Friday, February 18, 2011

Collective Identities: Policies and Poetics

by J J Cohen

Just a quick note to praise the doctoral program in French at the CUNY Graduate Center. The students of the program mounted the conference at which I spoke today, and I was thoroughly impressed with their esprit de corps, their wit, and their energy.

It's been a long day. Many of the papers were in French, which takes extra energy for me to attend to -- so that by the last panel my synapses were firing only odd bits of nonsense, mostly snippets of half remembered Asterix dialogues. The conference was intimate, small, intense. I was so pleased with the reaction my own presentation elicited: terrific questions and a bracing conversation. What could be better?

One thing, maybe: a beautifully warm evening, some prosecco and dinner from Tiffin Wallah. I don't believe in an afterlife, but if I did it would include such things, every night.

3 comments:

Tim Wilson said...

Somehow we covered creepy cats and humanist cannibalism in the same afternoon. What better sign of a successful conference?

Jeffrey Cohen said...

Tim, I have a vague memory that at the reception I declared that those who are not vegetarians and want to eat locally and in a way that is sustainable ought to be devouring human flesh, didn't I? Wouldn't it be great if out of the conference we started a new localvore cannibalism movement?

Tim Wilson said...

Localvore! Do you hear that? The expression "community service" has begun to ring somewhat more ominously (omnivorously)...!