The reason for our trip to DC was because the annual American Psychological Association Convention was being held there from August 4-7. The APA conference is the biggest psychology conference in the world and one that I had been planning to attend at least once during my PhD.
When I noticed that the 2011 conference would held in Washington DC it seemed like a good one to try to make!
So, in fall of 2010 I submitted a proposal to give a talk at the conference and started figuring out how I would afford to attend.
Academia is a funny world which is simultaneously exclusive and expensive (it is commonly assumed that people who do PhDs are independently wealthy) while also offering lots of specific little grants and scholarships.
Finding these grants and scholarships can be quite time consuming and boring but is part of the package for Graham and I since we exist entirely off our combined scholarships and grants. Everytime I think of that I am totally amazed that God has provided so abundantly for us these past few years. Our experience is definitely not the norm!
Anyway, fastforward ten months to mid-July when my talk proposal had been accepted, flights booked, hotel found, Oakes family coming as well and I finally hear back from my last grant application. Amazingly everything will be paid for!
The conference was quite an experience, there were over 13 000 attendees and the program was the size of a telephone book. It was held at the main convention centre in DC and in some of the hotels nearby. There were exhibition halls selling all kinds of crazy therapy books, teaching psychologists about different computer programs, there was an army recruitment stall, everything.
Amidst all this craziness, I gave a 20 minute talk about some of my research to a small but friendly group of people. It was great!
Here's the title of my talk (this is a duplicate from the powerpoint presentation):
The talk was about my latest research (for the fifth chapter of my PhD) on the role of British attendees to the first two congresses of Psychology that were held in Paris in 1889 and in London in 1892.
I researched this topic while I was in Paris. It was amazing to research the world expo that created the Eiffel Tower while living only 20 minutes walk from the real thing!
Here is a shot of a poster from the World Expo of 1889, reading about it made we wish I could have experienced it in person.
During the conference I had the chance to attend many interesting talks (mostly on the history of psychology) and to meet lots of colleagues from Canada and America with whom I have had e-mail contact in the past or whose work I have read. I was also so glad to have my parents and sister and Graham sit in on my talk so they could see what I've been up to.
So, all in all a great conference, definitely worth all the work leading up to it and of course with the amazing benefit of getting to visit a new city as well!
When I noticed that the 2011 conference would held in Washington DC it seemed like a good one to try to make!
So, in fall of 2010 I submitted a proposal to give a talk at the conference and started figuring out how I would afford to attend.
Academia is a funny world which is simultaneously exclusive and expensive (it is commonly assumed that people who do PhDs are independently wealthy) while also offering lots of specific little grants and scholarships.
Finding these grants and scholarships can be quite time consuming and boring but is part of the package for Graham and I since we exist entirely off our combined scholarships and grants. Everytime I think of that I am totally amazed that God has provided so abundantly for us these past few years. Our experience is definitely not the norm!
Anyway, fastforward ten months to mid-July when my talk proposal had been accepted, flights booked, hotel found, Oakes family coming as well and I finally hear back from my last grant application. Amazingly everything will be paid for!
The conference was quite an experience, there were over 13 000 attendees and the program was the size of a telephone book. It was held at the main convention centre in DC and in some of the hotels nearby. There were exhibition halls selling all kinds of crazy therapy books, teaching psychologists about different computer programs, there was an army recruitment stall, everything.
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| The convention centre |
Amidst all this craziness, I gave a 20 minute talk about some of my research to a small but friendly group of people. It was great!
Here's the title of my talk (this is a duplicate from the powerpoint presentation):
The talk was about my latest research (for the fifth chapter of my PhD) on the role of British attendees to the first two congresses of Psychology that were held in Paris in 1889 and in London in 1892.
I researched this topic while I was in Paris. It was amazing to research the world expo that created the Eiffel Tower while living only 20 minutes walk from the real thing!
Here is a shot of a poster from the World Expo of 1889, reading about it made we wish I could have experienced it in person.
During the conference I had the chance to attend many interesting talks (mostly on the history of psychology) and to meet lots of colleagues from Canada and America with whom I have had e-mail contact in the past or whose work I have read. I was also so glad to have my parents and sister and Graham sit in on my talk so they could see what I've been up to.
So, all in all a great conference, definitely worth all the work leading up to it and of course with the amazing benefit of getting to visit a new city as well!
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| Embarrassing photo taken by husband. |
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