To melbourne and back

I've had a busy week at the International Pragramatics Association conference in Melbourne. It was a great conference i.e. good papers, great venue (University of Melbourne), fantastic accommodation (a two-bedroom unit just 30 metres from Lygon Street that I shared with my friend and fellow conversation analyst Gillian Busch), a catchup with other friends and colleagues including my friend Kathy Roulston from the University of Georgia) AND a visit to Ballarat to see my current writing partner and friend Robyn Brandenburg and to check out my dearly beloved house in Buninyong (just near Ballarat university).

So, it was a full week and a fantastic time. There is something to be said for smallish conferences and a tight focus (in the case of this conference there were a number of conversation analysts presenting and that was very very good for making connections and for thinking more about the method/methodology).

My preparation for the conference was seriously hampered by a writing agenda over the last few months that has seen me criss cross between various bits of research (transcription, children and cyberspace and independent writing). It hasn't been the best way to work although I am pretty happy with the results (two journal articles and two conference papers for the first half of the year). I also have developed a number of draft journal articles and conference proposals that are on the go, including two for AERA for 2010. so i've been busy but all over the place and it took its toll on my leadup to the pragmatics conference.

Over the next six months I want to work on the production of a good CA paper. I will use my kidz and cyberspace data but channel my energies into getting on top of an aspect of CA analysis that emerges from my analysis of data that i haven't yet analysed. I've been working for two years to establish a core of publications and I've done that although the papers aren't all CA focused but instead addressed to a readership that encompasses literacy (so papers that draw on the application of CA to inform literacy). So now I would like to get back to CA focused work.

My focus for the next few months will be to analyse the rest of the kidz and cyberspace data, write a CA paper and develop a conference proposal for the CA conference in Mannheim in July 2010. that should keep me busy and in a tightly focused way. let's see what pans out (smile).