Workshops

It all started for real today, with three-hour workshops in the morning (8.30-11.30) and afternoon (12.30-3.30). Bochner and Ellis, Laurel Richardson, Ron Pelias each run one. Ann went to Ron's today and reported good things (and got a round of applause for her own writing, I hear told). I thought Ron's was excellent when I went a couple of years ago, as I did Richardson's, though she now does a different theme to when I went, which is working with the idea of writing only in three word sentences. The story goes that before last year's conference Norman Denzin called to ask her to run a workshop again, as in previous years, and her first response was "Oh, Norm, I don't think that I can. I've had an awful year and, well, I can hardly string three words together," to which he replied "That sounds like a great idea for a workshop...".

Jane, Malcolm and I went to Susanne Gannon's workshop this afternoon, which was on using collective biography as a strategy to consider neoliberalism in higher education. Sue's in teacher education, as is Malcolm, so Malcolm regularly complemented her on her classroom organisational skills...(She was very organised, it has to be said, with some great ideas for introducing different writing strategies).

Keynote speeches launched the conference proper, which I missed because I was rehearsing (honest). Strangely enough, though, we finished rehearsing just in time for the opening night 'cook-out'.