With it taking place in San Diego, it is easy for me to
reach, travel-wise. Of course, I am also grateful to my wife allowing me to go
and her taking our kids for those days.
I am curious to see who will be there. One thing I have
already noticed is that several of those presenting papers are people whom I
know and are my peers, which will be great and did not happen in either of the
previous conferences.
I am greatly curious to see how different the tweeting is.
When I attended in 2008 and 2009, while I was engaged on Twitter about the
conference, it seemed there weren’t many others engaging in it. However, I am hopeful that there will be more
discourse taking place in that space about the conference.
One thing to which I am looking forward is being in a space
where there is such great intellectual discourse, curiosity, and scholarship,
and being able to soak in it and to be enriched through the experience. I love
such cerebral gatherings and events, especially on topics of great interest to
me.
I am also looking forward to re-connecting with people who
are engaged in these endeavors and whom I haven’t connected with in-person (as
opposed to online (primarily Facebook)). It will be great to be enriched
through these conversations and see how my knowledge and experience will be
enriched through these interactions.
I am most looking forward to sessions on rabbinics (such as
rabbinic literature, Talmud, etc.), but – as in my attending previous AJS conferences
– also seeking to go beyond just that field. Obviously, I am also curious in
Bible, but we shall see which other panel discussions in other fields I attend.
Finally, for anyone who has read my previous blog posts
here on attending AJS conferences (see below for a listing), will see that my
writing style has greatly improved over the years since then. Also, I don’t
plan on throwing all of my notes on to the screen. Furthermore, I think I took
notes using pen and paper, then transcribed them, thus there are some
non-sentences going on in some of those posts. Instead, I am aspiring to take
notes and do writing on my tablet, which will yield an easier transferring of
notes than transcribing. Also, I don’t think I will be throwing all of the
panels on the same post. Hopefully, if I
am able to compose them well enough, I will post them separately on Matters of
Interest.
Listing of previous posts on AJS Conferences:
