It’s interesting to me how one of the facets of the weborati’s “follow your passion and the money/people will follow you” is self-promotion. In some sense, other people have to be there to get you. I get that. And some academics are really good at self-promotion. (Most intellectuals I know really aren’t. Where the line is between academics and intellectuals is something I leave for another time.) Anyway, the times being what they are, as Rosencrantz and Gildenstern say, I have been thinking about the role of self-promotion in professional careers that happen to take place within the framework of the academy.

The final draft of the program for the 2009 meeting of the American Folklore Society came out last week and a quick search revealed here’s where I’m going to be:

• On Thursday from 1:30 – 3:30, I will be in the panel “Watery Places” to present my paper “The Ethics of Creativity on the Rice Prairies of Louisiana;
• On Friday from 1:30 – 3:30, I will be in the panel “The Future of Communication in Folklore III: New Media” with old friends Jason Jackson, Jon Kay, and Tom Mould; and, finally,
• Just after the previous session, I will be in the “Meet the Editors” panel with Harry Berger and Giovanna P. del Negro and the super-secret new editor(s) of the Journal of American Folklore.