Poutine my best foot forward

I'm posting this on Friday, as it was $15 for internet access at the hotel in Montreal.

2 hours presenting, 1 hour meetings, 1 hour schmoozing, 6 hours travel, page count = 112

Well! That went about as well as could be expected. We had a pretty decent turnout for the panel on which I presented today. The thing I like about the Latin American Studies Association conference, as opposed to the American Political Science Association one I attended last week, is that it's so much more international. My panel was a great example of that: my fellow presenters were a German guy who studies Mexico, and a Venezuelan woman who studies in France. We spoke at least five languages between us, and brought the experiences of three quite different educational systems to bear. The German guy's paper was very complementary to mine, doing a really good job of situating the current role of the police in historical context. I learned a lot from it, and will want to stay in touch with him as our respective projects evolve. I got a good question from the audience that made me think about how I relate my project to the drug war currently going on, and that I need to be clear about how long the term is in "long-term effects" of the institutional design I examine. On one level, it's the mid-1960s, as things really started to change in Colombia at that time with urbanization, and later the drug war. Also the police system was altered significantly in that time period. On another level, there's a lot of continuity from my period to today: the local-level dynamic of stalemate, where no party can muster sufficient force to definitively defeat the other, persists....

I had a good meeting with a professor who studies Costa Rica, and knows a lot about historical sources. He had a great suggestion for materials I should look at: State Department files, which include not only biweekly briefings on local politics, but occasionally subject reports on topics like military reform. So that's a great tip. Also, he suggested that I focus on developing an original dataset out of the archival materials I study, whether it's State Department files or the ministerial reports. As someone who's parlayed a historical, single-country study into a successful political science career, his advice was extremely helpful for positioning my study for broader consumption in the field. Even though I'll continue my career in philanthropy, it would be good to publish an article or two out of my dissertation, and there's always the possibility of turning it into a book. But first, I need to find a job! :)

I ran into a couple of Berkeleyans at the conference and caught up with them. One is in a similar position, based in Boston and working to finish the diss at a distance. I'll be keeping in touch with him and hopefully exchanging drafts as the semester goes on. It's funny, because he quoted the title of this blog as a truism before I even mentioned that I had one or what it was called! True dat.

Finally - Montreal is fabulous! It was much cheaper to fly to Burlington, Vermont, and rent a car than to fly direct to Montreal, so I did that. The drive was about 1hr45min through beautiful countryside - rolling hills on a clear late summer's day. Southern Quebec is adorable - farm country with all kinds of interesting-looking roadfood destinations. For dinner, Cathy found a place for me called Au Pied du Cochon, featuring typical Quebecois dishes. It's apparently one of Anthony Bourdain's favorites, and I can see why: there's a whole section of the menu devoted to foie gras. I had a pork dish featuring sausage, blood sausage, and meltingly good pork shoulder over thyme-y mashed potatoes, all cooked together in a tiny enameled cast-iron pot - delicious - and poutine, a Quebecois specialty: fries covered in gravy and cheese curds. Hoo-boy! I'm sorry, Al Gore, but I only ate half, it was so much food. But scrumptious. A definite winner. It's located in the Mont-Royal neighborhood, which is adorable. I neglected to bring a map and tried to just wing it - I knew the restaurant was equidistant between the Mont-Royal and Sherbrooke metro stops, about three blocks north of the main drag connecting them - but I can't recall having been so pleasantly lost. I wandered through Mont-Royal for about an hour before tracking the place down, and in all that time passing shops and restaurants, I saw exactly one American chain. Everything was local, accessible, and funky. A real treat. I'll definitely be coming back with Cathy!