AHA Memories

I'm not at the AHA Conference this year - woot! Ur... not that going to the AHA conference is painful - but it usually is. I'm sort of at the meeting in spirit, however, since I had to write a report to be presented at the board meeting of one of my organizations. Hopefully, there won't be big questions about it.

I am glad that HNN does great little updates about what is going on at the meeting. It's nice to see what I am/not missing. Unfortunately, the news on day one sounds particularly painful with a horrible market awaiting those people who are job hunting. It does give me high hopes that we'll be successful in our search and maybe get someone so good that we can make a pitch to the administration to turn it into a tenure track job.

The other thing that not being at the AHA Conference allows me to do is reflect back on some of my (least) favorite conference memories:

1. Skipping sessions one day to try and get into the debates being held in about Clinton's impeachment. (I was unsuccessful.)
2. Being 15 minutes late to my first EVER job interview at the AHA. :(
3. Being on a panel with some great but oblivious guys while being 8.5 months pregnant.
4. Running into that jerk from grad school and having him admit that he was a jerk in grad school.
5. Hanging out at a bar with my advisor from grad school and another of her former students and gossiping about department politics while slowly getting drunk.
6. Hanging out with old grad school friends to watch our ph.d. institution get trounced in a bowl game.
7. Attending an anti-war sing-a-long hosted by the peace history society.

I'm still trying to decide whether to apply to present a paper at the conference in 2012. Chicago in the winter really isn't much fun, but it is close to my old stomping grounds so there is a chance of running into lots of former friends.

The Difference Between the AHA Conference and AP Grading

For those of you who have ever wondered about the differences between attending the AHA Conference and AP Grading here is a handy little sheet. There are probably other differences too, but these are the only ones I could come up with before dinner.

Some of the best lines from the AP papers I graded in the last two days about the Great Awakening:

• Also during the Great Awakening people started changing their way of life. People started listening to different kinds of music like jazz.
• When Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Vick was drafted to play football for Atlanta Falcons he brought a whole new style with him. This is much like the Second Great Awakening.
• When Tom Sawyer wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin it created excitement around the world.
• Before the Second Great Awakening Puritans and Muslims were trying to make themselves fit into society.
• Alcohol and religion just seem to go together.
• I suck at history, why can't this be a math test?

These are some lines from a question on the Shay's Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion.

• Nothing can come between a man and his whiskey except maybe 13,000 troops.
• Shay's Rebellion was an important even remembered by many people. Unfortunately, I am not one of them.

AHA - Sunday Notes

Despite my good intention to go to a session today (because I've presented on Sunday's before and it sucks when just 3 people show up in the audience), instead I went down to the book exhibit to see what I could snag cheap or free.

I ended up bringing home (for a total of $11):

1. Laskin - The Children's Blizzard
2. White - Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long
3. Millard - The River of Doubt: TR's Darkest Journey
4. Stole - Advertising on Trial
5. Flood - Grant and Sherman
6. Walker - Shockwave
7. Ambrose - D-Day
8. Ambrose - Citizen Soldiers
9. Ware - Title IX
10. Moran - The Scopes Trial

AHA - Saturday Notes

I *love* a southern breakfast. I've noticed that everyone north of Virginia and west of Louisiana thinks of breakfast as a danish or bagel or cold cereal type of affair. At the 'Le Cafe' in Atlanta's Hilton hotel, however, they were serving a southern breakfast buffet that included bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy, grits, and potatoes. I was in heaven, until I got the $15.00 breakfast bill.

There are way too few chairs in the lobby of Hilton and Marriott. I saw a ton of people leaning all day. People leaned against walls, against big planters, on pillars, and anything else that wasn't moving. I finally scouted out a couch on the fourth floor hidden behind the elevators where I could sit and read in between sessions.

There should be some sort of warning in the Marriott that there are at least 2 lobbies. I was suppose to meet my major professor at 11 a.m. and she never showed. I found out later that the little lobby area on the ground level across from the Hilton WAS NOT the main lobby of the hotel, instead the main lobby was two stories higher!

I participated in a focus group about textbooks and basically argued for a textbook that worked like Wikipedia, but with accurate information. I don't think anyone was very impressed with my suggestion.

The only session I attended today was one on balancing work and family. The panelists made a big deal about trying to go beyond stories or anecdotes about the difficulties of raising children, etc. while being a full-time faculty member and instead tried to present some concrete suggestions for ways that individuals could build coalitions on their campuses and organize for family friendly policies. Most of the suggestions were ideas that would make it easier for women and men to meet their family responsibilities and their work responsibilities. What I didn't hear was any demand for a reconceptionalization of what it means to be a productive faculty member. Why is there never any discussion about the norm of a faculty member is a 60 hour work week for the 15+ weeks of the semester and then spending an unpaid summers doing research so that he or she can get tenure, promoted, or raises?

Is it just me or is alcohol in Atlanta extremely expensive? I had to pay 6.00 for a draft mug of Bud Light! Pitchers (of slightly better beer) cost $17.00! It almost made me want to go back to grad. school where for a $3 cover, I could get a pitcher for $5. I think we should demand that the AHA start planning to hold its conventions in college towns so that cheap beer is easily attainable.

AHA - Friday Notes

Some of the most interesting quotes heard at the AHA today.

1. The last Republican National Convention was more diverse than the history profession.
   
2. 75% of all history teachers listed in the AHA directory of history departments are not members of the AHA.
   
3. On average each attendee at the AHA goes to one session (so if you go to 2 you are just paving the way for someone else to not go to any).
   
4. There are 5 times as many brunettes as blonds in the AHA.

Atlanta irony - the restaurant named 'Max Lagers' doesn't have a liquor license.

Biggest disappointment of the day - one of my undergraduate students went to the Careers in History Workshop and walked out of there thinking she had to go to graduate school to get a job doing history. The session was suppose to be for high school students, undergraduate students, and beginning graduate students to find out what opportunities there were for history majors on the job market. I had hoped that it would demonstrate the wide variety of things history majors can do with just their B.A. I didn't want to send my students to a graduate school recruitment forum.