a bit of good news

Last night, I found out that my abstract had been accepted to a conference in the UK! Amid all the uncertainty and anticipated rejections of the job market, it's nice to get a little affirmation (nevermind the fact that I suspect all proposed abstracts were accepted). It's a conference entirely focused on the reception of Heracles/Hercules in the post-classical world. There will be talks about Hercules in early Christian theology, opera, the Renaissance, Victorian Britain, etc. My topic is less highbrow, I must admit: I'll be giving a paper about Disney's Hercules!

I haven't done much work with modern reception, but I've been hoping to get into it, so here's my chance. I hadn't seen the movie in years, until my family reunion this summer, when I watched it with my cousins! So all of that hard work is finally paying off. ;) I'm looking forward to many of the papers, and there are several seniors scholars attending whom I hope to connect with.

The conference is in Leeds in June – maybe a European honeymoon is in the works for us? My last international conference was three years ago, in Argentina. The Fat accompanied me, and we had many adventures – visiting Iguazu falls, getting our palms licked by giraffes at the zoo, eating the most delicious grass-fed beef, hanging out (weirdly) with people from our high school. I can only hope that this next conference will be as memorable!