The Academia I Almost Wrote:
Way back in the day, I was in grad school. Then I ran screaming out of the ivory tower for a host of reasons, not the least of which was I was (a) not brain-old enough to get a handle on what needed to be done in grad school and (b) I wanted to study contemporary literature (read: romances) and went to a school that had a marked specialty in dead white Victorian men (I know, what university doesn't?).
I passed my language comps and was AB-T. All But Thesis. Lame, I know. I'm like an Almost-MA. AMA.
But there are a few unfinished academic projects I wish I had the time and the letters after my name to properly complete.
First: my thesis. I was way into composition (until I saw the stacks of essays to grade stretching way into my future like an unending road paved with 8.5 by 11 paper) and was happily immersed in rhetoric and comp studies. My thesis would have been a lot of fun. Drawing from my experience teaching students with varying types of learning disabilities, I posited that instant messenger and email, and now Twitter, txt msgs, and the like, allow students with severe writing blocks the ability to transcribe their thoughts into fluid text because typing != writing, and screen text, since it is dynamic and fluid, did not equal writing to their eyes, and their brains. Part study, part explanation of teaching techniques, and part "OMG did you read that book by Ong - that man would have had the BEST Twitters," I planned to keep up with the topic through my MA thesis and into my PhD work. I was and am convinced that the way technology redefines and shakes up concepts of gender, society, and literacy forces those of us who type faster than we hand write, and possibly faster than we speak, to examine how technology changes what and how we write - and how new technology can be used to teach writing and formal essay structure (the foundation of college composition, hey hey hey) to students for whom writing is a complete and nearly impossible challenge.
Did I mention I think Ong rocked like a vandal in a rocking chair? Dude. Love Ong. And this graphic novel I have of Derrida's "Of Grammatology."
Second: Application of major feminist theories and concepts on romance novels: a romance novel guide to fem lit crit (and queer lit crit, and lit crit, and lit crit II: Electric Bugaloo). I had this vision of taking major concepts in feminist literary criticism (the Sedgwick triangle, etc) and finding examples within romance novels as illustrative and subversive manifestations of the examined theory, or in some cases, examples that provide the undermining of that theory.
Then I ran screaming out of academia and started working for The Man, founded a blog, and the rest is recent history. Maybe someday I'll get an honorary PhD. In Awesomeness.
a romance novel guide to fem lit crit [...]. I had this vision of taking major concepts in feminist literary criticism (the Sedgwick triangle, etc) and finding examples within romance novels as illustrative and subversive manifestations of the examined theory, or in some cases, examples that provide the undermining of that theory.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could write this as a sequel to the Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels?
On the subject of your thesis, my son is developmentally screwy, we don't have a diagnosis. Most of his problems seem to be neurological, he can't speak even though his voice works and his hearing's fine and he has fine motor skill problems meaning very poor writing and sign language is iffy.
ReplyDeleteSo with all these communication difficulties you'd think we were screwed right? Wrong, the boy can freakin read on some weird level we haven't been able to test him at, so he's now learning to type and communicate with others through the computer (which he's handy with).
I really wish more studies and research on computer technology as a tool in communication and writing would be put into the field because it is seriously lacking.
Aha...there ARE more of us out there! I was happily getting my PhD in Rhet-Comp, too, between reading romance novels, mysteries, fantasies...all the genre novels I could scarf down. I wrote my Masters thesis on how modes of information transfer and communication change our view of the "self" and individualism. I've got an MA in English and another in Ed, and I was planning on spending the rest of my life happily constructing electronic textbooks for high school.
ReplyDeleteOf course, that was before a seizure disorder got in the way of my degree and derailed my plans. Still, I occasionally think of trying to propose the piece I had planned for my dissertation to an educational publisher.
I am ALSO in the club! I'm ABD in theatre history, with a specialty in cross-gender performance (the unfinished dissertation was on actresses playing male roles in Shakespeare in the 19th century). I drifted away, rather than running screaming -- four kids, full-time teaching job, and no support or encouragement for me to actually finish the degree. I'll never finish the text, but at least I have a great collection of pictures. Maybe an article, someday.
ReplyDelete