betajames

My most recent scholarly activities involve the submission of a chapter proposal for Rhetoric/Composition/Play, an edited collection designed for academics new and well-versed about videogames and consisting of essays assessing, theorizing and contextualizing the medium. As editors Matthew S.S. Johnson, Rebecca Colby and Richard Colby appeared to be asking for my dissertation word-for-word, I revisited the manuscript to answer, culling some of the strongest pieces for a chapter proposal entitled "Techne as Acquisition of Literacy in Composition and Videogames." An exercise in reflection and recognition of past and present perspectives of the relationship between technology and society, my chapter submission illustrates and emphasizes the importance of exploring connections between techne, phronesis, episteme and ethos as a means of understanding composition pedagogy and videogames. All this happens in the service of making more obvious the aesthetic and technical elements of the communicative technologies that students use to make meaning.

I think it important to mention that putting together this particular document served as something of a wake-up call. That the editors of this intended essay collection put together such a call for papers is further proof that the focus of my dissertation is an increasing area of interest for many. It is with this in mind that I seek to revise and update my manuscript during the summer of 2010 with the intent to publish in full. I do, however, have some other scholarly work to attend to first.

In May 2009, I submitted a chapter proposal for Network Apocalypse: Visions of the End in an Age of Internet Media, an edited collection focusing on how communicative and entertainment technologies influence belief systems about the end of human history. I proposed a chapter for inclusion concerning Fallout 3, a videogame that offers a provocative perspective on a particular post-apocalyptic scenario and reveals the sustained prevalence of war. Though on a scale more personal than political, more intimate than global, war in this videogame focuses on simple survival and associated moral choices. With individual morality and survival at the forefront, the game provides players a vehicle for exploring the nature of humanity through the powerful cultural lens of a prophetic apocalyptic version that presents itself as secular but pushes its players to engage questions often associated with the religious.

Given the focus of the collection as well as the intent behind my initial proposal, I was rather confident about acceptance, which proved true months later. In addition to service and teaching responsibilities, I spent much of the Fall 2009 semester writing the chapter, entitled "'We All Stray From Our Paths Sometimes': Morality and Survival in Fallout 3." A substantial portion of my dissertation focused on videogames, specifically how they relate to composition pedagogy, and I think my chapter for this collection is not only an extension of that work but also representative of the interdisciplinary possibilities offered in videogame studies. Having received revision suggestions from editor Rob Howard on February 10, 2010, I look forward to revisiting my chapter in light of his commentary.

Also in May 2009, I worked with fellow English department faculty Dr. Jacob Blumner and Dr. Stephanie Roach in crafting a proposal for the 2010 Conference on College Composition and Communication Annual Convention. With an aim to examine some of the important features of field knowledge and how to bring those important rhetorical values to bear in the classroom, Jacob, Stephanie and I put together individual proposals revealing of particular strengths. Inspired by an assignment sequence prevalent in first-year and advanced composition taught at UM-Flint, I endeavored to provide perspective on the commitment to 21st century literacies when having students engage with ideas in texts. This proposal complemented Dr. Blumner's proposed talk about the addition of speaking services to a writing center as well as Dr. Roach's planned presentation on addressing of plagiarism as a rhetorical problem.  While our collective proposal was ultimately rejected, I found the overall experience of working with colleagues to be pleasant and refreshing. Overall, it was a good opportunity to further develop professional relationships with two faculty members I admire and respect.

A still-current example of my professional development and creative work lies within The Scholarship of Teaching, which reprinted my chapter, "The Personal As Public," from The Computer Culture Reader, a collection of essays edited by Joseph Chaney, Judd Ruggill and Ken McAllister. I should note that while I listed it as "forthcoming" on my CV last year, the collection is now available from Cambridge Scholars Press. I produced this essay while completing doctoral work at Bowling Green State University, but I mention this particular publication because delays plagued the overall project, causing my biographical information to be out-of-date. At the request of Judd Ruggill, I provided an update and made sure to include my position as Assistant Professor of English at UM-Flint. So, rather than shining positive light on where I earned my doctorate, The Computer Culture Reader now illuminates our university. 

Because of my diverse research interests in composition, pedagogy, technology and videogames, it is essential to remain current. Offline methods include memberships to MLA and NCTE and reading their respective publications, PMLA and College Composition and Communication. I also subscribe to pertinent mailing lists, including WPA-L and TechRhet, and plan to attend the 2010 Conference on College Composition and Communication Annual Convention as well as Computers and Writing 2010: "Virtual Worlds" @ Purdue University. Where I feel most in research alignment and enlightenment, though, is online. 

In keeping active accounts on Delicious, Posterous, Scribd and Twitter, I not only make scholarly activities accessible and public, but I also follow those with similar interests and keep abreast of new developments in fields of particular interest. Interaction via these communicative technologies is somewhat akin to my WPA and TechRhet listserve subscriptions, but in ways more accessible, open and public. Through such social media tools, I show the kinds of academic work performed on a daily, weekly and monthly basis as well as the fruits of those labors. Functioning as a model of sound academic research online, Delicious, Posterous, Scribd and Twitter also work together as a performance of public intellectualism, though each has a specific use.

• I store all online information relevant to my interests on Delicious, a social bookmarking site that allows for the maintenance of a reverse-chronological record of online research. Through the application of tags like "pedagogy," "rhetoric" and "videogames" to relevant articles and other links, I'm able to keep track of the most recent developments in these areas of scholarship. 

• Posterous, a simplified blogging service, functions as a vehicle for working through ideas in a public format and recording the directions my research interests take. It is also in this space that I documented the drafting of my chapter for Network Apocalypse. 

• Scribd is an online repository for all I consider to be academic work, including assignments and syllabi for past and present courses as well as my dissertation and other essays approved for publication. Similar to Youtube in that anyone can post any text-based document, Scribd can also function as a kind of alternate curriculum vitae; this is how I use it, to provide tangible evidence of my academic output.

• Twitter, a social networking service, provides a way to announce as well as brainstorm new work. There's an implicit encouragement to Twitter in finding community with others; it also functions as a launching pad to the other online spaces mentioned here. Conversations via Twitter continue to have a direct influence on my future scholarship.

As a way to better illustrate scholarly activities related to the above online technologies, I offer the following anecdote: One of the many academics I follow on Twitter recently posted a link to an article about how the post-apocalyptic genre is similar to that of the Western. After reading the article, I bookmarked and tagged it via Delicious and discussed particulars of the article via Twitter. Inspired and intrigued, I later composed a new blog entry on Posterous about the article and the online discussion that followed. And I think it quite possible that entry will form part of a longer academic piece, one to be posted on Scribd with the approval of some future editor. Again, these are the kinds of scholarly activities in which I engage almost every day. I think it vital to remain informed of burgeoning ideas and the latest research on topics of importance and interest. These online communicative technologies help me do that. 

I maintain a strong presence online not only to provide a public document of my scholarly activities but to also maintain a network with interested colleagues at UM-FLint and across the nation. Such networking involves discussion of important issues within our respective fields of interest as well as the sharing of important and/or provocative links. The majority of what I share comes from one of the scores of academic blogs and online news outlets I peruse every day via Google Reader.

These online activities are also important academic work because, like my chapters in The Computer Culture Reader and Network Apocalypse, I put forth an identity representing UM-Flint as well as myself. How I present who I am and engage with others online says volumes about me, but it also reveals something about the university. In other words, I'm an online representative of the English department at the University of Michigan-Flint. I remain mindful of this in every online action I take. 

In reading James Fallows' "How American Can Rise Again," the cover story in the Atlantic (print edition), a particular passage got me thinking again about the recent rise of post-apocalyptic tales across various media. Fallows paraphrases Rick Perlstein, writing of "the relative shortage of a jeremiad theme under Presidents Clinton, George W. Bush, and now Obama." Perlstein attributes this to Reagan, who equated criticism with anti-Americanism. If we look at the best-seller lists in the 1960's and 1970's, though, there were countless "doom-and-gloom books."

With a majority of politicians no longer performing their patriotic duty in telling us that America's gone to hell, that our collective future's bleak, perhaps popular culture's picking up the slack?

Ashley always falls asleep in a regular, curled-up position. The deeper her sleep, the more she uncurls. Above is the latest documentation of this fact.

Before I made Posterous my new home, an intermittent feature of my Blogger blog was "Delicious Every Other Day" (DEOD). Information flows are quite fast these days and this feature was an attempt to organize and summarize articles and links shared via Twitter and added to Delicious in the last 48 hours. By providing a choice quote and/or summary statement, DEOD was a way to not only revisit important ideas but also maintain an additional public record of research interests. This was quite similar to "Clipped," what old friend and colleague Tim Lepczyk offers on occasion at Digital Dunes. 

I thought DEOD would streamline quite well with sharing features in Posterous. Instead, I still struggle to strike a balance between sharing links via bit.ly and providing choice quotes via Posterous. The former are much more likely to get a "retweet," while the latter are more likely to get page views. There is minimal effort involved, so I'd like to keep up with both. I miss the opportunities presented by DEOD, though. I also feel like I'm doing a disservice to those friends and colleagues (if any) who followed my link-sharing after I deactivated my Facebook account. 

So, as the title of this post suggests, I want to introduce a new feature, "What You Might Have Missed" (WYMHM). At least every other evening, I'll be reposting links and/or quotes shared via Twitter over the last 48 hours. I look forward to providing the very first of these tomorrow night.