Last Thursday our department hosted an "English Hour." They served us lunch, and we listened to one of our department colleagues present her research. I attended one of these last semester, and I really enjoyed how interested everyone is in discussing research outside of their particular field.
This week, the presentation was by our Romanticist on Wordsworth and Ethics. About 25 people showed up, and the lecture was really interesting and well-presented. Afterwards, we had time for discussion, and I found myself jumping in to explain things about the Nineteenth-century!
Apparently I was the only other specialist in the room, besides the speaker, and she really encouraged me to participate -- so I did! For the first time, I felt like a professional in my field. Most conferences at which I present papers are full of other people in my field, so I am always in "learning mode," rather than "professional mode." I think this was the first time *ever* that I was actually one of the experts in the room. It was a weird feeling, but a great experience to have other tenured faculty from around the department come up to me after the group discussion had broken up and ask me for further details. And it wasn't even my presentation! I guess those comprehensive exams and all my reading have paid off after all....
2 comments:
Congrats! I understand the excitement. Maybe this is why it *is* worthwhile to focus on the earlier periods even when they're so out of fashion academically. The modernists and post-modernists forget that the present is built on our past, and sometimes it's nice to be able to offer those answers.
Well done, you! The whole 'expertness' thing is a state of mind - presumably, you're students already consider you an expert on things literary, as do your family and friends most likely - I certainly do - but congratulations, anyway, on seeing things as they are :-)
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