11/10/2025
Hey folks! From the people who brought you The Introvert’s Guide to ASC, we present The Introvert’s Guide to ASC (Taylor’s version)
You guys. It’s almost time for the American Society of Criminology (ASC) Annual Meeting. The Super Bowl of Criminology but less expensive and with the Hot Spots instead of Bad Bunny for entertainment. This means it’s time for you to start working on two things: your presentation and your strategy for spending four days surrounded by people.
If you’re like many of us, you didn’t exactly get into criminology because you LOVE talking to people SO MUCH!!! Understanding this, we at ACE! have put together The Introvert’s ASC Survival Guide (Taylor’s version).
1. Read the program in advance. ASC has an overwhelming number of talks, and you only have so much energy, so try to decide in advance which sessions you’ll attend. Read the abstracts, and come armed with ways to contribute to the discussion. Don’t attempt to do this for every session, though. It’s not like all your other work disappears for ASC.
2. Prepare an elevator speech because you will literally meet people in elevators. “My name is Jane McPrisonscholar, and I am in my third year at GMU. My areas of specialization are x and y, and I hope to focus on xx for my dissertation. Tomorrow I am giving a talk on xy. How about you?”
3. Your smartphone is your BFF. Once upon a time, before smartphones, we introverts had to make pretend calls to get out of between-session small talk. Now we can happily check calendars and VERY IMPORTANT EMAILS instead.
4. If you’re lucky, your presentation will be early in the conference because this means 1. You get it over with; 2. There’s a better chance of people attending it; and 3. You can give people a reason to approach you instead of vice versa.
5. Fitness. If forced socializing is not your bag, plead exercise and take at least one night off for Soul Cycle, running by the monuments, or whatever your fitness thing is.
6. If #5 doesn’t work (“oh look who suddenly developed an interest in running, what convenient timing!”), may we suggest a fake cousin or two. Hey, wouldn’t it be weird if they moved to Chicago next November?
7. Attend business meetings. It's a good way to try to mingle a bit without having to be too social (much of it is a meeting...where you're just listening). And, you can sign up for committees which will give you an opportunity to participate but likely just via email or phone at a later date, not in person.
8. Attend the poster session. You get free wine, which may or may not help you overcome some of your anxiety, and is a good way to walk around and check out the latest research without having to engage much.
9. Check out the book exhibit. Another great place to pick up freebies, peruse cool new books and only talk to folks, if you want to. There is no expectation here, you can be "just looking."
10. Look, the extroverts are not your enemy. And some of them have transitioned to working from home since COVID and they’re so very eager for human interaction. We need to make ASC a safe space for both groups, but we don’t need to engage them endlessly. When you’re ready to end the convo, what can you be realllly boring about? Pictures of your dog? The last meal you ate? That guy on your flight who didn’t use headphones? Your 8th grade field trip to DC?
11. When all else fails, set alarms on your phone that will go off during breaks. Dashing off after hearing an alarm requires no explanation. Of course, you have to keep resetting according to when the breaks take place. Wait, did we just invent a great new app?
12. We're begging you, stand to the right and walk on the left.
P.S. Meeting Chair TaLisa Carter works with ACE! and is awesome, so if you see her, give a little wave. That’s all, she’ll know.
