Graduate Student Reflections: AHA Presentations

At the start of January, I had the privilege of attending the American Historical Association and presenting a poster for the Religious Ecologies project. While it was fun to put the poster together and answer the questions from people who came up during the poster session, my favorite part, the most valuable part, was the time spent outside the sessions.

The American Historical Association conference was easily the largest one I had ever attended. I quickly found it overwhelming and felt the task of mingling with a group of people I did not know daunting. As a graduate student, you are frequently reminded that conferences are an essential facet of your academic upbringing because they are where you make contacts and grow your professional circle, an IRL Linked-In (every introvert’s dream, I know). At that moment, when I began to feel overwhelmed in these larger spaces of the conference, I made it a priority to attend every social hour I could/that was relevant to myself and my work. As an introverted person, I often stick to places where I feel comfortable. Meeting new people can be challenging for me. While I did not leave the conference with a Rolodex full of business cards, I made several new and valuable connections. I also discovered I knew people in these spaces where I feared I would know no one. These people made these spaces more manageable for me. I introduced them to people I knew and vice versa.

I went into this conferencing thinking that a full Rolodex was the goal. I left, realizing that the conference was more about having fun, learning about others’ work, and forming deeper, meaningful connections people will remember rather than collecting and passing out superficial pieces of paper with your name and email printed onto them.

ABOUT THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

The American Historical Association creates a community for historians of varying specializations through institutes, providing resources for students, offering grants and career opportunities, and hosting an annual meeting for historians to share their work. For more information about the American Historical Association, please visit their website: https://www.historians.org