Well, I made it to Atlanta for the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians. It was
definitely tough to get away for this conference. We are bringing a candidate to campus on Monday for
our non-western history position. As chair of the department I am running the search. At this point it looks like our candidate will get into Harrisburg on Sunday night before I do. But I have a great administrative assistant who has everything under control and departmental colleagues who are more than willing to pitch in.
 |
| The view from the Atlanta Hilton |
OK–back to the OAH
I got in a few hours ago. Since I did not get an exit row on my flight to Atlanta I have been a bit grumpy. (My biggest pet peeve: people under 6’0” taking the exit rows, leaving the 6’8″ guy to contort his body into a regular seat behind the guy who inevitably moves his chair back into your face).
OK–back to the OAH
I arrived at the registration desk and gave them my name only to find out that they did not have a reservation for me. When I called up my reservation on my laptop I learned that I had actually reserved a room at the Atlanta Hilton for NEXT WEEKEND! This explains why I was able to get a room through Travelocity for thirty dollars a night less than the conference rate. Fortunately, the Hilton had four rooms left. And they even gave me the conference rate!
So here I am. Glad to touch base with my Penn Press editor Bob Lockhart in the hotel lobby. I always enjoy seeing The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America at his booth.
Tomorrow is a busy day. I will be chairing the session on Religion and Transatlantic Print culture at 9:00am and then hope to get to a few panels, including the 3:30 plenary on “Historians and Their Publics.”
Stay tuned.