State of things

I have decided to stop sending e-mails updating my ‘progress’ in Canada. Very few people respond to the messages and the blog affords me the opportunity to perform the same gesture in a more productive way; at least you two will read and (possibly) respond to them, and I know you at least remain interested. This also helps me visualize where I’ve come from and where I am going.

Completed:

I delivered a modified version of the paper I posted below at a conference hosted by the College of the Bahamas and gained some valuable insights regarding my work. I also created an account at Flickr to host pictures of Nassau.

I submitted a twenty-something page essay last week for my doctoral seminar. In it I examine two recent post-Civil War Liberian novels which have not received any critical attention. I argue that each takes the form of a political bildungsroman and features a dominant narrative in which characters from the ruling minority ‘grow up’ and accept their indigenous counterparts, yet the text also reveals a counter-narrative in which, perhaps, the idea of national unity is instead naïve and they ‘grow up’ in a very different way. Regardless, their use of language and behavior suggests they haven’t really embraced the notion that the descendants of black colonists and indigenous Liberians belong to the same national unit. As you might imagine I draw from nationalism studies, particularly the theories of Walker Connor, among others.

Fiona and I have decided to move in together after learning that the English department has accepted her into the PhD program, i.e. she will be in Ottawa for the next several years. Our leases both finish in May and we will look for a two-bedroom apartment in the downtown area, roughly near where I currently live. When we finish with it—especially if one or both of us gets the OGS grant—you will be jealous.

Currently working on:

I have three essays to complete in the next three weeks (in addition to my duties as a TA and other work for my classes). One will focus on rhetorical strategies in the later speeches of William V.S. Tubman, a long-serving Liberian despot. Another concerns the recent work of Liberian poet Patricia Jabbeh-Wesley. I don’t know what I will concentrate on for the third essay, probably either the first Liberian novel or the works of its first truly indigenous writer, a man named B.T. Moore. I haven’t even begun to consider an approach yet. As you can see, I use my classes as an opportunity to delve further into Liberian literature, about which I have become increasingly excited. They say the hardest thing about working on a PhD is maintaining enthusiasm… thankfully I haven’t burned out in the second semester.

I have finalized my panel for the 2008 MLA Convention in San Francisco and decided that rather read a paper, I will simply contextualize the proceedings and introduce the speakers. This gives them more time to speak and frees me from having to work on something at the last minute.

Future projects:

The chair of my department has asked me to organize a graduate conference for next year, and I have tentatively accepted. I have thought about organizing it around late-February and will need to form a committee and discuss it further. If this happens, we will need posters and fliers. Perhaps some future work for you two? I’d need to work it out with a committee, of course, but I have you both in mind.

Once I complete my papers, I will begin working on polishing a few of them for publication. I have two in mind specifically, one for Research in African Literatures and another for Comparative Literature Studies. I will keep you informed.

What I Do: Conference Paper

My parents know I work as a student of course, but they didn’t become familiar with the specifics of my doctoral research until a phone call immediately before coming to Ottawa for my master’s graduation, in which I told them, “We should go out to dinner with my thesis advisor. Oh, do you know what I study?” You two are probably in the same boat: I study Liberian literature… and that may be the extent of your knowledge on the matter. You know I write papers, attend conferences, etc. You also know that I really love speaking in public, but unfortunately other than a hastily unprepared ’speech’ a half-decade ago at Bughouse Square I can’t remember whether you’ve ever seen me in my element. Maybe that will change: in November the African Studies Association will host it’s fiftieth anniversary conference in Chicago and I will try my best to get on the proceedings and deliver a paper. If that happens I will sneak you both into the event for sure. But until then, maybe you’d find a paper I just completed for the upcoming Bahamas conference interesting? It will not read the same as a normal paper, nor can it approximate the experience of a paper delivered, but if nothing else I’d like to share with you two what I do lately.

Some general rules about conference papers: organizers usually give you fifteen minutes on a panel with two or three other presenters; that equals seven or eight double-spaced pages. You should expect that: a) no one has read the books you analyze or know their author/s; b) no one knows the relevant historical or social context; and c) in a conference like this, where most people will present on history or sociology, very few know anything about literary theory. As such the content of my conference papers tends to read more general in nature and also a little more colloquial than in a formal essay (the paper below still reads too formally in my opinion, but I will make changes on the plane). Other than in direct quotes, I allow myself a couple of uses of the verb “to be” in conference papers and formal essays. You’ll note that I have e-primed this paper as I do normally, and that I qualify most of my uses of the verb “to be” to eliminate it’s troublesome implications. Tell me what you two think.

The subject of the conference is “Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: Telling the Story”.

Incidentally, though I don’t expect it, should someone other than Angeli or Ed read the following presentation, I should remind them that it remains my intellectual property and that any use of my words or ideas requires the necessary citation, which you can find at a web site like The OWL at Purdue.