Visiting an academic program of interest

July 27, 2023 8:48 AM

In August, I am going to be visiting a friend who lives in a town that is home to a Big 10 University. This school's English department hosts the digital archive of a writer I am particularly interested in, both as a reader and, in the past, a scholar. I would love, if possible, to talk to one of the faculty members who oversees this archive. How should I approach this?

This feels like an odd desire—why am I so excited to visit the town where a completely online scholarly archive I use all the time is hosted? It's online. But if the faculty members who maintain and expand the archive are in town during my visit, I'd love to have a chance to talk with one of them about their work and about the archive.

There is a small chance I will be a graduate student in this program in a couple of years, but this doesn't feel like it's about networking for that. I just want to meet them, hear about their work, chat about this writer a bit, and gush (in a dignified way) about how much I love the archive and how often I use it.

Help me think about how to ask for this, and, perhaps more importantly, how to think about such a meeting, if it occurs. How do I prepare for it? How do I come in with a better agenda than, "Your archive, so cool, wowsa, so cool."

Thanks for any thoughts!

posted by Well I never to Education (10 answers total)

Reach out to the library and the department secretary to see who is responsible for the collection. Someone will want to show it off!
posted by wenestvedt at 8:52 AM on July 27, 2023 [6 favorites]

I just want to meet them, hear about their work, chat about this writer a bit, and gush (in a dignified way) about how much I love the archive and how often I use it.

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Dear [archivist],

I consider [writer] to be extremely important and I've found your archive to be an invaluable resource.

I will be in [city] on [dates] and am wondering if you would be available for a brief chat about [writer] and about how you curate the archive. I find the whole process fascinating and I'd love to learn about it directly from its creator.

Regards,

Well I never

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If they can resist the urge to show off their creation they are a better person than me.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:28 AM on July 27, 2023 [12 favorites]

Yes, I agree, go ahead and email! Just realize that depending when you arrive in August, it will either still be summer vacation or first week of classes, so it's possible any faculty involved might not be available- don't take it personally if that's the case.
posted by coffeecat at 9:43 AM on July 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

I would just say that you've used and enjoyed the online archive frequently, and since you were in town you'd like to stop by as a kind of pilgrimage. Assuming you've done so, you might mention having read the faculty member's research about this writer.

How do I come in with a better agenda than, "Your archive, so cool, wowsa, so cool."

Do you actually need a better agenda than that? Or are you just worried that the people you'll meet will dismiss you as a fanboy? Because that's pretty much the agenda I'd go in with. People understand the desire to be physical proximate to things you feel an intellectual affinity for, especially if it's a fairly niche subject that doesn't attract a lot of attention outside the academy.
posted by kevinbelt at 10:14 AM on July 27, 2023 [7 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks! This was helpful and encouraging.
posted by Well I never at 11:00 AM on July 27, 2023

Repeating that you should just reach out!! I did this when I was 18 months from grad school and visited a program I thought I'd never in a million years get into.

Met a couple professors and chatted about the work. Was accepted! Had an amazing and wonderful year.

Do it!! Good luck
posted by dazedandconfused at 11:52 AM on July 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Just a note that the online archive in question may or may not be "overseen" by a faculty member...without knowing the work and writer specifically, it would be extremely unusual for an English department to host a digital archive. It would be much more likely for the university library or archives to do so, or possibly a departmental library. The exception would be if the online resource is very old in Internet Time, and the faculty member in question has control of it for legacy reasons (and even THEN it's more likely that the oversight/hosting is done by a central university IT group).

That isn't to say that there's not a faculty member that drives it, or that has some ownership of it intellectually. Just saying that your assumptions about its provenance might be misplaced, and it's worth verifying to make sure you're contacting the right person.
posted by griffey at 1:40 PM on July 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

Another idea is to email the Communications/PR office. I worked in one and we sometimes got questions get like this -- and we always tried to help people find the right person to ask.
posted by Lescha at 2:07 PM on July 27, 2023

If you poke around the digital collection, you will likely find information on who created and possibly maintains it. It's also possible it was someone's passion project and they are no longer involved, but the university still host the collection online. Is it an actively updated resource? Because sometimes these things are created and not actively maintained.

If you can't figure out who to contact, feel free to email me, and I can help out.
posted by bluedaisy at 2:14 PM on July 27, 2023

Yes, email! and if you don't get a response, try another person. Academics tend to be busy.
posted by bluesky43 at 2:35 PM on July 27, 2023