More seriously...

[desperance]

There's a call-for-papers gone out from an academic conference on detective fiction, right here in N'cle. I'm kind of interested, especially as they want to talk about the confines of genre - this is, after all, something I know somewhat about, indeed have just been writing about for that Gabe Chouinard person - but I've never been to an academic conference, and I don't actually know where (or indeed whether) to begin. They ask for abstracts, and I have noooo idea what an academic abstract looks like.

So the obvious question is, does this in itself answer my question? Is my own ignorance trying to tell me something, like "put the paper down and back away now, sir, before we have to shoot you"? Or should I barge straight in there and get down & dirty with academe...?

Comments

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

Basically you write 150 words or so saying what it is you are going to cover, send that in [... lose it and never refer to it ever again, or announce at the start of your session that your research has moved on ... basically don't feel yourself held to it (The most entertaining moments are when a speaker says that they've changed the title of their paper despite your having asked them about any changes at the start of the session)]

Try these at Science Fiction Studies as examples: http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/abstracts/a102.htm - although they are probably at the more academic end of the market.

Getting closer

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

Scroll down ... or http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/abstracts/a102.htm#lavender is closer to the abstracts.

Re: Getting closer

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Thanks for these, that's really useful. Even if it does leave me cowering under the desk, whimpering "I don't want to play with the clever people..."

Re: Getting closer

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

I tell you, pretty well everyone I respect has that same thought - along with "I'm the dumb one everyone else has around to make them look smart."

[devonellington.livejournal.com]

Do it. Shake up their ivory tower world with a shot of reality. You're smart enough and resourceful enough. You're a damned sight smarter than most of them.

[danjite.livejournal.com]

Being the harsh pragmatist I am, I ask what benefit might you get from doing this?

Contacts?

Contracts?

A free lunch?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Free drinks at the reception, but we get those anyway, we're invited. Otherwise, contacts yes; contracts, almost certainly not; free lunch, I don't suppose so for a moment.

Um, something a little short of prestige: validation, perhaps? It's a part of my inferiority-complex thing, when confronted by academia. I respect it and fear it and want to be a part of it, while knowing that I never can. This would be a chance to nuzzle up briefly, to assure myself that I coulda done this, see, I'm not so stupid after all... Etc.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Which is exactly why you should give it a go.

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

Just jump in the deep end.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Surprisingly apposite metaphor, actually: I don't swim, and I have real serious trouble jumping into water. Even shallow water...