The end of the conference was . . . SQUEEEEEEEEEEE! Our last two meetings were Dorian Gray and De Profundis, and it was just incredible. I mean, I got to spend five weeks with people who are pretty much as geeky about Wilde as I am, and we all had different strengths and areas of expertise and were totally willing to share knowledge with each other instead of being competitive, and the project director and his "organic archive" of an incredible brain . . . this was the kind of group that spent 3 1/2 hours talking about just the first chapters of Dorian Gray and still felt like we were just scratching the surface!

I'm still looking into it because someone else may be working on something closely related, but I'm thinking of writing about those racist trade cards I posted about and looking into the intersection of racialist rhetoric and the American reception of Wilde as both an Irishman and a symbol of the British cultural elite being commoditized in the Aesthetic Movement.

I'm also hoping to do more work on transcribing one of the philosophy essays.

I'm totally excited about finally getting my eyes fixed, and I'm so glad I'm eligible. I'm severely nearsighted and constantly choosing between dry and irritated (contacts) or strain (glasses) is no fun. One of the stupid little things that has been really bugging me lately is how my glasses fog up every time I open the oven when I'm cooking. :p

Ahhahaha! I'm UCD, not TCD. (Or was. Apparently they don't want me there anymore, even to teach one measly hour a week. Grr. Yeah, yeah. I know the budget's been slashed again and they're prioritizing current students and I'm crap at networking and brownnosing, but I still don't have a job.) Absolutely put me in touch with her, because that's totally how I started. Study abroad and going back for an MA . . . :D