From the Classroom to Germany

Hi there fellow Shakespearean Enthusiasts!

So, I am no longer in Dr. Burton's class, but he asked me if I would write a quick post about a really cool opportunity that has come my way as a result of the paper I wrote for his class last semester.



I am an English teaching major and so I decided to write my paper with from a pedagogical angle and titled it "A Rhetorical Approach to Teaching Shakespeare in Secondary Schools." As you know, part of the requirement for this paper was to submit it to an outside organization for publication. Well, this is awful, but to be perfectly honest I was a little irritated by this stipulation (sorry Dr. Burton!). In my mind this was just some extra hoop to jump through that would be fruitless and a giant waste of time, because seriously, who was going to listen to an undergrad? Here's where I get to eat some crow...

I begrudgingly scoured the internet for some organization that would take undergraduate submission having to do with rhetoric or Shakespeare or teaching. I am not going to lie, it took a little bit of effort. Dr. Burton suggested I Google 'Call for Papers' and put in some key words having to do with my subject. I eventually found that the Rhetoric Society of America was accepting papers having to do with Rhetoric for a conference they would be holding October 2013. I quickly put together an abstract and sent it off just in time for Christmas vacation to begin and I thought that would be the last time I ever looked at that paper again.

Well, in mid-January I received an e-mail from Dr. Norton Gutenberg from the University of Luxembourg in Munich, Germany congratulating me on being accepted to present my paper at their conference...in Munich, Germany. I WAS STOKED! Somebody thought my ideas were worth hearing. The only problem was that Munich is sooooo not close to Provo. So while I was proud of myself for getting accepted, I thought I would have to decline. However, I did decide to ask a couple of my professors if they thought there was funding for this kind of thing somewhere that I could use to finance my trip. They suggested a couple of things, but nothing too promising. Furthermore, I have an internship teaching at Timpview High School next year and I didn't know if they would even let me have time off. So I decided to ask Professor Crowe if it was even allowed for a student Intern to take off time to fly to Europe and present a paper.

Well, long story short he said it was okay to take off time for this and then happened to mention to the Dean that I was looking for a way to go to Germany. And then the Dean happened to talk to Ira Fulton (the guy who paid for the JFSB). And then the Dean invited me to meet with Brother Fulton who then agreed to finance my trip! I GET TO GO TO GERMANY!!!!!!!!

So a couple morals from this story:
1) Write on Something that Applies to a Field you are Interested In: If you make your paper applicable to a field that scholars are passionate about, you are much more likely to find a venue for your paper.
2) Networking: TALK TO PEOPLE ABOUT YOUR PAPER!!!! They may have ways to help you be successful in your publication.
3) Don't be Afraid to Ask: Even if you are 99.99% sure it is impossible, there is no harm in asking. The worst they can say is no.
4) Keep Editing: I presented my paper at the BYU Symposium and had to do a few edits to get the abstract right. A professional venue doesn't have time to correct your mistakes.


Good Luck and Happy Writing!

-Kasey Hammer