The View From Kalamazoo

So last year the Special Session I organized, Medicine as Magic, Magic as Medicine, was a huge hit. I had all of my abstracts in no time flat, I had to turn abstracts away, the room was packed (and with Important Medievalists, even), and everyone gushed about how I should organize it again for 2004, enthuse, enthuse, enthuse. Dandy. So I do, and I was coming into mid-Sept. with NO ABSTRACTS. Soooo unhappy.

I strong-armed (well, pleaded and nagged. heh) one of our grad students into giving me an abstract, and one of our alum. I even picked through the General Sessions submissions (perk). *sigh* I may have to give a paper for my sission to round our to three – it wasn’t part of my Grand Plan for 2004, oh well. Transformative, transformative…must think of something good on magical/medical transformation (we’re getting more vague and general on the topic the more time passes. not that it’s at all unusual, or even that off-mark – it’s amazing the contortions I’ve seen from organizers!)