February 26, 2021

Advertisements for Myself, 2021

“ It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing. ” — Steve Jobs, Keynote Address, March 2011

My role at Middle Georgia State University has always been a bit ambiguous. Yes, I was hired as a tenure-track faculty member in the Division of Humanities at the former Macon State College in 2002, but as the institution grew and changed, my identity remained in the interstices even if my practical responsibilities were clear. As an Assistant Professor, then Associate, and finally a full Professor, I maintained my teaching, scholarship, and service duties, but has only been post-tenure that my vision as a scholar has come into focus.

My scholarly interests lie in a liminal space between English and Media Studies, or between the content and the containers of the liberal arts. My Ph.D. work and passion lies in traditional literary studies, but since coming to middle Georgia, I have grown increasingly aware of the technologies that define and shape what we call art, culture, knowledge. If I were pressed to name to my professional identity, I might choose Digital Humanist—a hacker scholar whose interests seek ways of using the computer to reconsider the past as we look toward the future of liberal arts in higher education. My work over the last five years exemplifies this new focus.

One of the tenets of the liberal arts education that has always resonated with me is its goal of creating a critical and engaged citizenry. The idea of employing one’s knowledge and enthusiasm in order to positively influence one’s communities is not only the at the foundation of democracy, but also at the heart of my professional endeavors. Networked technologies offer such promise in helping us realize this goal, only if we can avoid the increasingly obvious dangers of what Donna Haraway called the “infomatics of domination”: the isolating echo chambers or pulpits for want-to-be autocrats that tend to rouse our baser instincts. Technology must be embraced in a way that allows for a democratic and open participation in building community knowledge and institutions that supports a community’s continued health and growth.

Much of my professional life over the last few years has revolved around what is arguably the most enduring, successful, and well used digital humanities project ever undertaken: Wikipedia. I became a Wikipedian over a decade ago, but only recently I discovered its usefulness in supporting my work as an educator and scholar. In recent years I have authored, co-authored, or significantly improved at least a dozen articles, mostly centered on the life and work of Norman Mailer. Some of these articles are original, some began as student projects, and some were stubs that needed expansion. The first article I authored is “The Man Who Studied Yoga.” I found that writing a Wikipedia article is much like doing the preliminary research for a major project, like a dissertation: I tried to uncover everything that had been written on this short story, read it, and synthesize it into a coherent, well supported encyclopedia article. One of the foundational rules of writing for Wikipedia is “no original research,” by which they mean no new interpretative or analytical content, but an overview of the scholarly conversation, or secondary sources, that have already been published. I find the process an excellent way to begin a paper for publication: I have to do research first, why not let others benefit from that work. Likely, more people will be familiar with my Wikipedia contributions than will ever benefit from my journal publications. Since “Yoga,” I have, most notably, (re)written articles on Norman Mailer (still in-progress), “The Time of Her Time”, An American Dream, The Norman Mailer Society, The Mailer Review, and “Superman Comes to the Supermarket” (with Society colleague Jason Mosser).

Several years ago, I created a new class for graduate studies, NMAC 5108 Writing and Publishing in Digital Environments, which would later go on to become a key component of the MGA’s Master of Arts degree in Technical and Professional Writing. I designed this course with Wikipedia in mind: it would allow students pursuing an advanced, professional degree to complete real-world projects that teach them skills for writing on digital platforms in support of knowledge-building communities. Writing original Wikipedia articles seemed a perfect fit for a graduate-level writing course, and indeed, my students excelled. Last spring, for example, they collectively wrote “The Faith of Graffiti” about Mailer’s 1974 book on graffiti in New York City. Not only did they write a well supported article during the course, but I was able to put it through the rigorous “Good Article” process and elevate it to official GA status on Wikipedia. This was like an advanced peer-review process, made easier by the stellar foundation my students were able to provide. This article received the notice of Mailer scholars and the Norman Mailer Society. If I get to teach this course again, I hope to receive the official support of the Society, including a financial donation to hire a graduate research assistant.

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