coldhearted scientist وداد

Now I have sent a proposal to a conference in the correct way for the first time in a long time. I came across a CFP for a conference I am interested in, wrote a proposal cut from something I am actually working on, and sent it off.

I have given more conference papers than I can count, but they are most typically invented and targeted for purposes of getting to a conference I need to go to for business reasons (e.g. the MLA), for social ones (I am asked or invited), because I want to feel the energy of the spectacle (e.g. LASA), or because I want to do research and see people in the country where the conference will be held (e.g. JALLA).

On these occasions I invent a paper topic which will work well with the other papers. I work it up and make the presentation, but it is not exactly what I need to be working on, and my research life fragments itself. But now I have sent a proposal in the correct way – the research way – and I think this is progress.

I have also further crystallized the messages of Reeducation and Da Whiteman, or rather, I have simplified them or translated them into a beginners’ version. They could, of course, not be presented in this form because I would not have believed them. But they come down to: You are permanently damaged and the proof of it is assertiveness! Stop and submit! Renounce all subjectivity and agency!

I had to write this whole entire blog, which is now in the second half of its second year, to figure this out, but I have figured it out. And as we have recently learned the truth of Reeducation was its opposite, and Da Whiteman is just Da Whiteman.

Axé.