Did you know from the outset what you were letting yourselves in for?
Julia: I’d say not particularly, at least not right from the start. The team was very much a hodgepodge of different people with an interest in comparative literature. Someone in the team had been to a previous congress and so at least knew what went on at one. And attending some other conferences in the department beforehand gave us a few insights into the organizational side. Seeing how things are run behind the scenes, all the planning you have to do and how much time that can take was very helpful.
How did the University support your work?
Julia: I think the biggest hurdle for most conferences is financial. In that respect, we were extremely fortunate because the SKK is already well established and we could draw on people’s experience. If you then go to the Universitätsgesellschaft [Universitätsgesellschaft Bonn e. V., the University of Bonn’s development association] and say “Hey, we need some money for this, we have loads and loads of students, there’ll be people coming from abroad,” then of course they’re happy to put up more money. I think we were OK financially. Things were tight, but it worked out really well in the end.
Simon: The room management team were also super nice. We made the “mistake” of arranging the congress over a public holiday, when the University’s catering team are off, of course, and you have to ask Security specially if they fancied doing a bit of overtime at all and wouldn’t mind awfully unlocking the University Main Building for us. Yes, so that was the biggest hurdle we had, I think. In principle, though, we had great support from the University too.
Would you help to organize another student conference in the future?
Simon: Yes, absolutely. Without hesitation. I’d say that, at least theoretically, we should also know what we could do more of next time round and what we should pay more attention to. All in all, they were three really good, intense days that were an extraordinary amount of fun and gave us a bunch of insights, and I’d have no reservations about tackling it all over again. We’re now taking care of the proceedings we’ll be publishing to accompany the congress. This means obtaining copies of papers, editing them and getting everything into shape for publication. This is something else that’s quite new for us students, as normally we’re writing term papers or sitting written exams. As far as we’re concerned, it’s a good learning experience for a career in academia further down the line.
Julia: Yes, I couldn’t agree more. It’s opened up so many new angles, not least for my own research and research interests. Networking is another extremely important thing to mention in this context. After all, when you’re a student you feel a bit like a small fish that’s simply being carried along on the current. And then to meet other people who are also highly motivated, who have some incredible ideas with massive academic potential—that’s really something that I think gives you a huge amount of motivation, including for your own studies, and gives you more hope for maybe having a future in academia. I’d say that, at the moment, it comes across as something fairly abstract for many of us, not least because of the many hurdles, barriers and obstacles that you need to get past in the process. Having your foot in the door, even just a few inches, means a lot.