Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
...
Thenne longen folk to goon to conferences...

(apologies to Chaucer and David Lodge)

Yes its conference time again.
There are so many to go to.

Firstly there is AERA in San Francisco and yes, I will be there.
There is a great Material Culture conference in London in May.
I am keen to go to Leeds in June for the narrratives of migration symposium.
Then there is UKLA which this year is in Nottingham, and BERA, which is in Warwick this year, not mention BAAL over in Ireland but clashing with BERA.
Then Winter sets in, but even then we are busy, as there is a great Domesticity conference in Sheffield I have just sent an abstract in to.

You might think that academics' lives are nothing but glamorous foreign travel, in which case you might have a point, but there must also be a serious and important reason for attending all these events, leaving one's children and living a life of total lack of domesticity and intense intellectual stimulation.

I would love to know it and then I can explain it to my family.