Just as Bilbo Baggins happily returned to the comforts of his peaceful home after his adventure, so do I return to the familiar territory of West Chester after attending the EAPSU conference during the second week of October.
Before discussing the experience, I want to first offer my profound thanks to Dr. Ray of the English Department for the guidance he offered me throughout the conference, and my congratulations to WCU’s Outstanding English Major Jessica Amarant, who gave a tremendous presentation about her mission statement as a teacher.
Having attended one conference by no means makes me an expert on the nature of all academic conferences everywhere—surely, each one is a little different. But I do want to share my observations since I had a tremendous first conference experience.
The first event on the evening of October 4 was an Open Mic Poetry presentation at a café in the Shippensburg University equivalent to Sykes. It was hosted by Patricia Smith, a nationally famous and award-winning poet, who introduced the winners of the poetry contest held by the conference. Much like the Open Mic Nights held by the English Club here at West Chester, the event was met with a healthy and passionate audience, and the student poetry was poignant and stirring.
Friday, October 5, was the beginning of the series of research panels in the conference, where students and faculty in the fields of English, Writing and Education from every PASSHE school shared their presentations in response to the conference theme, “Creativity in Crisis.” The day was capped off by a dinner and keynote speech by Patricia Smith, who shared some of her award-winning poetry about racial and economic inequality in the United States.
The following Saturday morning, I shared my research paper about the cultural function of fantasy literature written in the middle of the 20th century to an audience of professors and students. My research was well received, and I did my best to field questions in the question and answer segment that followed my presentation group.
Afterwards, the students, faculty and I attended a luncheon in honor of the Outstanding English Majors from each of the PASSHE schools. After attending one final event and Jessica’s eloquently delivered presentation, the conference was over. It seemed to fly by, probably because it was carefully organized and paced by Laurie Cella and the rest of the EAPSU Executive Board as well as graciously hosted by Shippensburg University.
Again, my observations are generalizations, and no two conferences are exactly the same. With that being said, here are a few things I noticed about the nature of the academic conference: it offers a presenter freedom to decide which events to attend. Unlike any other typical class or extra credit presentation here, attendance was not taken, so the responsibility fell on each attendee to make their own schedule, besides their specific presentation time.
With this newfound freedom, it was tempting to stay in my hotel room to work on homework and personal writing projects, or to just relax all day in front of the television, but I realized that I’d be wasting my own time by not taking advantage of the opportunity. To any student considering applying to a conference (which, if the tone of my review didn’t make clear, I highly recommend), I would urge participating in as much conference activity as they are able.
After all, conferences tend to be specialized by subject area, so all the faculty and students were as interested in English writing and literary criticism as I am, which made for a friendly and welcoming community environment. I was able to start a conversation with a like-minded presenter wherever I went.
Two benefits that I didn’t expect from the conference were the feeling it gave me regarding being a professional in academia, and the opportunity it provided me for professional networking. Firstly, presenting an essay about a subject I’m passionate about to an audience of supportive and constructive faculty was a gratifying and affirming experience that I think any hopeful-academic should seek out. The faculty in the audience treated me with the respect of a colleague, which I deeply appreciated.
Secondly, I had a chance to network in an unexpected way. In line at the buffet of the Saturday luncheon, I was discussing my plans to research graduate schools with a fellow student presenter, when a professor behind me in line said that he’d be very interested in sharing his university’s graduate programs with me. He sat at my table and explained his graduate programs until the presentation began. I gave him a copy of my research paper and my contact information, and we plan to begin a correspondence soon.
If I had to shorten my takeaways from the EAPSU conference into a few sound bites, I would make them: a lot of schedule freedom, professional gratification and a great networking opportunity. Ultimately, it was an experience I highly recommend to any of my fellow Golden Rams with aspirations in academia.
Alex Liska is a fourth-year student majoring in English with a minor in French. AL849000@wcupa.edu