Reflection: Textualities '23

Reflection on the Textualites Conference 2023

06/04/2023

Cork, UCC

It was a very busy week, but an exciting one, and fulfilling overall. The morning of the conference was warm and sunny. That helped a lot to alleviate the tension. Moving furniture, rearranging the room, and keeping ourselves busy helped to release the stressful energy as well. My colleague Emily and I were always on our toes, because whenever we sat down we made ourselves anxious. Seeing our colleagues present in the first panel was also very helpful to overcome our anxiety and enjoy the process. After the first panel I relaxed, thinking that this conference is mostly for ourselves; a nice conclusion for our Masters; a celebration and an exchange of ideas.

As far as the organization of the conference is concerned, since I was one of the members of the on-the-day committee, I did not have much to do before the conference. I had only provided my colleagues with ideas concerning the titles of the panels, questions to be asked, and on a variety of issues that were constantly coming up concerning the organization of the event. On the day of the conference we did not have much to do since everything was running smoothly.

Posting on social media is not my cup of tea, but for the conference I posted on a variety of platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. I was surprised – especially from my followers and friends on Instagram and Facebook – by the encouraging responses I received and most of all by a reposting from a friend, mentor, and Professor of Latin and Ancient Greek in the University of Patras, Greece, saying how proud he is for my progress, praising, at the same time – and in a funny way – the small village in Greece that we both grew up in.

With the conference being on a Thursday, and on top of that, so close to the Easter holidays, not many people attended. Every friend of mine was working at that time, and even though they wanted to attend, only two of them could come in the end. I was expecting that some undergraduate students might appear but, from what I gathered from two of my friends who are studying English in UCC, it is a very busy period for them as well, and apart from that, some were already on their way to visit their families for Easter. Regardless of that, having some of my friends, my colleagues, and Professors there, who were very supportive and eager to engage with and participate in the discussions, was for me more than enough.

Every single one of my colleagues’ presentations was very interesting and extremely well done. You could see that everyone had put a lot of effort into it and, despite being stressed, they seemed to enjoy every moment of it. The atmosphere was very friendly and relaxed. The questions after the panels were to the point and had the tendency to lead the conversation towards various paths that no one would have thought they could go.

Presenting on the last panel can be somewhat nerve wrecking. Being there since nine in the morning to organize everything; attending panels, listening to your colleagues while partaking in their struggling with stress, while waiting for your turn to come, can keep you in a continuous state of anxiety. I definitely believe though that this specific kind of stress (at least the one I was experiencing) is a positive one, providing you with the exact amount of energy and alertness that you require in order to do what you have to do correctly. Finally, when my turn came to present, I felt calm and I let myself enjoy it as much as possible since I was excited about the topic that I was presenting and the preparation I did for it was more than enough.

I believe that the mini-conference experience was a wonderful conclusion for our Masters. It provided me with a small taste of how many things are going on backstage and how important it is to prepare everything beforehand in order to actually enjoy it when it happens. Every participant did extraordinarily well and by the end of it I was proud of my colleagues and myself for coming that far.