Academic Conferences as Nostalgia Tourism: A Regretful Polemic

Abstract

The original intent of this note, originally my paper for the 2021 Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), was to examine what it meant that I decided to attend this year’s conference based upon its location—Austin, Texas—primarily for reasons of nostalgia. Austin is where I spent eight years of my life: five and a half as a graduate student completing my doctorate, and two as an adjunct and lecturer at Texas State University. It is where I had my child, where I owned my first home. I wanted to think about what it meant that my primary connection to the 2021 conference was an affective relationship with the city over other concerns. I wanted to have breakfast tacos and see friends from grad school in the place where I met them. I recognize that this desire was to be able to experience the city and the conference while occupying a relatively privileged place: not as a resident or an apprentice scholar or a desperate job applicant, but essentially as a tourist.