List, I've been encouraged off-list to share at least some of the notes that I took while at the Peirce Centennial Congress at U. of Mass., Lowell, and on the journey that some of us took directly afterward to Milford, PA, the trip having the express purpose of placing a plaque commemorating the Congress on a wall inside Peirce's home, Arisbe. I had originally sent unedited versions of these notes to Ben Udell as I wrote them each evening, and a somewhat more finished version to Phyllis Chiasson once I returned, since both were unable to attend the Congress and yet were very interested in what transpired there.
As Cathy already noted, it would be impossible to comment on more than of fraction of the excellent paper presentations and plenary addresses which were given, so what you find below can only be a taste of this truly extraordinary event. To keep each post to a reasonable length, I have had to almost arbitrarily cut some material, including comments on talks I truly enjoyed and benefited from hearing. I'll present my journal notes, a very personal take on the conference, in three or four separate 'bite size' messages. *** Tuesday, July 15, travel day for most; for me this meant flying from NYC to Boston, taking a shuttle bus to the Boston subway, taking the subway (with an exchange) to North Station, and from there boarding the train on the commuter line to Lowell! Fortunately when I arrived, Bob Innis happened to be in the elevator that I was taking to ground transportation asked if I needed a ride. Bob is an absolutely terrific guy, down to earth, good humored, and friendly. (I need to read his book on Susanne Langer.) Everyone agrees that he did a terrific job in locally organizing for the Congress (and much else). The conference hotel was very attractive and right in the heart of town, next to a canal and river. The rooms were large and comfy, AC quite controllable, and internet access good. While I was taking a post-travel shower during a lightening/thunderstorm the electricity went out! I didn't know if my e-key would function and let me back into my room, but, after about 45 minutes or so at my computer I got curious, left my door wedged open, and went down to the lobby. It was a mini-party at the bar! I got a glass of wine and approached Vinicius Romanini who immediately thanked me for reading his paper a few years ago at the biosemiotics gathering at Roosevelt University in NYC. What a nice guy! He introduced me to Iris Fischer, a very personable and most interesting scholar (esp. theater semiotics), and Ken Ketner and his wife, Ruth. Ruth and I immediately hit it off as she is also a musician. Later in the conference I got a chance to talk with Ken about his articles on valency theory in Peirce. When the lights went back on Vinicius, then Ken & Ruth went up to their rooms since they hadn't yet been able to get into them because of the blackout. Iris and I and a few others stayed to chat for a bit longer. Wednesday, the opening day of the Congress: I registered (Jeff Downard was at the registration table--really fascinating guy whom I got to talk with at greater length later in the Congress) and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant with Mary Keeler, an interesting couple from Korea, and a Chinese scholar who gave each of us a Chinese dollar bill (I unfortunately don't recall my breakfast mates names). Breakfast was followed by an open forum with a panel on state of Peircean studies in various parts of the world, and the possible future role of the Peirce Society in furthering Peirce studies. I especially appreciated Cathy Legg's remarks which were brief and to the point. There was only a very little time left for discussion, but in the Q & A the first question included positive comments on Cathy & my *Transactions *special edition on Joe Ransdell, and a suggestion that university instructors direct their students to the Arisbe website. (After the Congress Miguel Fernandez wrote what he missed at the Congress "was a session devoted to Joe Ransdell and Arisbe in the 'Landmarks in Peirce Scholarship' presentations, although [Ken Ketner did his] best to give a hint of it at the Max Fisch's session"). I had lunch with John Sowa, Michael Shapiro, and others. Uta Priss and her husband, John, arrived as we were finishing up. Mary Keeler has arranged a workshop at Harvard after the Congress in consideration of digitizing the Peirce documents there. While Sowa and Uta & John were scheduled to attend that workshop, I was committed to the Milford, PA trip, so had to pass. Session A. It's quite frustrating to have 9-10 concurrent session venues with up to 4 presenters in each session. I--as did everyone--had to make some difficult choices as I very much wanted to hear Lee Smolins, Frederik Stjernfelt's, Andre de Tienne's, and Mats Bergman's presentations--all in different rooms! I went to Cathy's session out of loyalty to a very good friend (Cathy and I hung out in NYC the week before the Congress, took Ben out to dinner to celebrate his birthday, and she and I hung out in Washington Square Park, my roof deck, and the following day went to see a new musical, *Atomic*, with James) but, not at all surprisingly, it was an exceedingly good paper and well-delivered. I'm very glad I made that choice, and when in Milford I remarked to her that it was one of the very best session papers I'd heard delivered. At the break I met--in person for the first time--Nathan Houser, Gary Fuhrman, and Peter Skagestad--all uniquely interesting fellows to say the least! Gary and I attended a number of sessions together during the Congress. I hope that he and Eliseo Fernandez get a chance to converse as they have some complementary ideas concerning Peirce and biosemiotics [they did, and may be collaborating on a project in the future]. Session B: Again, tough choices. I considered going to sessions with Giovanni Maddelena, James Wible, David Pfeifer, and Shannon Dea as presenters--all in different rooms, of course. I decided on Cornelis de Waal's and Mark Migotti's session. Both papers were quite good with valuable Q & A's following. Afterwards I spoke with Rosa Mayorga. Her father was quite ill so that she won't be able to go to Milford, PA.. This is especially sad as she did so much work organizing the post-Congress trip [as it turns out, she had to leave the Congress itself]. Both Susan Haack's and Doug Anderson's plenary addresses were excellent, but it would be impossible to give even a smidgen of their contents. They also were terrific in the Q&A's. That ability to thoughtfully and effectively "think on ones feet" always suggests to me that the person in question has an extraordinary grasp of her subject matter, and both clearly do. After Susan's talk, Mats Berman and I discussed a collaborative initiative (IUPUI, Arisbe, and Commens) relating to Peirce's books having annotations/marginalia [I later discussed it briefly with Nathan, and after the Congress Mats sent out an excellent proposal which everyone seems happy with]. The day concluded with a wine and cheese reception where I mainly hung out with Cathy, Soren Brier, Uta & John, and Eliseo Fernandez, one of the people I most respect in the world, as scholar and person (I'd first met him at the biosemiotics conference when it was in NYC a few years ago). Sadly, his brother had died a little over a week ago and, shockingly, his sister-in-law died just that day. I talked a bit also with Mark Migotti while waiting in line to get some snacksm tgeb with Mats and Sami Paavola over a glass of wine. Cathy introduced me to Josh Black, a former student of hers from New Zealand who is now doing graduate work at Sheffield University with Chris Hookway. Josh, a very intelligent young man, will be traveling to Arisbe with us. Cathy asked me to join a group of folk going to a Japanese restaurant for dinner she'd discovered it the night before, but I'd had "a day and a half" already, so I declined. So, in sum: an excellent day--extraordinary people and exciting new ideas.
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