Mark D. White

Well, another Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) conference has come and gone. This was definitely one of my more hectic conference experiences, but that comes from someone who normally takes these things very easy; I'm sure (in fact, I know) many people have much more intense conferences on a regular basis. (I don't know how they do it, honestly.) 

Here's a snapshot of my weekend in the Windy City:

• Thursday night I enjoyed a walking tour and Vietnamese lunch with a great Chicago friend, who also joined me for the opening plenary and reception for the Association for Social Economics (ASE).
• Friday I gave a presentation on Kant and corporate social responsibility at an 8:00 session, a presentation on Kantian judgment and virtue theory at a 12:30 session, chaired a session on the state of Chicago School economics after the downturn at 2:30, an ASE membership meeting from 4:45 until 7:00 (at which I was pronounced–rather, anointed!–vice president), and then dinner with my good friend, ASE president-elect, and Economics and Ethics co-blogger Jonathan Wight. Whew!
• Saturday started with the ASE presidential breakfast at 7:45, followed by a meeting with my new editor at Palgrave at 11:00 to discuss my Perspectives from Social Economics series (and my next book in it), and then a meeting of the new editorial board for the Forum for Social Economics (one of the ASE journals) and its new publisher Taylor & Francis. And then I finally got to Jazz Record Mart (usually my first stop in Chicago!), After Words (a used book store), and a great Thai dinner–all on the same block!
• Sunday began fantastically (after writing a new Psychology Today post) with a breakfast meeting with my Stanford editor (and good friend), during which one book project mysteriously became two; then a quick meeting with an editor (the editor, I should say) at Oxford to pitch an edited volume (in which he was very interested); followed by lunch with an old friend (also, incidentally, an editor); and one final meeting with an editor from Routledge.

I'm very happy to say these meetings have reinvigorated me. I realize it should be enough to be excited myself about what I'm doing, but it really helps to hear that other people are excited about it (and supportive of it) as well. The reception of my two presentations was very good, and all my proposals for book projects were encouraged by their respective editors. Of course, the real work remains to be done–and that's the point at which I normally lose motivation–but I think I can carry this newfound excitement into the work process itself.