Brid Phillips, Doctoral Candidate, English and Cultural Studies, School of Humanities, University of Western Australia
Faces, Facts, and Fellow Researchers
The wonderful round up of the 10th Biennial Conference of the Australian & New Zealand Association for Medieval & Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS) expressed by Olivia Formby aptly describes the highlights of the conference’s plenary speakers, the range and depth of papers and panels, and of course touches on the many extra curricular events that added colour, excitement and collegial discussion to a far-reaching and stimulating event.
For my part I would like to add to the conversation by discussing some of the particular highlights that made the experience especially rewarding for me. As Olivia notes there was a very strong field of representatives from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions with many of the researchers forming coherent panels exploring significant themes such as Facial Feeling and Religious Dislocation. There were three panels around the theme of facial feeling, “Facial feeling in early modern England,” “Facial feeling – idealization, disfigurement, and interpretation,” and “Facial feeling in medieval English literature.” As I am researching emotional expression through facial colouring in Shakespeare’s dramas, I was very pleased to find myself on a panel with Peter Sherlock and Stephanie Trigg. Needless to say it was daunting to face the podium after two such respected speakers but I was put at ease by both their subject matter, which was so engaging that I was able to forget my own nerves momentarily, and also by the supportive audience. Stephanie, as organizer of the panels, also encouraged all the panel participants to support each other which resulted in a fertile dialogue opening up across the subject which, I am sure, will compliment each individual’s ongoing work in the field.
Two roundtables which stood out as particularly beneficial to the postgrad (and/or female) student were the “Career options for Graduate Students and Recent PhDs beyond the Tenure-Track Job” and the “Maddern-Crawford Network.” The former, ably chaired by our New Zealand post grad representative, Amanda McVitty, gave a positive spin to the depressing academic future that early career researchers face. All three speakers had made valuable career choices and had taken opportunities that being a PhD graduate had afforded them. The ensuing discussion was both lively and illuminating and many thanks to Stephanie Trigg who took the opportunity to tweet the salient points of information allowing the rest of us to focus and engage on the dialogue in hand. The latter round table was a presentation and discussion led by Clare Monagle and Dolly MacKinnon regarding the start up of a new network in honour of Patricia Crawford and Philippa Maddern. The network aims to provide mentoring and support for postgraduate and early-career female and female-identified scholars in medieval and early modern studies. The network is grounded in recent research regarding females in the field and was overwhelmingly supported by the many attendees of the inaugural meeting. It featured energy, commitment, and support from across the generations and certainly gained momentum from those who were present.
I want to make reference to a specific difference the bursary made to my trip. Coming from Perth the financial outlay is significant and while I had access to funds that covered my travel expenses I initially considered staying with family as a cost cutting venture (and also as a family bonding venture!). However with the ANZAMEMS travel bursary I elected to stay on campus at the University of Queensland which reaped many positive benefits. Instead of negotiating public transport for hours each day I got to walk across the beautiful Queensland winter campus; I connected with the other conference delegates who were also staying at the same college; I was able to use the time not spent travelling to work- to participate and connect; and despite the busy schedule I did get to spend an evening devoted solely to catching up with family without the pressure of trying to juggle the extensive conference programme.
Finally, I wish to make mention of the ANZAMEMS general meeting as I think this was a space that added value to the conference. It was well attended and was an opportunity to put a face to the names that we all had come to know in the lead up to the conference. President Chris Jones was inclusive and superb in negotiating time for comments from the floor while conscious of the urgency of catching the conference dinner bound ferry! It was amazing to hear so many supportive and generous ideas coming from the floor and as a new comer to the committee I am very pleased and excited to be a part of the future of ANZAMEMS.
As always, with such a diverse and full program, a minor drawback is a clash of interesting panels which on the whole was a very small price to pay for the overall experience during which a spirit of collegiality shone through!
