I have just submitted my report on a very valuable experience supervising Emliy Ballantyne as my research assistant in the Digital Page project, so I thought it might be appropriate to say a few words about thoughts and feelings that arose as I was doing so.
I have been involved in textual editing for about 30 years now, and there is no doubt in my mind that the project I am currently involved in, a digital edition of the Collected Works of P.K. Page, is the most exciting of my career, to a large extend owing to the support of EMiC. EMiC has, of course, provided much desired funding for the project — the RAship is a case in point — but much more important is the sense of community it has fostered, through institutes, conferences, this web site, and also by generating an exciting buzz in the world of scholarly editing in Canada that has simply not been there before. At Trent we are particularly fortunate to have several faculty members involved in editing various volumes of the Collected Works as well as a group of outstanding students enrolled in our Public Texts MA program and a recently announced SSHRC postdoc — congratulations to Michele Rackham! The lonely task of the textual editor has never seemed less lonely. I have been particularly inspired and moved by the many gifted and accomplished young people who have been attending DEMiC in Victoria and TEMiC in Trent, as well as the recent conference on Editorial Problems in Toronto, and it has been a real privilege to have been involved in teaching TEMiC along with Dean. When EMiC has run its course, part of its legacy, I am sure, will be a body of texts edited to the highest possible scholarly standards. But equally important will be a community of scholars at all stages of development who will have done great work together and will continue to do and to inspire great work in the future. Sorry if this comes across as a gush, but it is a gush from the heart. In future blogs I will be much more technological and theoretical and philosophical, but I did want to testify to how important EMiC has been to me.
Thank you for these lovely sentiments, Zailig, which I second wholeheartedly. I have enjoyed so many things about my participation in EMiC — particularly the unprecedented learning opportunities in areas outside my normal area of research and chances for travel — but more than anything I have valued the connections I’ve made with remarkable graduate students and the most generous of faculty. For someone who used to loathe “group work,” I’m surprised to find myself so thoroughly delighted by collaboration.