PCA/ACA Conference: Day 0

Well, here I am in sunny New Orleans (it's 11:30 at night, so not really). I enjoyed a relatively relaxing 25 hour train ride down here and the proverbial shit has already hit the proverbial fan.

As, I'm sure, I didn't describe earlier, I had attempted to submit an abstract to the Internet Culture area chair and was rejected, ostensibly because the panel was "full" but probably because I'm an undergraduate student. Now, normally, I wouldn't jump to this conclusion, but there seem to be more than a few legitimate reasons.

First, although I'd been going back and forth via e-mail with the area chair for some time, she never mentioned that the panel was full until I mentioned that I was an undergrad. However, she did also inform me that my abstract "needs work in terms of writing style and clarity" and that I should "work with a professor experienced in submitting conference papers to prepare an abstract...for next year's PCA." Needless to say, I did the original research for a professor at UMBC and, naturally, had my mom (a professor) look over it again because I was somewhat anxious about submitting for the first time.

In the intervening time, I'd been put on the wait list for the undergraduate panel. However, when I arrived and my registration materials weren't at the table, my mom and I got the chance to talk to the registrar one-on-one. She claimed that it was PCA policy not to let undergraduates present papers in the regular areas. This seems rather suspect since (1) there are no such guidelines in the call for papers or anywhere else on their website, (2) my mother has had students who have given papers in the past without incident, and (3) I've noticed a group of four undergraduates (possibly freshmen) from Elon who are presenting in the very area (Internet Culture) in which I had meant to present. The registrar further explained that this policy was in place because some professors didn't want to hear papers written by undergraduates (the assumption being that they will be of worse quality). Finally, she agreed with us that the PCA is "very accepting" because they accept almost any paper sent to them (unless it's by a undergrad, apparently).

Now that you know the story, here's my subtle critique of the matter: Ridiculously arbitrary and discriminatory. Here are my reasons:

1. There are, as I said, no requirements stated in the call for papers.
2. Many other non-American Studies and non-PhD folk are allowed to submit papers and, since they don't ask for credentials of any kind, one could be an "independent scholar", which is to say, just some guy (or gal).
3. As far as I know, these alleged professors who don't want to hear student papers are under no obligation to do so. If they don't want to be at the presentation, they can find some other panel to attend at that time.
4. Since papers are not reviewed for quality, there's no reason to believe that any of the ones that are accepted are of any level of quality, better or worse than could be expected of an undergraduate.

In the end, maybe I'm just too "old and tired", but I've been doing things in the realm of youth empowerment for at least 6 years now and this is one of the worst, most arbitrary cases of discrimination I've seen. Especially since being an undergraduate student doesn't necessarily mean that one is between the ages of 18 and 22. The most frustrating thing about it is how illogical their reasons are. They accept, literally, almost any paper sent to them, but reject undergraduates because they might not be up to some unknown standard of quality.

This isn't the end, though. I'm going to be checking in with several other people in my area, both undergraduate and otherwise, and seeing how I can contribute, if they're interested. Also, I'll be attending many interesting presentations myself and I'll be writing about those starting tomorrow.