Well, today I’m off to Oxford. I’m attending the XVII. International Conference on Patristic Studies, where I’ll be giving a paper on Tuesday morning about Basil’s exegetical practice in Against Eunomius, very specifically on Acts 2:36 and how this interacts with other authors and Basil’s broader hermeneutical methods. Or something like that.
This conference only happens once every four years, I guess that makes it the Olympics of Patristic conferences. It will be my first time there and I’m looking forward to it, though I admit to being a little intimidated by the sheer size of the conference and the caliber of people who will be there. Presenting first up on the first day doesn’t help, except in the knowledge that it will be over and done with quite quickly!
I’m looking forward to visiting a friend of mine and staying with him during the week. I think I’m looking forward to presenting, though taming my presentation into a sharp 15 minutes that still has meaningful content is proving… unruly. I’ll get there though.
I presented at a conference earlier this year where I was in the first time slot. My audience was the moderator, my fiance, and the other presenter in the session. I can only hope you have a better turnout than I did. 🙂