Academic conferences can be a very challenging experience for a lot of reasons. They are often high-stress, and expensive, and a great many academics are not naturally extroverted people, so 3-4 days of constant activity is a lot. Full disclosure, I am one of those obnoxiously extroverted people who really likes making small talk with strangers. But even I find conferences to be exhausting.
But I do have one very big tip for how to make conferences a good (or less bad) experience, particularly if you’re a junior person in the field, and that’s to find a conference buddy. The SCS/AIA meeting in particular can be an intimidating place. There are job interviews going on, so it’s already high stress. The “big names” in classics from all over the US are more likely to be there than at some of the other smaller or regional conferences, so that can add to the stress level. And — crucially — people who have been in the field a while all know other people there. They have friends they’re excited to see, and they often have off-site plans for dinner and drinks. If you don’t know anyone there, it can feel like there’s no room to sit at the cool kids table.
If you know someone there, though, you have someone to go to receptions with. You have someone to talk to while you’re working up the nerve to try to introduce yourself to that one scholar you really admire. You have someone in your corner and to keep you company. But what to do if you don’t know anyone who will be there?
I know it can seem daunting, but I would encourage you to reach out to someone in advance. If you have a mentor who’s going to be at the meeting, see if you can hang out with them and meet some people (if you don’t, you can sign up for one through the Classics Intersectional Mentoring Program here!)
If there’s someone (no disrespect to senior people, but I’d recommend a junior person for this because they’ll be closer to your life/career experience) you know tangentially and think they have similar life or academic interests, see if they want to hang out at the conference. You can scroll through the program and see everyone who will be there — it’s not as weird as it feels like it would be to just email someone out of the blue and ask if you can meet up at the conference.
Finally, there’s a big world of classicists on Twitter. You can reach out to people there too!
The thing that really makes a difference is not having to walk into those social gatherings by yourself. Any conference can be a little daunting, but the SCS/AIA is the most daunting, in my experience. If it’s your first time there, and you don’t know anyone else who will be there, do yourself an absolutely huge favor and find yourself a conference buddy!
If you don’t have anyone who seems accessible to you, I am very willing and able to be your conference buddy as well! Truly, building and promoting community in our field is one of my great passions, and I would love to accompany you to some receptions and introduce you to people you might like to know!
I have lots of other thoughts about conferences, in case anyone is curious — they’re right here!
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