Building a Fancy CV
Posted April 15, 2012 by Danielle Geller
This semester, Ive been trying to take advantage of all of the opportunitiesbeyond Simmonsthat living in Boston has to offer. Three weeks ago I attended the NEA Spring Meeting, and this week I attended a conference that on the service might not seem strictly relevant to our field: the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PC/ACA) conference in Boston. True, there were a lot of panels on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, World of Warcraft, and other popular fandoms, but the conference itself was huge! The program was over 450 pages long, and I managed to find a few sessions that were on the intersection of popular culture, research, and archives, special libraries, and museums. So of course I attended!
Ive found that some panels on an archives holdings can turn into a form of show and telllook at these awesome things I have in my collections!that never evolve into a discussion on methodology, theory, or issues of access publicity, etc., which can be frustrating. One of the most interesting presentations, in fact, was on the proposal for a new National Museum of the American People. Somehow, this had completely flown under my radar, and I find it an interesting solution to the controversy over minority representation in our current National Museum line-up.
Rather than erecting a museum to each individual group that demands representation, essentially fracturing the Mall, one museum would function to bring those stories together. Irish-Americans, Indian-Americans, Muslim-Americans, etc., etc., etc. Maybe Im an idealist, and maybe that museum doesnt need to exist at all, and theres plenty of opposition (check out this Washington Post article:http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/one-museum-over-all/2011/09/23/gIQA537mAL_story.html), but its definitely a discussion worth having.
All in all, I was really happy with my experience at the PC/ACA conference, and as I overheard one of the panelists mention as she was leaving, sometimes its nice to get away from librarians. Our profession touches so many disciplines, its important for us to branch out and share what it is were doing with other people. So if youre looking for a conference to attend and add to your CV, branch out from library conferences and see whats out there!