I’m about to head to Fiesole for a two day conference at the European University Institute, in the villa where Boccaccio was reputed to have written the Decameron while escaping from the plague afflicting nearby Florence. Two of my Americanist colleagues, on hearing about this, have not unreasonably expressed some disgruntlement at the differences between the likely conference venues for comparativists/IR types and Americanists respectively. So consider this a cautionary note for those of you who are still in grad school, and can switch concentrations easily. Americanists may dominate various aspects of the field – but they usually have conferences and workshops in relatively unwonderful places. People studying other bits of the world may have better luck, at least every once in a while. To concentrate your minds even further, I have posted a shot of the Rockefeller estate in Bellagio, where, through a remarkably unlikely concatenation of circumstances, I spent three happy days as a graduate student, experiencing how the other half of academia lives. I won’t be getting back there anytime soon. Consider this also an opportunity to fantasize or vent about other academic sweet deals out there.
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As a Binghamton scholar, ouch.
gotta say that the post was not a specific hit on Binghamton (a city that I have never visited, but that I am sure has many charms). It was more an effort to find a middling sized US city beginning with B for alliterative purposes (Buffalo was my first pick, but somehow didn’t have the right assonance).
Let’s see, where have I been for conferences? Akron, Ohio; Lubbock, Texas; Carbondale, Illinois; Grand Rapids, Michigan. Yup, I’m an Americanist.
I know some policy scholars and urbanists have had stays at Bellagio. So you just have to pick the right sub-field (or multi-d field).
However, looking at the picture and looking out at the grey DC skies makes even DC look bad.
I am off to Iowa city this weekend. Want to switch?
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