four decided to walk through the grand bazaar which was not what I was expecting. I admit I was picturing the chaos that I found in Morocco, but this was much more organized, and very pretty. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I was caught up in talking and looking at everything to buy. We made some tentative plans to have dinner and drinks tomorrow night after the conference ends. One final observation I want to make is that this conference is paced much slower than all the other ones I have been to - fewer panels and participants in each panel. It is much more relaxed.

Well I am off to read a little and relax my sore feet! I will try and check back after tomorrow.

Turkey Time

What? Wasn't Thanksgiving over last week? Well that is true, but for me, my "Turkey Time" is now. I have arrived safe and sound in Istanbul for the 2 day conference on Myths at the University of Istanbul. I came two days early, but the first day was eaten up by travel, writing, and sleep. I am saying in a hostel called the Cordial House (ironic because the desk staff is anything but cordial). However the room is nice and clean, and so is the downstairs area where we eat. I have yet to actually "meet" any of my roommates or hostel travlers because most people are in their own worlds and also I slept most of yesterday evening. I did wake up sometime around midnight, though, and worked on my paper because I was having conference anxiety dreams. I am still a little anxious, but this morning when I left the paper, I felt better. Tomorrow the conference starts and I am the first presenter on my panel! I also had time today to check out the other presentations - it looks like such an interesting array of work. I actually feel a little sheepish about my approach to this conference thus far. I just went over what to do in preparation for conferences with my graduate program, and here I am without a printed copy of my paper or business cards or anything. I met a nice man on the plane over who offered to exchange business cards and I had none to exchange! Anyway, I still think it will be fun. I actually cannot wait to meet my fellow conference members so I have someone to talk to and to go places.
Today I went out around noon and had a Turkish version of a hand-held pizza for lunch. Then I made my way to the Blue Mosque which I almost went into, but I wore my long boots today and we had take our shoes off, so I did not want the hassel and left. I did get some lovely pictures though. Then I went to the Turkish Museum of Islamic Arts. That was lovely -a vast array of arts. Everything from stone and metal work to mosque doors, windows, Korans, and even carpets. There was also an "ethnographic" exhibit which shows you the interior lifestyles of ethnically Turkish people around the world and in different socio-economic classes. Outside of this museum I saw a number of pillars, monuments, and grave yards - although I am not sure about the history of most of them. I also saw the old cistern - so much of Istanbul is very, very old. Of course I had to stop by the Hagia Sophia - Aya Sofia as it is known here. It is a gorgeous chuch/mosque/museum - it was a church, then turned into a mosque, and is now a museum. The dome is gold, and you can tell by the stone work that this is a very old place. The frescos inside are amazing. I am now wishing that I had taken the audio tour since it was so fascinating, but I thought I would run out of time. I do have a lot of information in my Lonely Planet guide. Anyway, I ended my day visiting the Topkapi Palace - the former resident of most of the Ottoman Sultans. Sadly I did not make it through a lot of the palace because it started raining and I was very tired by that point. I want to go back, however, to see the Harem. There was a beautiful book about it in the gift shop which I did not get because it was overpriced, but it did make me want to see the Harem.
So not a bad day overall, but I still want to see the Grand Bazaar (which I only walked around today) and the rest of the Palace. We will see if I have time! So far the Turkish people have been nice, but I am careful not to strike up a conversation with random men - most of them are just trying to sell me something, but I was warned about other problems if you are too sympathetic. The women are gorgeous - with such an array of beautiful headscarves. But many women do not wear them. I actually saw a large number of Arabs and Muslims from different places today, and I wondered if it was a special occasion. According to someone I overheard in the street, it is some kind of Turkish holiday, but I am not sure what kind.
I am going to sign off now, but wish me luck at the conference tomorrow!

Conference Preparation

In the last three days I have graded 42 papers and 21 mid-term exams (yes, I still have mid-terms because of my 8 week class); not to mention replying to at least 25 student emails requiring feedback. All of this while stressing about my upcoming conference in Turkey (since I am not finished with the paper yet). The good news is that it is over for a little while, and I can finally concentrate on my own work. I am finally getting excited about my trip to Turkey, and about this conference. I am in the first panel on the first day (yikes!) with only one other presenter who is also talking about Rushdie (what?!). Now you may remember me talking about this before, but it is very rare for there to be another Postcolonial scholar at any of the conferences I've been to let alone someone writing specifically on Rushdie. So I am in for a treat, but I am also nervous. I spent all of last night diving into the texts, going over my notes, etc - and I couldn't help but just marvel, again, at Rushdie's Luka and the Fire of Life. I get to write on both of his children's books, and it has been a pleasure. If you have children around the age of 10 (give or take 4 years), I highly recommend these.
I still want to reflect on some of my teaching experiences from the term, and I am going to try and blog from the conference again, but I have to spend Thanksgiving morning packing and working on this paper. So wish me luck! I will be off to my first trip to Turkey starting the evening of Black Friday.

Still Alive, But Buried

I want to post very quickly since I am almost literally buried under a mountain of grading. I have very often wanted to stop and blog about what has been going on (too much) and how I am handling it (okay), but that would mean taking time that I don't have. There were a couple minor melt-downs in the last month where I was stuck in traffic, swearing at myself for forgetting something important, and probably scaring other drivers while I tried to reevaluate my life choices. The upside is that my big teaching seminar went pretty well, and I have learned a lot. I also feel like my students are doing well with their work (except for another plagiarism case - seriously?!). What worries me now is that I had anticipated spending this week gearing up for my conference next week, but I am currently stuck under the aforesaid mountain of grading. This is mostly (*mostly) my own fault - time management skills were not exactly my strong suit this month. At some point in the hopefully not to distant future (like this week), I am planning on updating you on my American Lit class since I have a lot of fun stuff to say about it. In the meantime, I wanted to share an email I recently received from a well-meaning adviser, encouraging me to push ahead with my dissertation work by offering some tips for doing so. My sarcastic response, which probably startled my family who stood nearby, was "you want me to push forward on my work? Hire me a TA damn it!" Granted I got this email on my phone while I was madly rushing through an airport, jet-lagged, behind on work because of *life* and definitely close to one of the aforementioned melt-downs. Nevertheless, I am feeling much better about my own work and its current status despite the lack of time I have to work on it. I will definitely be blogging about that in the near future - so stay tuned for a much more sane litambitions in the coming weeks.

Photo Project and Quote Clusters: TGIF

I am taking a quick break from grading because I find my attention wandering. I need a life coach when I sit down to grade, urging me to the finishing line. Anyway, I had a couple things I wanted to talk about which will depart from my normal Friday Cocktail Tidbit routine - sorry, no snazzy tidbits coming from this brain this week. You may remember that I blogged briefly about an extra credit opportunity I offered my students a few weeks ago - the Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster Photo Project. Essentially I wanted them to go around in their normal lives noticing representations of these famous literary characters, to snap a few pictures, and to post a brief observation about that particular representation. I thought it would be relatively easy to rack up the points because it was October and I saw images of the monster and Dracula everywhere. I set this up in Discussion Board on blackboard, so they could see each other's posts. Then I took two example pictures of some items I saw in CVS, as well as a hay bale I saw along the road (painted to look like the monster), and I posted them to the discussion with a brief analysis so that they could see what I wanted.
I only just got to look at them today when I finished grading their mid-term exams - about 7 students participated (it was assigned between a paper due date and the midterm, so a good turnout considering that). And I found myself chuckling over the representations that they found. A lot of them were candy, toy, food items in various big box stores, but some were on the street, in a roommate's magazine, at a friend's Halloween party - places where I can imagine them not thinking about my class and then suddenly whipping out their iphones to capture a good image for this extra credit project. It made me smile. I was also impressed with their brief write-ups. They asked some interesting questions - like why is Frankenstein's monster's skin always green? (it is not this way in the book - he is described more as "sallow"). They also had a field day with the "kid-friendly" representations of Dracula since he is rather grotesque in the novel. There are, perhaps, a few things I would do differently if I assigned this photo project again, but I am pleased with the overall effect. And I know for a fact the students who participated will appreciate the extra credit (which I applied to their mid-term grades),and the others will be kicking themselves.
I also wanted to quickly describe my euphoric night class from last week. I have been having a tough time staying on top of all my obligations (as you can see from my infrequent blog posts), so it was rough dragging myself to my night class this past week. I had designed a new kind of lesson that I have never implemented before, so I was nervous about the results. The upside of this 8 wk night class is that each class period is nearly 3 hours long, so this particular approach would not work as well if the students were pressed for time. The class before I had divided them into 5 groups and provided each group with a "quote cluster" from the novel we were reading. Based on their cluster, each group had to come up with an argument and anti-thesis about the text. That seemed to go well. This time, however, I made each group come up with their own quote clusters based on 5 themes that I wrote on the board. Each group took a theme, found at least 4 quotes in that theme, and then they had to come up with an argument and anti-thesis for their cluster. This was, according to them, much harder, but as I watched them all discussing and flipping through their books, I could not help but get teacher-face - that well known face that teachers get when students are actually learning and applying themselves. I could almost see their brains whirring. Now any type of group work always presents challenges (group dynamics are not always ideal), but they all participated, engaged, and produced work for their group presentation. It was very satisfying. The take-away, I guess, is really that I want them to be able to base their assumptions and arguments on the text itself. Too often they toss off responses to my discussion questions like it is nothing -but suddenly when they have to write about those ideas using the actual text, they freak out and cannot do it. This exercise is attempting to remedy that. I will report back on the results.

In the meantime, it is back to grading for at least another 3 hours - then I will drown my paper blindness in happy hour specials. Have a great weekend!