Talk:Gerald Richard Lucas
From 2008
Dr. Gerald R. Lucas joined the faculty of Macon State College in the fall of 2002. He successfully defended his dissertation on October 19, 2001 and graduated from the University of South Florida on May 4, 2002. His dissertation, "The Coding of Posthumanism," examines various cultural texts and their authors' illustration of how humanity will move from the transhuman into the posthuman, taking with it its conceptions of the human based on biological characteristics, but not letting embodiment limit its articulation. Read the abstract, in PDF form.
Lately, Jerry's teaching interests have been centered around digital media, from Technology and the Creative Artist; to online and hybrid sections of World Literature and Freshman Composition; to the senior seminar in New Media. For a complete list of courses I offer, see my course listing on LitMUSE.
Jerry's literary interests are eclectic: his official specialty is 20th-century British and American Literature, but his interests span many other spatial and temporal borders. He has done work on the continued relevance of the epic genre; the last two centuries of Russian literature; Latin-American fictions; images of women in literature and feminist theory; Renaissance aesthetic, political, and scientific contributions to modern thought; science fiction and cyberpunk; and cyber- and posthuman theory and literature.
In the spring of 1999, Jerry founded the text-based virtual reality LitMUSE that grew to a community of over 100 active members. This environment, based on a MOO, challenges notions of textuality, both reading and writing, that computers have prompted us to question and to reevaluate. Questions, too, about human interaction and humanistic myths of community are also implicitly addressed on the MOO. This site has since transformed into a courseware blog to facilitate Dr. Lucas' teaching.
Almost all aspects of computers fascinate Jerry. He prefers the Macintosh for his everyday use and maintained a Linux server for LitMUSE (now an Xserve). While competent in Windows, political and pragmatic reasons keep Wintel well outside. He is also an accomplished Web designer, practicing hand-written HTML, CSS, Flash, PHP, and subtle Java Script. In addition to running LitMUSE and its server, Jerry served as Head Coordinator for the USF Department of English Computers and Writing Program, Technical Support Specialist for the Faculty and Staff of the English Department, and currently works as Web Master and go-to tech resource for the Division of Humanities.
