Montreal 2008

In spite of an irritating cold, I enjoyed myself at the Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference in Montreal. I heard an insightful plenary given by Jack Lynch: "All Shall Yield to the Mulberry Tree: Of Toothpick Cases, Punch Ladles, Tobacco Stoppers, Inkstands, Nutmeg Graters, and the Legend of Shakespeare." I also heard fine papers.

One of the joys of teaching online is that when you get invigorated by a paper you can share your enthusiasm immediately with your students. I also came home with knew ideas about texts to bring into my classrooms and ways to use them.

I was able to spend time with Jack, Laura and their good friend Chris. We took in walks, shared meals and enjoyed the city. Sean and I enjoyed our time with our friends, including our table mates at the conference's Saturday banquet.

I gave a paper, "Samuel Johnson’s Distancing Antiquity through the New World," Saturday morning, and we flew home Sunday, Oct. 19th.

Last day of July

My summer is a mix of body boarding in the Pacific, working on several consulting and writing projects, teaching two classes at California State University, East Bay and time with my family. I always intend for the summer to be slower paced than the academic year, but I always fill it with neglected projects (e.g., conference papers, book reviews or a new job) and with teaching. Although my summer is full, it is full with what I love.

A Bit of This and That

Since my last entry I have given the following poster presentation and paper:

“Faculty Learning Communities Program: Office of Faculty Development California State university, East bay” Poster Presentation, Co-presenters, Eileen Barrett, Jsh Guo, Jane Lpous, Mitch Watnik, California State University Symposium on University Teaching, Cal Poly Pomona, 2008.

"Samuel Johnson on Beer: A National Concern" American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Portland, 2008.

My two spring classes, one online, at Las Positas College have ended and my two classes at California State University, East Bay (CSUEB) are winding down this week. I will be teaching at CSUEB this summer and designing an online course. I am also working on several writing projects, one of which involves a service learning: "The Community Literacy Project" http://www.calstate.edu/cce/news_pubs/csu_impact/052908.html that I have been working on for eight years. I was lucky enough to work with a the Faculty Learning Community (FLC) for Community Based and Service Learning as I developed a new library track for this project. The faculty in our FLC supported and contributed to the development of my service learning project and my development as an academic.

On the celebration list is my niece who just earned her AA and who will be transferring to Cal State in the fall.

I am looking forward to a productive summer balanced by a lot of playtime.

SCSECS

I have just returned from another excellent South Central Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (SCSECS) conference. This is a jovial bunch and I encourage you to consider joining us in Galveston next year. The Conference theme was Reinventing the Self. I had the privilege of chairing a session titled "Reading as Reinventing: Reading Life Writing in the Eighteenth Century" at which I heard three outstanding papers:

Shayda Hoover, University of California, "Engrossing Female Talents: Frances Burney's Early Diaries and the Inner Circle";

Phyllis Thompson, East Tennessee State University, "Middleclass Housewives, Medicinal Recipes, and the Material Conditions of Reading and Writing";

Heather Lobban-Viravong, Grinnell College, "Endlessly Re-imagining the Self: Fiction and Renewal in John Dunton's The Life and Errors of John Dunton, Late Citizen of London (1705)."

I gave a paper on this panel as well "Samuel Johnson and Life Reading as Self-Reinvention" and another the following day: "The Duality of Celebrity: The Construction of La Perricholi."

I enjoyed seeing old friends at the conference and making new ones; I took my best friend along for the ride: my husband Sean.