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March 24, 2005
The Acceptance Speech That Should Have Been
Each year, a number of awards are presented at the closing banquet of the conference, including the Graduate student Paper Award, first presented in 1987. This year, the award went to an extremely surprised Christine Mains (aka yours truly) who was too stunned to give anything resembling a coherent acceptance speech. I have a somewhat fuzzy memory of being even ditzier than usual. And that's unfortunate, because there are some things I'd really like to say about being a graduate student involved with IAFA and this was the perfect opportunity to say those things.
Thankfully, the blog exists for just such occasions.
"The Speech Given in the Alternate Universe Where Chrissie is Faster at Thinking on Her Feet."
I'm very grateful that such an organization exists, and that it is so supportive of graduate students who are the future of scholarship and teaching. I know that a number of my fellow students whose interests lie elsewhere, in Shakespeare studies or Middle English Literature, for instance, have had a much more difficult time building their careers and finding acceptance among their peers and future colleagues than I have had. Few organizations have such an active graduate student membership, and the senior members of IAFA have been incredibly supportive of the student caucus, not only in organizing and funding the Graduate Student Paper Award but in ensuring that graduate students are welcomed and made a part of the organization and the conference. A representative of the student caucus sits on the executive board, there not only to voice student concerns and convey board concerns back to the students but also to participate fully and equally in planning the present and future of IAFA.
Nor is that participation limited to a single token student at a time; when I offered my time and energy to then-President Len Hatfield a few years ago, he was willing to appoint me to the position of Public Information Coordinator even though I was a graduate student and the board already had a student representative. What mattered was that I was willing and able to get the job done. The senior members of IAFA are well aware that a strong and active future for the association depends on the vision and energy of those of us just beginning our scholarly careers. And we are the future; the student caucus was in its first year or so when I began attending ICFA six years ago, but in the years soon to come, I fully expect that the Division Heads and appointed board members will include scholars who began their involvement with IAFA as part of the caucus, and in the years after that, we will be the elected board, guiding the association into its fourth and fifth decades of existence. I might not be thinking about such a commitment if the association did not demonstrate an equally strong commitment to its graduate students and to me personally.
I am very pleased to have my scholarship recognized by the critics and teachers who matter most in my field; that recognition means a great deal to me, as does this association and all of the people whom I have met over the years as a result of my involvement with it. I intend to be a part of IAFA as long as it exists, and to do everything that I can to ensure that it exists for a very long time.
Oh, lest anyone think I've been replaced by a pod person: This is way cool!
Posted by ChrissieMains at March 24, 2005 11:29 PM
Comments
Congratulations, Chrissie.
Posted by: Arthur D. Hlavaty at March 25, 2005 08:01 AM
Congratulations, indeed! As a person who has tried to be a student & hold down a job, I salute you! Those of us in the audience, I think, understood your surprise, and while it is a charming speech, your actual thanks was very well done.
Congratulations!
Posted by: Amy K. Eoff at March 28, 2005 04:27 PM