I am both asking for advice here, but also hoping for some insight on if I am over or under-concerned about how this is going to impact my career
I just got two papers rejected by the leading conference on my discipline. This is the third year in a row I was rejected. I have presented and chaired sessions at my subdiscipline’s national conference and regional conferences. But I can’t seem to crack this main conference. My research is a little bit niche and interdisciplinary (somewhere between queer studies, anthropology, and intellectual history, there are units for all three of those things, but not for all of them together), so it’s not always clear what unit to submit to. I haven’t read a call that seems directly related to what I am doing. Still, my advisor told me that that is typical and that you just have to revise your project to fit the parameters.
I can only submit two papers (or one paper to two units). Most of the other students in my cohort have presented at least once. Not only is this really disheartening and imposter syndrome triggering, but I’m really worried that without this conference on my CV, I’m doomed. I also can’t get funding to go if I am not presenting, and I am worried I am missing out on networking opportunities.
My advisor has told me that the subdiscipline conference is more important for me, but he still presents or chairs at this conference every year.
So am I doomed, or does anyone have any thoughts about what I am doing wrong or what I could do differently
Comments
This is too difficult to answer without knowing the specifics. I would suggest reading articles on ‘how to avoid reviewers’ axe’. In general, a paper is rejected because it is not interesting to the community. To know what is interesting, you need to understand what your community knows, and propose an interesting hypothesis. Your supervisor, if he/she is research active, should be able to bring you up to speed quickly or should be able to say whether an idea/hypothesis is interesting. Without this starting point, everything else after that is a waste of time.
I never got a paper into my discipline’s main conference during my PhD, but since I have finished I’ve presented at it every year. I don’t think it has had any impact on my career to date, especially because (like it sounds you are?) I presented at enough smaller conferences that were more specific to my research to network.
I think it feels like a much bigger deal when you are facing rejection after rejection (especially when your peers seem to have no issue, as was my case!) but I can confidently say now I don’t think it was a big deal at all.