NEASECS 2010:  Buffalo, New York, October 21-23

For me, a particular highlight of the 2010 Annual Meeting was the trip to Old Fort Niagara, a fortress originally constructed by the French in the seventeenth century as a trading post and stronghold in the territory of the Iroquois Confederacy.  The fort, which controlled access to the interior of North America as far as the Mississippi Valley, was fiercely attacked and defended before it was seized by British forces in 1759.  Those of us who toured the fort learned a great deal about both the strategic and the tactical aspects of the great war for empire.  Our exper­ience was made even more memorable by the fact that we were taken to the site in a Hummer stretch limousine.

Another highlight of the meeting was the sessions with four distin­guished scholars: Sarah Cohen, SUNY at Albany (Art History); Thomas DiPiero, University of Rochester (French Literature); Mary Beth Norton, Cornell University (History); and Jenny Davidson, Columbia University (English Literature).  More intimate than a large plenary, these sessions gave an extraordinary opportunity for genuine conversations with the scholars about their work in progress.

All members who attended the meeting applaud the work of Lisa Berglund and her organizing committee, which included members from Buffalo State University, SUNY at Buffalo, and Canesius College.