The first year after I returned from school in England, I was fortunate that the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, what we then called "The Learneds," was held in St. John's, where I was living and teaching. I gave a paper, met a bunch of new colleagues, found a book at the book fair that, eventually, led me to write my own book, and prepared myself to leave for Alberta and assume a permanent job. In short, it was a valuable, and inexpensive, experience.
All I needed to do was pay my conference fee and my association fee.
I cannot tell you that, over the subseqent years, as I travelled to places like Edmonton, Halifax, Saskatoon, and Toronto, I have not wondered if the trouble is worth the expense. After all, I am not curing cancer. But, while there, I never once questioned the value of meeting people and exchanging ideas. Without exception, I have come away each year feeling reinvigorated, temporarily reconnected with English professors flung far and wide throughout Canada.
My concerns about expenses have not gone away, however.
The conference fee and the association fee persist, and these are compounded by airfare and accommodation costs. This year, to go to Ottawa, I used Aeroplan points for my flight, and I still spent a thousand dollars for three days away. The least expensive conference hotel ran about one hundred fifty dollars a night, and this is the only reasonable option short of sharing facilities in a dorm. I stopped using dorms after the Winnipeg Congress, where I stayed in the same building in which the Wishmaster III horror film was shot. Sharing a mouldy bathroom with a couple of geezers will dent the enthusiasm of anyone, I reckon.
There are all manner of incidental expenses, as well. You can expect that transportation to and from the airport will not be inexpensive; you can expect to pay to get back and forth to campus each day. You can expect to take some colleagues out to dinner, though if you are lucky they will reciprocate on subsequent evenings. You will not escape the above-mentioned book fair without denting your credit card.
I remember being hassled at the American border one year on my way to a conference in Wisconsin. Was I getting paid to speak? Was I, heck.
I am fortunate to have institutional support for my activities, of course, but the total of that support does not pay the airfare for my upcoming July speaking engagement. What about young scholars at small colleges? What about graduate students? If there is widespread value in attending conferences, should we not be concerned about their viability?
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