On we do like to be beside the seaside...

It is sometimes easy to forget what extraordinary events academic conferences can be. Ayako Yoshino, an English literature PhD. student at Cambridge University, remembers the first major conference she attended as an overwhelming experience. Fraternisation between sections is part of the point of the big conferences, and it makes some conferences more of a vital fixture on the academic calendar than others. For humanities academics, the Modern Language Association, is the major global conference of the year. Held just after Christmas, it is now seeking papers for its 2004 convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.