British Scholar

I attended and presented at my first scholarly conference this past weekend in Austin - The British Scholar Conference. It was a good experience overall. I didn't realize how big a deal it was until I got there. People had come from all over the U.S. and some had even come from England and Germany. Apparently, there's a running joke among historians in London that if you want to really study the British Empire, you have to go to Austin, TX.
That's funny.

I even got to hang out with some of the top historians in the world, including Linda Colley, a professor of history at Princeton - very cool lady. Apparently, the British have five levels of honor that can be placed upon citizens (the highest of which is knighthood). She holds a title just below knighthood, and it's called "Commander of the British Empire" (CBE). How cool would that be to sign your name that way - Brian Franklin, CBE. Forget the "Ph.D." - I command the British Empire! Incidentally, I convinced her that she absolutely had to try some Blue Bell ice cream at dinner Friday night. I'm pretty sure she was pleased.

I presented a paper on the work of British missionaries in America, during the American Revolution, asking whether their sending organization was more committed to the extension of the kingdom of God, or the empire and culture of Britain. I got some good feedback that will hopefully help me move toward submitting the article for publication. We'll see. If nothing else, I've got a line-item for my c.v. now.