Like many conferences this year, the annual American Academy of Religion / Society of Biblical Literature conference will be virtual. HUP’s Editorial Director, Sharmila Sen, who normally attends the conference, decided to check in with some of the people she would have otherwise seen there in person.
I write this from my favorite WFH spot—a narrow table, 4.5’ x 1.5’, facing a window. I love the dimensions of this table, though many would find it comically constrictive. It forces me to edit out anything that doesn’t meet my standards of functionality or aesthetics. Right now, I have a cup of black coffee, a small pile of recent HUP books, a notepad, a red fountain pen, a laptop, and a red lamp on the desk. We are a large family and I do not have a room of my own. So, I impose my will with the ferocity of a toddler on any surface I can claim as my own. I lock the door during Zoom meetings and send ominous WhatsApps to my three teenage children, husband, and elderly parents (who live downstairs) that they shouldn’t disturb me while I’m incarnating as a Zoom tile. Unfortunately, our dog doesn’t read his WhatsApp messages.
I attended my first AAR/SBL fourteen years ago in Washington, D.C. Since 2006 I’ve rarely missed an opportunity to catch up with our authors at this conference. We’ve had some laughs along the way, too. (Remember the pious fashion photo booth contest?) This year, in lieu of gathering in a hotel lobby or in the book exhibits hall, I asked some of our authors to take us into their homes and show us where they write the books that Harvard publishes.
First, let’s check in on Karma Ben-Johanan in Berlin. Karma is putting the finishing touches on her book on Jewish-Christian relations since Vatican II (coming Fall 2021 from Harvard) and raising three young gymnasts at the same time.
What does your WFH set-up look like?
My home office is the leisure space for the rest of the family. In other words, it is also my children’s gym. From time to time a flying kid mixes up the pages, spills a glass of water on my computer, or disturbs my focus. Or, more precisely, from time to time I am able to focus despite flying kids.
What is on your desk?
I am revising my first monograph, focusing on Jewish-Christian relations and contemporary inter-religious polemics. This tracks well with my own polemical stance on why I am entitled to a WFH set-up without flying kids!
What do you miss most about academic conferences this year? What do you miss least?
I loved the excitement of meeting new people from backgrounds and convictions distant from my own and discovering that they are much closer to me intellectually than what I could have imagined before meeting them. I don’t miss squeezing my legs in an airplane seat. I don’t miss pretending that I follow nuanced and lengthy arguments when I actually don’t.
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Over in Frankfurt, Konrad Schmid is getting ready for Harvard to publish the German bestseller on the making of the Bible that he co-authored with Jens Schröter who is currently on sabbatical in Bavaria. Was it only a year ago that I had drinks with Konrad and Jens at The Pendry in San Diego while discussing this book?
What is on your desk?
Konrad: Preparing a talk for the association of scientific publishers in Germany on Open Access and proofreading the manuscript for The Making of the Bible [coming Fall 2021 from Harvard].
Jens: I am currently on a research leave in Regensburg (Bavaria), working on Jewish and Christian apocalyptic texts, especially on Christian Ezra traditions. Besides that, I am checking the English translation of our book The Making of the Bible.
What do you miss most about academic conferences this year? What do you miss least?
Konrad: I don’t miss having to queue up at the US immigration and having to struggle with jetlag during and after the conference. But I miss, of course, seeing my friends and colleagues.
Jens: I miss meeting colleagues and friends at conferences and personal talks. I don’t miss the hustle and bustle at airports and the time wasted at long faculty meetings.
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In Brookline, MA, Liz Bucar, author of Pious Fashion, is writing the conclusion to her new book on religious appropriation. Liz is an all-in type of writer and that yoga is strictly for research.
What does your WFH set-up look like?
I have a Virginia Wolf room of my own: A workspace, a yoga studio, a getaway from my family, a retreat. It is the ONLY room in my house that is always neat and tidy. Only the dog is allowed in.
What is on your desk?
WFH desk essentials include earplugs AND noise canceling headphones (b/c my family is LOUD), a tube of lipstick for Zoom calls (I might be wearing joggers every day, but if you Zoom with me I will put on a bright lip—current favorite is Bobbi Brown’s Burnt Red), Levenger organizers (I am addicted), whatever I’m reading for class which is currently a copy of Albert Camus’s The Plague for a new course I’m developing (Religion in a Time of Plague), a print out of Stealing Your Religion (there is something very satisfying about a hard copy of a book manuscript—I always have one on hand once I’m in the final stages of writing).
What do you miss most about academic conferences this year? What do you miss least?
What I miss most: Wearing impractical shoes! What I miss least: Walking around conference centers in impractical shoes!
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In Somerville, MA, Brian Hatcher, author of Hinduism Before Reform, finds that his new pandemic look makes him a dead ringer for David Lynch.
What does your WFH set-up look like?
I work at a desk in our son's room, which had already doubled as my home workspace even before the pandemic. It has a Mission-style desk and an old brass lamp and the usual tchotchkes. The wooden chair has taken a beating during the lockdown, not least as I fidget a lot during Zoom meetings.
What is on your desk?
Two volumes of Vidyasagar's Rachanabali, a lota full of pens and pencils, a couple pairs of reading glasses (different strengths), a glass inkwell with a marble inside, a folk-art ocean liner, and a duck I made out of stones when I was in elementary school.
What do you miss most about academic conferences this year? What do you miss least?
I miss my friends! I miss going for coffee in the morning and drinks in the evening, long lunches that bleed into afternoon panel times, and dinners that make me want to sleep in the next day. Since I tend to fidget, panels are never a lot of fun for me, unless I can sit next to someone I know and try to distract them. When in doubt, jump and head to the book exhibit!
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In Columbus, OH, the elegant Sarah Johnston, author of The Story of Myth, and the inimitable Fritz Graf, author of Magic in the Ancient World, are giving us all sorts of WFH goals with descriptions of their spacious study.
What does your WFH set-up look like?
Sarah: Because I am lucky enough to have a study, my pandemic set-up is not any crazier than it usually is, although perhaps that’s crazy enough. The space is littered with Loebs and there is also a copy of Carolina Lopez-Ruiz’s When the Gods Were Born.
What is on your desk?
Sarah: The Story of Myth, is on my desk right now. It’s there because I am once again working on myths. That’s why Carolina’s book is there, too. The Loebs are great because they are small and stackable—I can have a lot of authors easily within my reach while I work.
Fritz: A few books around my computer (the most used volumes), others sit on the floor, such as Burkert’s Ancient Mystery Cults—I just was Zoom advising a graduate student on Greek mystery cults.
What do you miss most about academic conferences this year? What do you miss least?
Sarah: What I miss most: conversations with my friends about our work. What I miss least: bad food at the restaurants within walking distance of convention centers.
Fritz: Miss: lunching with Mary Beard while she is writing her blog. And, perhaps more obvious, getting lots of input on new finds and projects of which nothing is yet available in print. Not miss: the bad free coffee; racking my brain to remember a colleague’s name who forgot to put on the name tag (and there is no US equivalent to the helpful German “guter Tag, lieber Herr Kollege”).
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Charlie Hallisey reports from Cambridge, MA, where he is looking over the final files for the beautiful new edition of Poems of the First Buddhist Women.
What does your WFH set-up look like?
It is chaotic, but things are near at hand, with books and papers covering the bed (the room also served in pre-pandemic times as a guest bedroom).
What is on your desk currently?
A thick notebook filled with lists of chores to do, a Pali dictionary, syllabi, and a copy of my Therigatha translation. The translation is on the desk because I have been teaching an online course at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies on "The Poems of the First Buddhist Women as Vehicles for Reflection Today." My co-teacher, Georgia Kashnig, and the participants in the course have been teaching me so much about these poems, allowing me to come to them with completely new eyes, reactions, and appreciations.
What do you miss most about academic conferences this year? What do you miss least?
I miss seeing friends that I only get to see at conferences, sitting down with them, catching up with them over food and drink or taking a walk away from the conference venue. I doubt that Confucius had academic conferences in mind when he said; “To have friends coming from distant parts—does not this also mean pleasure in store?” But those pleasures are what I miss. I miss least the commotion that is always part of conferences.
AAR/SBL friends, we miss seeing you and hope for a brighter, safer 2021. Meanwhile, we will keep publishing books of enduring value with the attention to detail, the intelligence, and the ambition that you’ve come to expect from us. Check out our Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 publications.
