In April 2003, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) held its annual meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Theweek-long conference, housed in several major hotels, was attended by over 10,000 people. Among the thousandswere two of this chapter’s authors, scholars from Los Angeles who presented their research and participated in numerous conference events.On an early evening thatApril,we stood outside the entrance of a hotel enjoying thewindy chill and debating about taking a taxi to a conference event in another hotel. We decided to walk, agreeing that neither the distance separating the hotels nor the time it would take to traverse it was really an issue. After a few laughs about the fact that we actually contemplated taking a taxi, we walked

from one hotel to the other-a 15-minute stroll that included crossing a bridge over the Chicago River.