nametags & academic culture

miami was, in case i haven't been clear, an academic conference.

several thousand Communication PhDs, grad students, teachers & scholars overtake a hotel and conspicuously consume and produce their collective disciplinary values.

textbook fairs are huge affairs with cake and champaign. big wine and cheese parties distinguish big schools from unimportant schools and people schmooze in desperate attempts to kick start their careers, stay relevant, or stay alive in the flow of the measured successes they've found.

But in all of it -- one artifact really intrigued me this year -- nametags.

we all wore them on our chests. and my friend thomas quickly noted the horrific practice of the nametag glance-and-dismiss.

the thing about the nametags this year was (other years too?) that the FIRST NAMES were big. really big. all caps and probably a fifty plus font size. Last names and affiliate institutions? 20 font. and small.

So that in order to see WHO a person is -- who they REALLY are (eg. what their last name is because that's what they publish with or where they teach because that's what designates how important they are on the academic food chain) you have to glance. The first name? no glance needed. its the first thing you see.

So the glance-and-dismiss is this sort of I'm-schmoozing-my-way-upward-in-this-world gesture that performs a persons social location in a really eloquent and (in my mind, for them) embarrassing way.

i talked about a performance piece that i was considering doing next year at the convention where i would modify my institutionally issued nametag after registry to read

ANDREW
rudd but does it
really matter? I haven't
published since grad school.

or

ANDREW
no last name and
youve never heard of my
community college

alas, i don't think i'll get to because there's suddenly an outcry on the disciplinary listserve where the upwardly mobile, status-seekers are complaining. how do we find out who legitimates us? who makes us real? important? who's worth talking to?

have you read You Are Special? the childrens book about the wemmicks and the stars and the dots? That's a great example of the nametag-glance. (i'll not mention the name of the author, in fear that he may pop up on my blogger banner above -- and in general, i'm as peeved as i can be that he and the greedy-hungry christianbookstoreindustry have sold this nice story up the river for a franchise opportunity......brands, brands, everywhere...)

i thought about posting a response on the listserve -- but really, what's the point? there's no way for the posters to save face. i'd be proclaiming the emporer to have no clothes on -- and they'd all feel naked for a year. But a year of nakedness might redeem them....

so i rant here instead.

its a strange world when a university is a brand name and a last name is a franchise...