The 2023 Tournament of Books

So there's this thing called the Tournament of Books that I was first introduced to via friend Amelia. (So...probably around ten years ago, in 2013?) Basically, the Morning News first releases a long list of a bunch of books that seem notable, then they narrow it down to a shortlist for March Madness. (I assume we're all familiar with WHAT a bracket looks like, even if we do not actually care about these things.) When the time comes, they tap a number of literati-type folks to judge between two of the entrants, winners go on to the next round, etc, etc.

The key thing they emphasize: There's no actual standard for what makes a "good" book! None at all! These decisions are all subjective and according to taste! We all win because we get to read a bunch of interesting books, basically. (But there is an eventual winner.) If you go to this page, you can see links to alllll the past decisions and brackets in the sidebar.

You deny our brotherhood. Insisting as you do in your sly way that our genealogies and our socioeconomic standings have set us apart at birth in a manner not to be contravened. But I will tell you Squire that having read even a few dozen books in common is a force more binding than blood.
"The Passenger," Cormac McCarthy

Anyway, I've been keeping track of things for the past decade or so. Some years I manage to read everything! Some years I manage to start all the books, and then some of the novels languish on my shelves, partially completed, for years. Some years I just don't have the energy. Who can say what each year can bring? Last year, I managed all of them and was very proud of myself. This year, I thought, why not try that again?

Also, I've color-coded the various texts. Purple means I own/ed the book, green means I read it before the ToB shortlist was released, and blue means I read it after the shortlist came out. I'm not even going to indicate favorites here--the Tournament proper will churn out semi-finalists, etc, but as they state themselves, it's all quite arbitrary! (Except I DID indicate favorites. But not winners! That's...somewhat different, right?)

She did bring a book, but she wasn't reading it, just bullying the ink into sense. "It's pretty good," she says. "It would be brilliant if it weren't the literary equivalent of a shirtless mirror selfie, you know, like, if the author only flexed when he had to lift something."
"The Rabbit Hutch," Tess Gunty

Media Consumed 2022

What things have I kept count of this year?

316 Books | 21 Cities Visited | 27 Comics | Two Concerts (ish) | 6 Conferences and Festivals | 77 Movies | 21 Museums and Cultural/Historic Sites | 15 Readings and Talks | 1 Sports Match | 6 Theatre Productions | 801 TV Episodes

TV Tellings IV: The Chair

"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more!"

Sandra Oh playing the chair of an English department at a small liberal arts college? I had read nothing about this--I hadn't even watched a trailer--but even sight unseen, I could almost guarantee, pre-watch, three things:

1. I'm going to spend most of the watch screaming at the screen WRT academic politics and processes
2. They are going to get English, as a field, almost completely wrong
3. At least one professor is going to seem to be having an illicit and gross affair with a student

But Sandra Oh, y'know? Plus, as all my English colleagues know, this is pretty much all non-English academic people will ask about come the winter holidays.

Anyway, this is a first watch reactions sort of post. Spoilers for The Chair may abound. Also, I cuss a lot.

Logline:
Sandra Oh plays the chair of an English department at a small liberal arts college.

2019 by the Numbers

Books Read: 190
Weirdly, Goodreads said I read 200 books, so just as last year, this may remain a mystery.
I'm listing the authors, for a bit of brevity.
Mia Marshall, Charlie N Holmberg, Paul Krueger, Caitlin Doughty, Zoraoida Corova, Nicole Ponseca & Miguel Trinidad, Valeria Luiselli, Kevin Kwan, Robert Jordan, Seanan McGuire, Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, Nicola Griffith, Louise Penny, Elaine Castillo, Ling Ma, Ben H Winters, Megan Whalen Turner, Tommy Orange, Robin McKinley, Tana French, Carlo Sernaglia and Julia Turshen, Sarah J Maas, Suzanne Goin with Teri Gelber, Malka Older, Anita Lo, George RR Martin, Diane Morgan, Justina Ireland, Nafkote Tamirat, Jenn Lyons, Uzodinma Iweala, Tom Rachman, Anna Burns, Heidi Sopinka, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Esi Edugyan, Richard Powers, Deborah Harkness, Laurie R King, Genevieve Cogman, Emily XR Pan, Tomi Adeyemi, Kelly Thompson, Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett, Malinda Lo, Donna Leon, Curtis C Chen et al, Sarah Perry, Dhonielle Clayton, Hannu Rajaniemi, Zen Cho, Mary Robinette Kowal, Elisabeth Cohen, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Joseph Fink, Marcela Valladolid, Elizabeth George, Jeff Parker, Caitlin Starling, Anissa Helou, Bill Willingham, Elizabeth Acevedo, Yoon Ha Lee, Brian Switek, Faith Erin Hicks, Neil Gaiman, Adam Johnson, G Willow Wilson, Blake Crouch, Holly Black, Christopher Kimball, Elizabeth McCracken, Lonely Planet, Will Hill, Naomi Novik, Sarah Porter, Pat Barker, Daniel Jose Older, Jon Ronson, Thi Bui, NK Jemisin, Fareed Zakaria, Amin Maalouf, Gabriela Camara, Rachel Khoo, SA Chakraborty, Leigh Bardugo, Mira Grant, Elisa Goldstein et al, Fonda Lee, Rachel Caine, Alastair Reynolds, Joakim Pamkvist, VE Schwab, Sarah Gailey, Edna Lewis, Margaret Owen, Erin A Chang, Charles Soule, Struan Stevenson, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Carla Lalli Music, Marie Lu, Susan Meissner, Michelle Ruiz Kell, Lisa A Nichols, Jennifer Nagel, Sady Doyle, Geraldine Brooks, Rebecca Traister, Maggie Stiefvater, Jennifer Givhan, Rakhee Yadav, Alana Kysar, Xuan Juliana Wang, LL McKinney, Philip Pullman, Harriet A Washington, Tom King et al, Ivan Orkin and Chris Ying, Mackenzi Lee, Becky Chambers, Sally Rooney, Namwali Serpell, Joseph Harris, Joel Spring Martin Morales, Neil Gaiman & P Craig Russell, Jenny Linford, VE Schwab, Laila Lalami, RF Kuang, Maria Gainza, Tea Obrecht, Claire Lombardo, Gail Simone, Rebecca Solnit, Paula Volksy, Elvia Wilk, Stacy M Perryman-Clark & Collin Lamont Craig, Sharon Kay Penman, Sally McKenny, Sue Burke, Joel Shepherd, Erik Larson, Anne Griffin, Amanda Cohen, Meghan Scott Molin.

You can read snippets from every book I've read this year here.

Cities Visited: 14
Memphis, TN
Pittsburgh, PA
Nashville, TN
Tampa, FL
East Lansing, MI
Bangkok, Thailand
Hong Kong
Baltimore, MD
Dallas, TX
Kansas City, MO
DeKalb, IL
Houston, TX
Lubbock, TX
Riverside, CA

Concerts/Performances Attended: 11
Kelly Clarkson, with Brynn Cartelli and Kelsea Ballerini supporting
Carrie Underwood, with Runaway Jane and Maddie & Tae supporting
Beale Street Music Festival (Everclear, Rodrigo y Gabriela, 6lack, Cardi B)
Amanda Palmer
Hannah Gadsby (comedy)
Hamilton (theatre)
Carly Rae Jepsen, with Phoebe Ryan supporting
Mary J Blige & Nas
Common, with Mumu Fresh supporting
Trevor Noah (comedy)
Switchfoot

Conferences Attended: 5
Association of Teachers of Technical Writing 2019 in Pittsburgh
Conference on College Composition and Communication 2019 in Pittsburgh
AP Language Reading in Tampa
Computers & Writing in East Lansing
Council of Writing Program Administrators in Baltimore

Festivals/Readings/Lectures: 5
Arkansas Literary Festival (Charles J Shields, Brantley Hargrove, Jericho Brown, Geffrey Davis, Elizabeth Minchilli, Dorie Greenspan, Arkady Martine, Marina Lostetter, Pitchaya Sudbanthad, Maurice Carlos Ruffin)
Thi Bui reading @ HSU
Emily Roberson reading @ Wordsworth Books
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
Hillary Clinton & Chelsea Clinton reading @ University of Houston

Movies Watched: 129
Bird Box, Peppermint, Eight Grade, BelCanto, Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse, Split, Blockers, Aquaman, Mary Poppins Returns, Roma, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Vice, On the Basis of Sex, Mary Queen of Scots, Antiquities, The Wife, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Front Runner, At Eternity's Gate, The Hate U Give, Bad Times at the El Royale, Green Book, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Sorry to Bother You, Minding the Gap, Of Fathers and Sons, Nobody's Fool, Shoplifters, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Hale County This Morning This Evening, Robin Hood, Fighting with My Family, What Men Want, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Mortal Engines, Operation Finale, A Private War, Instant Family, Free Solo, Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse AU, The Mercy, The Runaways, Second Act, Gloria Bell, Bumblebee, Shazam!, Welcome to Marwen, The Kid Who Would Be King, Glass, Against the Clock, Hellboy, Avengers: Infinity War, Justice League vs the Fatal Five, Avengers: Endgame, The Quake, Miss Bala, Little, Breakthrough, Long Shot, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, Aladdin, Fighting with My Family, Paddington, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Five Feet Apart, Captive State, Late Night, Hotel Mumbai, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Spiderman: Far From Home, Alita Battle Angel, Mission: Impossible, Batman Returns, Twenty-fifth Hour, Grave of the Fireflies, The Best of Enemies, Fantastic Four, Ratatouille, Dreamgirls, Little Woods, Toy Story 4, Men in Black: International, Yesterday, The Farewell, Always Be My Maybe, Tolkien, The Sun is Also a Star, The Hustle, Crazy Rich Asians, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Rocketman, Booksmart, Amazing Grace, The Biggest Little Farm, Dark Phoenix, Hustlers, Ad Astra, Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, Shaft, Downton Abbey, Judy, China Love, Varda by Agnes, Well Groomed, Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops, Nothing Fancy, Meeting Gorbachev, Pizza A Love Story, Made in Boise, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Terminator: Dark Fate, Harriet, Avengers: Endgame, Brian Banks, Charlie's Angels, Ford v Ferrari, Queen & Slim, Black Panther, Official Secrets, Blinded By the Light, Where'd You Go Bernadette?, The Goldfinch, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Don't Let Go (Relive), Wit, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Topkapi, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Last Jedi

You can see all the mini-reviews here.

TV
So I once again forgot to keep count of all the episodes I watched this year, but I CAN tell you which TV shows I binged from beginning to end.

• Game of Thrones (to prep for the last season, SIGH)
• The Magicians
• Criminal Minds and its two spin-offs
• Supernatural

And I'm about four seasons into Cold Case right now. NOTHING CAN STOP ME.

So, those are the numbers for 2019. Here's to 2020!

Media Consumed in 2017

So I've had this sitting in a text file for two months. Oops.

Academic Conferences: 4
ATTW, CCCC, C&W, CWPA

Books: 194
Though my Goodreads count is only slightly over 125, so I'm giving this count a bit of sideeye. How is Goodreads measuring these things? Have I been meeting my reading challenges all along, but been misinformed by the system? Ah, well.

Comics: 90 individual issues (I count graphic novels under books)

Concerts: 8
The Lumineers, Leslie Odom Jr, George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic, Shawn Mendes (w/ Charlie Puth supporting), Fall Out Boy (w/ Jaden Smith and Blackbear opening), Bruno Mars (w/ Jorja Smith opening), Regina Spektor, Lady Gaga

Cooking Classes/Demos: 21
Craft/Floral Classes: 8
I will miss Ames and Iowa State so much. So, so, so much.

Festivals: 2
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival 2017, Riverside Festival of Lights 2017

Lectures and Readings: 13
Chuck D, Kekla Magoon, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Lee Mun Wah, Black Light Butterflies (entymology lecture), Keisha Blaine, John Darnielle, Curtis Chin, David Anthony Durham & Benjamin Percy, Taylor Broby, Anne Curzan, Toni Phinisey-Webber (re: Little Rock Central High School), Jon Ronson

Movies: 140
Last year I only watched 14 movies, so I vowed to watch more. And...yup. Totally did. Special shout-outs to AMC's annual Oscar nominee specials and the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

Museums & Landmarks: 13
Brunnier Art Gallery, Octagon Gallery, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Mazza Museum of Children's Literature, Living History Farms, Tennessee Riverboat Cruise (Knoxville), Women's Basketball Hall of Fame (Knoxville), Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville), ESSE Museum, Witt Stephens Jr Central Arkansas Nature Center, Arkansas Art Center, Saint Louis Art Museum, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

New Restaurants: 53
Thanks to conferences (Portland, Findlay, Knoxville), a wedding reception (Chicagoland), a few concerts/road trips (Minneapolis, Nashville, St Louis, Kansas City, Dallas), moving to another state (Arkadelphia, Little Rock, Hot Springs), and a couple of extra-long visits to California!

Theatre: 26
Messiah on the Frigidaire, Akeelah and the Bee, The Vagina Monologues, Newsies, Allegiance, Our Antigone, The Bee's Tease, The Importance of Being Earnest, Good Night Desdemona Good Morning Juliet, Citizen by Claudia Rankine, Little Women, Annie, Fun Home, Other Desert Cities, Trashion Show, Tempest, Happy Days, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, HIR, Greater Tuna, I Am Emily Doe, Circle Mirror Transformation, Night of the Iguana, The Mousetrap, HSU Directing Class Showcase, Corona Dance Academy Winter 2017 recitals

TV Episodes: 632
This is the first year I've kept track of how many episodes of television I've watched. This is a big number, but it's also probably way less than I've watched in previous years--my shift to watching more movies meant, obviously, that TV was edged out a bit. Oh, and for the record, I also watched a ton of The Daily Show (I love Trevor Noah deeply), Late Night with Seth Meyers, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but since I generally skip the interview portions of the shows, I opted not to count those here.

And that's officially a wrap for 2017!

2016: By the Numbers

I've done quite a bit this year! My habit for the past few years has been to keep track of these things monthly, but somewhere in the middle of the summer, I lost track of things. This is about the best that I can do in reconstruction--I'll be a bit more organized in the year to come (I hope).

Academic Conferences Attended: 6
Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity, Ames, IA (20160303-04)
Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, Houston, TX (20160406)
Conference on College Composition and Communication, Houston, TX (20160407-09)
Computers and Writing, Rochester, NY (20160519-22)
Council of Writing Program Administrators, Raleigh, NC (20160714-17)
International Writing Centers Association, Denver, CO (20161013-16)

Books Read:
102, according to GoodReads. A good number, except that I ambitiously set my reading challenge to 200. LOL.

Comics Read: Not Enough
Princess Leia, Saga, Black Panther (not counting graphic novels)
I need to increase my consumption here--I've got batches of comics in my Marvel/Comixology/Dark Horse accounts. I just need to read and log them more consistently.

Concerts Attended: 6
Adele (St. Paul, MN, 20160705)
Nico & Vinz (Ames, IA, 21060825)
Switchfoot & Relient K (Clive, IA, 20160921)
Grace Potter (Des Moines, IA, 20160929)
Beyonce (Nashville, TN, 20161002)
Carrie Underwood (Des Moines, IA, 20161007)

Cooking Classes/Demos: 17
Quinoa (Cooks Emporium, 20160128)
Pressure Cookers (CE, 20160220)
A Taste of Egypt (CE, 20160227)
Turkey Roulades & Lemon Cupcakes (CE, 20160305)
Risotto Croquettes (Wheatsfield Co-op, 20160329)
Versatile Goat Cheese (WC, 20160426)
Chicken Mole (CE, 20160430)
Cooking with Cast Iron (Williams-Sonoma, 20160626)
Fermented Food & Kombucha (WC, 20160809)
Spiralizer Favorites (W-S, 20160821)
Natural Fermented Pickles (CE, 20160903)
Nordic Waffles (CE, 20161008)
Thanksgiving Side Dishes (CE, 20161112)
Paella (CE, 20161119)
Seven Cheese Gougere (CE, 20161126)
Holiday Cookies (CE, 20161203)
Holiday Savory Snacks (CE, 20161210)

Craft/Movement Classes: 23
Copper hoop earrings & pendant (The Workspace, 20160114)
Felted wool mittens (TW, 20160121 + 27)
Silver & copper rings (TW, 201602)
Resin Jewelry (TW, 20160224, 20160302)
Boho Wall Hanging (TW, 20160801)
Fused Glass Pendants (TW, 20160829)
Inked Coasters (TW, 20160831)
Knitting (TW, 201609)
Mat-cutting (TW, 20161006)
Dia de los Muertos Skulls (TW, 20161008)
Crochet (TW, 201610)
Sugar Skull Embroidery (TW, 20161020)
Silk Painting (TW, 20161029)
Delsarte: Body Language and the Artist (TW, 20161105)
Delsarte: And a Torso Even More So (TW, 20161105)
Delsarte: Standing Up for Your Art (TW, 20161105)
O'Keeffe Oil Painting (Reiman Gardens, 20161107)
Fused Glass Ornaments (TW, 20161109)
Frugal Florals (RG, 20161116)
Balloon Crafts (RG, 20161117)
Miniatures (RG, 20161120)
Wreath-Making (RG, 20161130)
Etched Glass Ornaments (TW, 20161207)

Festivals Attended: 2
Define American Festival, Des Moines, IA
Festival of Cheese, Des Moines, IA (20160730)

Lectures and Readings Attended: 7
Alisha Gordon, "The Fierce Urgency of Now" (20160121)
Reshma Saujani, "Women Who Don't Wait in Line" (20160128)
Marion Blumenthal Lazan, "My Holocaust Story" (20160208)
Cheryl Strayed (20160915)
Jennifer Knox + Iowa Bird of Mouth (20160916)
Gloria Steinem (20161011)
Margaret Atwood (20161101)

Movies Watched: 14
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (DVD)
Jurassic World (DVD)
A Better Life (film festival)
Don't Tell Anyone (film festival)
The Muslims Are Coming! (film festival)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies [theatre]
Cinderella (2015) [DVD]
The Grand Budapest Hotel [streaming]
Hector and the Search for Happiness (streaming)
Captain America: Civil War (theatre)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (streaming)
Edge of Tomorrow (DVD)
Loving (theatre)
Rogue One (theatre)

Museums & Landmarks Visited: 12
Chocolate Tour of Chicago (BestTours.com, 20160507)
Strong Museum of Play, Rochester, NY (20160522)
Design Exchange, Toronto, ON (20160524)
Aga Khan Museum of Islamic Art, Toronto, ON (20160525)
Peel Art Gallery and Museum, Brampton, ON (20160527)
Niagara & Horseshoe Falls (20160528)
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (20160529)
Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh (20160715)
Pappajohn Sculpture Park, Des Moines, IA (20160730)
Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Factory Tour, Nashville, TN (20161001)
Corsair Distillery tour, Nashville, TN (20161002)
Broad Contemporary Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (20161227)

New Restaurants Visited: 43
The Mission Inn (Riverside)
Ninfa's (Houston)
1600 Bar + Grille (Houston)
Calabash Island Eats (Houston)
Volare (Chicago)
Doc B's Fresh Kitchen (Chicago)
Quartino's (Chicago)
Yolk (Chicago)
The Owl House (Rochester)
Senbazuru Sushi Bar (Richmond Hill)
Sushi Inn (Toronto)
Bohemia (Barrie)
Anchor Bar (Buffalo)
Table 128 (Clive)
Blue Tomato Kitchen (Des Moines)
Bubba - Southern Comforts (Des Moines)
Prime (Des Moines)
Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream (Cleveland)
Fran's Restaurant (Toronto)
Spoon River (Minneapolis)
Izzy's (Minneapolis)
Birchwood Cafe (Minneapolis)
Hell's Kitchen (Minneapolis)
Bluestem Bar (Minneapolis)
Little Octopus (Nashville)
Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream (Nashville)
Biscuit Love (Nashville)
Las Paletas (Nashville)
Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream (Nashville farmers' market)
Bolton's Spicy Chicken & Fish (Nashville)
Five Daughters Bakery (Nashville)
Franklin Juice Company (Nashville)
Green Fine Salad Co. (Denver)
Guard and Grace (Denver)
Syrup (Denver)
Prospect's Urban Kitchen & Bar (Denver)
Range (Denver)
Goldfinch (Des Moines)
Thai Kitchen (Ames)
Porto's Bakery & Cafe (Glendale)
Komodo (Los Angeles)
Cascabel (Los Angeles)
Sam's Banh Thai (Riverside)

Road Trips Taken: 8
Lafayette, IN (20160312-18); Spring Break cooking
Chicago, IL (20160506-08); bachelorette weekend
Rochester, NY/Toronto, ON/Buffalo, NY (20160518-30); conference/visiting family/wedding
Pennsylvania & Cleveland, OH (20160701-03); wedding
Lafayette, IN (20160805-07)
Toronto, ON (20160909-11); wedding
Minneapolis, MN (20160924-25); theatre
Nashville, TN (20160930-1002); concert

Sports Attendance:
Rams vs. Forty-Niners (20161224)

Theatre Performances Attended: 10
Sweeney Todd, Minneapolis, MN (20160724)
[title of show], Ames, IA (20160923)
Lady and the Trump, Minneapolis, MN (20160924)
The 39 Steps, St. Cloud, MN (20160925)
Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, Ames, IA (20161009)
Cabaret, Ames, IA (20161113)
Ugly Lies the Bone, Des Moines, IA (20161119)
November, Ames, IA (20161127)
Cirque Dreams: Holidaze, Ames, IA (20161201)
The King & I, Los Angeles, CA (20161228)

TV Watched:
A lot. (I meant to keep track of how many episodes I watched this year, but I lost track around June. But it's a lot.)

#4c16: Conference on College Composition and Communication (April 7-9, 2016)

The 2016 Conference on College Composition and Communication was held in Houston, April 7-9, 2016. I volunteered to act as a Social Media Correspondent again, meaning that I got a shiny orange ribbon to denote my tweeting. Following is an index of the panels I attended throughout the conference.

• The Non-Panel Stuff: Registration shenanigans, sight-seeing, badge swag, and many, many tacos.
  
  
• Opening General Session
  Linda Adler-Kassner, Jennifer Winguard, Doug Hesse, Eva Payne, many awards, Sondra Perl, Joyce Locke Carter
  
  
• #A18: Information Literacy and Foundational Writing Transforming Programs through Collaborative Outcomes
  Libby Miles, Susan Dinitz, Daisy Benson
  
  
• #B28: Building Bases for Action: Re/Mapping a Mandated Writing Program Redesign
  William C. Kurlinkus, Susan Kates, Sandra Tarabochia
  
  
• #D07: New Directions in Transnational Asian/Asian American Rhetoric & Composition
  Jolivette Mecenas, Morris Young, Priya Sirohi, Vani Kannan, Xiaobo Wang, Patricia Poblete, Chanon Adsanatham, Jennifer Sano-Franchini (@CCCCAAAC)
  
  
• #F01: Writing Feminism: Negotiating for Action across PublicSpheres
  Shirley Logan, Cheryl Glenn, Krista Ratcliffe
  
  
• #G12: Writing’s Wreckage: What Happens When Writing Fails
  Jenny Rice (@jennyrice), Michael Bernard-Donals, Casey Boyle (@caseyboyle), Victor Vitanza
  
  
• #H07: The Translingual Writing Center
  Nancy Alvarez (@nan_alvarez), Marino Fernandes, Tzu-Shan Chang
  
  
• #I13: Disability Studies and Transformative Access
  Lauren Terbrock, Lauren Obermark
  
  
• #K24: Visualizing the Labor of Writing Center through RAD Research
  @PurdueWLab: Harry Denny, Patrick Love, Beth Towle, Mary McCall
  
  
• #M19: Writers on the Verge: Researching Summer Transition Programs (and Why We Should Do More of It)
  Lance Langdon, Jens Lloyd

I am also chuffed to report I was the top user of #4c16, with 681 posts. Two years running! We'll see if I can keep it up at #4c17 in Portland.

The Association for Teachers of Technical Writing 2016 Conference, Houston, TX (06 April 2016)

The 2016 ATTW conference was held in Houston last week, and I was lucky enough to attend. Following are the notes I tweeted at the four panels I attended, with a tiny bit of #womeninTC, as well.

• #attwA3: Tactical Communication as Advocacy
  Josephine Walwema, Jared S. Colton, Steve Holmes, Isidore Kafui Dorpenyo
  In summer 2014, following the death of Michael Brown at the hands of a Ferguson Police Officer, protests erupted on the streets, making national and international headlines. While mainstream news focused on violent spectacles, news coverage largely ignored the important role played by technical documents such as gasmask construction instructions circulated in print and social media. In response, this panel will analyze tactical technical communication as advocacy in the case of the 2014 Ferguson protests by offering three extensions of Miles Kimball’s (2006) notion of “tactical technical communication.” The panel’s primary contribution to investigations of tactical technical communication as advocacy include exploring how tactics can supplement existing work on social justice (Agboka, 2013; Jones and Walton, 2015; Leydons, 2013; Savage and Mattson, 2011) through examining the important role of unofficial or non-sanctioned technical documents that enable activist practices. In general, the presenters highlight the value of technical communications’ research methodologies for examining how activist spaces are composed through a variety of actors, spaces, goals, motives, and even material objects.
  
  
• #attwB2: Online Medical Forums, Health Controversies, and the Role of Advocacy
  Abigail Bakke, Jennifer Fierke, L. Elizabeth Mackey, Meenakshi Venkat
  E-health allows patients unprecedented access to technical medical information online. It has been praised by some as a tool for patients’ self-advocacy and criticized by others as a source of misinformation or anxiety. Technical communication scholars have often discussed e-health in terms of ethical design or the complexity of the patient audience (Koerber & Still, 2008; Kopelson, 2009; Segal, 2009). However, because patients now also contribute medical information online via patient forums, looking at the networked elements of credibility, trust, patient advocacy, and risk is increasingly important. This panel features three case studies of patients in online health forums engaged in everyday examples of technical communication (Durack, 1997). Collectively, their findings suggest that e-health patients act as what presenters call “citizen technical communicators” who collaboratively negotiate risk, assign credibility to fellow patients or moderators, and resituate medical language within the context of their illness. The panel further suggests that e-patients engage in complex and technical information exchanges, which deserves as much critical attention from our field as formal, professional communication.
  
  There are also three tweets about the #womeninTC luncheon at the end of this! If you're curious.
  
  
• #attwC3: Service Learning as an Advocacy Tool
  Eric James Stephens, Katie Yankura Swacha, Anirban Ray, Rhonda Stanton
  As mentioned in my notes for this panel, I had to skip out halfway through. I included a screencap of Stephens's description in the notes themselves, so here is the description for Swacha's:
  Feminist technical communication scholars have argued for the field to research rhetorics not traditionally deemed ‘technical’ in order to 1) highlight women’s contributions to technical writing, 2) challenge the binaristic thinking that divides ‘public’ and ‘private’ writing, and 3) recognize the embodied experiences of technical communicators, students, and users (e.g. Seigel, 2014; Durack, 1997). This paper builds on this call, arguing that important advocacy work in technical communication can begin in communities and with genres not traditionally engaged in the field. Specifically, the paper details a service-learning project in which technical writing students collaborated with disadvantaged seniors at a local senior center to research, write, and publish a cookbook tailored for older, food insecure users. Building from Marika Seigel’s work (2014) on pregnancy manuals, the paper argues that cookbooks are a technical genre that situates users within the technological system of food distribution and public health. By assuming that users have access to fresh ingredients and the physical and technological capacity to cook, many cookbooks neglect older users experiencing food insecurity, poverty, and/or disabilities. To address this issue, technical writing students collaborated with such users at a local senior center to produce a cookbook that combines users’ personal recipes with rhetorical principles of usability and design. The resulting cookbook better 1) enables users to navigate food systems and public health rhetorics, 2) considers and supports users’ embodied experiences within those systems, and 3) blurs the lines between public/private writing. The cookbook also functioned as an advocacy document by helping the senior center to raise local awareness on food insecurity and aging. By detailing both the successes and challenges of this project, this paper argues for more advocacy work that can expand the definition of technical communication, recognize users’ embodied forms of expertise, and contribute to grassroots, community-driven initiatives.
  
  
• #attwD7: Advocacy in the Curriculum
  Morgan Gresham, Roxanne Aftanas, Teddi Fishman
  We issue a challenge to the field of technical communication and ourselves as teachers, to consider knowledge making from a variety of perspectives, to unhinge privilege by moving beyond binary thinking often found in scientific and technical communication: “secrecy/disclosure, knowledge/ignorance, private/public, masculine/feminine, majority/minority, natural/artificial, new/old, domestic/foreign, and health/illness” (Sedgwick, 11). In this panel we will describe three ways we are working to meet this challenge ourselves.
  

And that's it for the year! I am probably going to keep alternating between ATTW and the IWCA Collaboratory, so look for more ATTW tweets from me in...2018? Eep.

The Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity, 2016

I am so stoked that we're entering conference season once again! Don't get me wrong--I love my everyday job and its daily challenges. When you spend most of your day wrangling undergraduate students, however, it's easy to lose sight of the scholarly and intersectional/activist aspects of the field. And the Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity, a conference focusing on issues of race and ethnicity in higher education, is a pretty spiffy way to rejuvenate one's scholarly self.

Last year I attended ISCORE, as well as its brand-new professional development half-day workshop. After it was over, I approached no fewer than three of my colleagues to see how I can get involved. (ISCORE is hosted by the Student Affairs division of Iowa State University. My writing center is housed under the Dean of Students Office, which is underneath the umbrella of Student Affairs and, hey! Student Affairs committees are totally part of my job description.) So. I AM INVOLVED.

As a first-timer to the committee, I wasn't in charge of any specific thing as I acclimated. I'd also never been involved in major conference planning (just smaller mixer-type things via WPA-GO), so this was a pretty fascinating experience. Not only did I get to learn about the huuuuuge number of things that go into a conference (all the way from pulling a budget together, to making sure the catering doesn't suck, to getting nominations for awards, to buying thank you gifts for keynotes), but I got to watch a number of my colleagues being uber-competent at problem-solving.

For my own participation, I ended up lending a hand with registration, doing roving A/V troubleshooting, and covering the social media beat. For the purposes of the conference, I took social media to mean doing a bit of hype on the conference Facebook page. Someone else was in charge of the conference Twitter account, but that worked out fine for me, as both the volume and nature of my conference tweeting wouldn't be quite right for an official Twitter account.

So, my official disclaimer about my tweeting for this particular conference: I'm on the ISCORE planning committee and on the social media beat. That said, tweets from my account my personal reactions and interpretations of discussion, and don't represent the official narrative or positions of the ISCORE program.

And now, the tweets:

• ISCORE Professional Development Workshop.
  This year's workshop leader was Dr. Heather Hackman, who led a rollicking and challenging four hours of discussion about systemic racism. It was AMAZING.
  
  
• Building a More Inclusive Department: A Case Study as presented by Leslie Hogben, Cliff Bergman, Justin Peters, Michael Young, Mike Dairyko, Stephanie Wang, all from the Mathematics department.
  Panel description: This session will discuss a concerted effort by the ISU Mathematics Department to build a more inclusive department, with a focus on the graduate program. Strategies, successes, failures, and outcomes will be discussed. Although the Department won the 2015 American Mathematical Society Award for an Exemplary Program based in part on these efforts, such a project is never finished and challenges remain.
  
  
• Morning Address. As we officially kicked off ISCORE proper, Luis Rico-Gutierrez of the College of Design gave the opening address.
  
  
• Why Does Talking About Race Suck So Much? Getting Students to Discuss Systemic Racism and White Privilege, as presented by Brianna Burke.
  Panel description: In this lesson plan, which opens any of my courses focused on race, I begin with a critical discussion of systemic racism. It is important for students to understand that they live within—and some benefit from—a system they did not create, but nevertheless exists. They can choose to live within this system by doing nothing about it, or they can decide it is wrong, and they will not partake in it. I begin with world colonialism, postcolonialism, neocolonialism, and our shameful legacy of global systemic racism. Briefly outlining our global history for students, I move our discussion to the United States, illuminating our problems with race and inequality in our country and how they were created, then how they have been perpetuated and persist today. My lesson plan ends with a conversation about why learning about race is important, a deep exploration of white privilege, and then what students can do to become anti-racist allies.
  
  
• Fears of Difference and Understanding the Benefits, as presented by Raquel Botello-Zamarron, Spurty Surapaneni, and Meifen Wei.
  Panel description: In this presentation, we will discuss research findings that include voices of ISU students as we work to become a community of inclusion and embrace the infinite benefits of diversity. We will address how students feel about diversity on campus. We will also look at the concerns experienced by students in terms of having diverse relationships on campus. Using psychological knowledge and research findings, we will further discuss addressing the concerns faced by both minority and majority students. Further, we will explore how diversity and multicultural environments are benefits to communities and individuals.
  
  
• Keynote Address, as presented by Dr. Barbara Love.
  
  
• Understanding and Reducing Implicit Bias, as presented by Stephen Biggs
  Panel description: Contemporary research on racism in cognitive psychology focuses primarily on implicit biases. One has an explicit bias EB if one has EB, one can become aware that one has EB by reflecting on her own thinking, and one voluntarily uses EB to guide thought and action. One has an implicit bias IB if one has IB, one can’t become aware that one has IB by reflecting on her own thinking, and IB automatically guides one’s thought and action. Two robust findings from research on implicit biases: first, many people who explicitly reject any racist ideology have implicit biases against African Americans; second, because of their implicit biases, many people who explicitly reject any racist ideology behave in ways that differentially harm African Americans. Despite the focus on implicit biases within cognitive psychology, popular discussions of race relations rarely consider them, likely because too few people understand how implicit biases work. In this presentation I (i) review recent literature on implicit biases against African Americans, (ii) explain how these biases explain much of the behavior that differentially harms African Americans, and (iii) explore strategies for eliminating these implicit biases and, insofar as they can't be eliminated, minimizing their impacts.
  
  
• Men of Color: Intersections of Race/Ethnicity, Gender Role Socialization, and Masculinity, as presented by Stacey Ko and Julio Rivas
  Panel description: All men are influenced by various components of their upbringing and background in their conception of what constitutes a man, with identity markers such as race and ethnicity playing an especially salient role in the unfolding of one’s gender role socialization. Men of color may experience difficult dilemmas as they strive to remain faithful to the values of their culture of origin while also negotiating between rigid, sexist, or overly restrictive gender roles and incompatible situational demands. For example, culture-specific conceptions of masculinity may promote success and well-being in certain situations (e.g., working hard to provide for one’s family), yet also be maladaptive in others (e.g., distress in intimate partner relationships as a result of overemphasis on work). Our presentation will discuss how men of color cope with and adapt to the complex interaction of race/ethnicity-based gender role socialization and situational demands. We will also engage faculty, staff, and students in a thoughtful discussion about the unique race-based gender constraints experienced by men of color.
  
  
• Closing ceremony, including remarks from the departing Senior Vice President of Student Affairs, Dr. Thomas L. Hill, and Brenda Jones Change Agent Award winner, Markus Flynn.

All in all, a successful conference! I'm looking forward to next year already.

2015 By The Numbers

I used to keep better track of things, but for various reasons, it's been rather haphazard the past couple of years. Looking forward to a meticulous 2016!

• Books Read: 170
  
  
• Comic Books Read: 76
  
  
• Concerts Attended: 3
  
  
  1. Norah Jones (20151030)
     
  2. Katy Perry (20151024)
     
  3. k.flay, Des Moines, IA [20150701]
  
  
  
• Conferences/Conventions Attended: 11
  
  1. Iowa Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson Dinner (20151024)
     
  2. Iowa Hunger Summit (20151013)
     
  3. International Writing Centers Association Conference, Pittsburgh, PA (20151008-10)
     
  4. Womyn of Colour Network Retreat, Ogden, IA (9/18-9/19)
     
  5. Council of Writing Program Administrators, Boise, ID (7/15-7/19)
     
  6. AP Reading 2015, Kansas City, MO [20150611-15]
     
  7. Computers and Writing 2015, Menomonie, WI (5/28-5/31/15)
     
  8. Iowa Writing Center Consortium, March 27, 2015
  9. Conference on College Composition and Communication, March 19-21, 2015
     
  10. International Writing Centers Association Collaborative, March 18, 2015
      
  11. Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity, March 5-6, 2015
      
  
  
  
• Lectures/Readings Attended: 10
  
  1. Kai Davis (20151110)
     
  2. Alison Bechdel (20150409)
     
  3. Dan Barber (20150408)
     
  4. Rachel Williams (20150408)
     
  5. Ava Chin (20150406)
     
  6. John McWhorter, "The Language Hoax: Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language" (20150305)
     
  7. Dan Fagin, "Connecting the Dots Between Toms River and Beyond" (20150303)
     
  8. "The Underground Girls of Kabul," Jenny Nordberg (20150206)
     
  9. Michelle Alexander, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" (20150129)
  10. Alison Hawthorne Deming, "Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit" (20150122)
      
  
  
• Movies Watched: 16
  21 Jump Street, Ant-Man, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Bring It On, Drumline, Fast Five, The Fault in Our Stars, Furious 7, The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies, Hook, Iron Man 3, Mad Max: Fury Road, A Night at the Museum, Sisters, Spy, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
  
  
• Museums Visited/Landmarks Visited/Tours Taken: 10
  
  1. Des Moines Art Center (second visit, 20151101)
     
  2. Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh)
     
  3. Boise Art Museum
     
  4. Des Moines Art Center
     
  5. Taste of Louisville tour
     
  6. Henry Doorly Zoo (20150704)
     
  7. Joslyn Art Museum (20150703)
     
  8. Mall of America (20150601)
     
  9. The American Swedish Institute (20150531)
     
  10. Florida Aquarium (Tampa, FL)
      
  11. Tampa Bay History Center (Tampa, FL)
  
  
• Theatre Attended: 2
  
  1. Love and Information, Caryl Churchill (20151206)
     
  2. The Vagina Monologues (20150213)
  
  
• TV Episodes Watched: 722
  

At least I kept busy?

#IWCA15: Writing Center (R)Evolutions, Pittsburgh (10/08 - 10/10)

The International Writing Centers Association 2015 conference was held October 8-10 in Pittsburgh, PA. This is my second time attending the conference, but last year's was a joint venture with NCPTW. And my first time to Pittsburgh I think--it's entirely possible this was a stop during the annual cross-country road trips my family used to do. In any case. Conference!

Thanks to the inimitable Julie Platt, the conference and individual panels/presentations had their own hashtags! We live in exciting times. Follow are the Storifyed notes for all the presentations I attended.

• Keynote: "Faces, Factories, and Warhols: A r(Evolutionary) Future for Writing Centers," Ben Rafoth
  
  
• "Negotiating Revolutions Across Writing Centers"
  
  1. Elise Dixon, "The (R)evolutionary Space Between: Considering the Conflation of Student-Centeredness and Non-Directivity"
     
  2. Stacy Rice, "Repeatedly Wrestling with Revolution: Writing and Technology Anxieties of Past and Present"
     
  3. Molly Parsons, "Coming (in)to Conflict: Toward a Research-Informed Theory of Conflict for the Writing Center"
     
  
  
• "Shantay, you stay!: Lessons from a Case Study in Partnering with an On-Campus LGBTQ Center"
  Tammy Conard-Salvo, Jeffrey Gerding, Stacy Nall, and Harry Denny
  
  
• "Stop Bitchin’ Start a (r)Evolution: A Translingual Vision for Writing Centers"
  Rachel Griffo, Michele Ninacs, Kim Huster
  
  
• "Zones of Ambiguity: Institutional Ecologies, Writing Centers, and Sustaining (R)evolution"
  Marilee Brooks-Gillies, Julie Platt, Gwendolyn Hale
  
  
• "Writing Centers: The Affective Dimension"
  Kathy Evertz, Renata Fitzpatrick, Nora Katz, Zara Pylvainen
  
  
• "Classroom Connections: Required Writing Center Visits and Instructor Translation"
  
  1. Allison Keene, "The Absent Instructor: Translating Instructor Language in the Writing Center Session"
     
  2. Rachel Azima, "Stereotypes or Validation?: Investigating Required Writing Center Visits for Students in a Multicultural Bridge Program"
     
  3. Holly Ryan, "Creating Effective Classroom Visits: Results of a Large-Scale Research Study"
  
  
  
• "Meme and Monument: Writing Center (R)Evolution Through Effective Social Media Strategies"
  Julie Platt, Ben Erwin, Patti Poblete
  
  
• "(R)Evolutionizing Faculty/Writing Center Relationships: Innovative Models of Collaboration"
  Kelly Webster, Brooklyn Walter, Michelle Miley
  
  
• Poster Session and Reception, Wherein There Are Snacks
  
  
• "Evolving Strategies for Cross-Campus Collaborations, Tutor Education, and Tutoring in a Climate of Vigorous Campus Internationalization"
  Susan Lawrence, Karyn Mallett, Alisa Russell, Psyche Ready, Paul Michiels
  
  
• "Effective Environments: Changing Locations, Changing Dynamics, Co-authoring Spaces"
  Mark Latta, K.C. Chan, Alyee Willets, Gabrielle Fales
  
  
• "Assessment of the Writing Center"
  
  1. Roger Powell, "Re-imagining Writing Center Assessment Practices: Writing Centers and Transfer Theory"
     
  2. Matthew Moberly, "A National Survey of Writing Center Assessment Practices"
     
  3. Kelsie Walker, "Assessment (R)evolutions: Developing Student Learning Outcomes-based Assessment"
  
  
  
• "Bean-counting Evolved: Understanding and Using the National Census on Writing and IWCA WCRP Survey to Foster Research Inquiry"
  Jill Gladstein, Harry Denny

All in all, a greatly generative conference, as well as a lovely discovery of the food and art scene in Pittsburgh. And that's all until the Collaborative in Spring!

Computers and Writing 2015 (Menomenie, WI)

The Computers and Writing 2015 conference convened in Menomenie, Wisconsin, from May 28 - 31. I was there and tweeted A LOT. Here are all my notes:

• Keynote #1: Cheryl Ball, "Inventing Publishing, or How C&W Rules the World"
  
  
• #A7: Poblete (that's me), Sills, and Bost, "Professional Development and Support"
  
  1. Transformative Composition and Performativity: Digital Scholarly Work as Academic Fanfiction, Poblete
     
  2. New Media Assessment as Disciplinary Sensemaking: The Retrospective Recognition of Alternate Academic Work, Sills
     
  3. Intervening in the Master Course Philosophy, Bost
     
  
  
• #B9: Beck, Blair, Grohowski, "Empowering and Sustaining Peer Mentoring: An Interactive Workshop Panel for Graduate Students and Faculty"
  
  
• Keynote #2: Kelly McCollough, "The Author and Advancing Technology"
  
  
• #C7: Kerber, Comer, Chen, Jacob, "Social Media"
  
  1. ReTweets for Whales: The Role of Twitter in the #Blackfish Phenomenon, Comer
     
  2. Tweeting the Discipline: Knowledge Construction in Digital Spheres and Academic Conferences, Chen
     
  3. Entanglements of Literacy: Twitter, King Lear, and Graduate Composition, Jacob
     
  [Unfortunately, I'm not finding Kerber's title on the website.]
  
  
• #D2: Davidson, Jerz, Tunningley, "The Machine"
  
  1. The Terminator Agonistes: Cyborgs in the Popular Imagination, Davidson
     
  2. "Computer." (Chug-chug-chug) "Working." Futures of Text, as Predicted by Star Trek, Rossum's Robots, and Gadget Salesmen, Jerz
     
  3. From Word to Image: Avatars and the Limits of Identity Creation in Digital Composition, Tunningley
     
  
  
• #E1: Salvo, Sanchez, Strantz, Poblete (that's me), "Presumed Ubiquity & Tangible Networks: The Materiality of TechnoRhetorical Work"
  
  
• #G9: Jackson, Simpkins, Lunsford, Purdy, Jones, "Ethics"
  
  1. Circulating Rhetorics: Delivery and Mediation in Cryptocurrency Networks, Jackson
     
  2. The Rhetorical Possibilities of Trigger Warnings, Simpkins
     
  3. IP Stories in Writing Studies: An Intervention Against Censors, Spurious Take-Down Notices, Outrageous Publication Fees, and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property, Lunsford & Purdy
     
  4. Welcome to my parlor: Exploring ethos as a dwelling place in the case of Anonymous hacktivism, Jones
     
  
  
• Keynote #3: Meg Noodin, "Wenweni: Take Care"
  
  
• #H2: Tripp, Tham, Friend, Butler, "Pedagogy and Networking"
  
  1. Negotiating Networked Learning in the Era of Literacies, Tham
     
  2. The Missing Link: Interventions for Enhancing Traditional Student Composition, Friend
     
  3. Digital/Visual Literacies and Multimodal Strategies in the Writing Classroom, Butler
     
  [Unfortunately, I'm not finding Tripp's title on the website.]
  
  
• #I4: Dadas, Roback, "Social Media and Ethics"
  
  1. Hashtag Activism as Intervention: The Promise and Risk of “Attention”, Dadas
     
  2. "Should I say that?": Venting, Repercussions, and Self-censorship on Social Media", Roback
     
  
  
• #J2: Head, Carpenter, Apostel, Selfe, Apostel, "Sustainable Techno-Literacies: In(ter)ventions in Space Design"
  
  
• #L7: Liddle, Gerding, Grant, "Reveling in Complexity: Synthesis, Investigation, and Curation in Multimedia Composition Pedagogy"
  

I believe there were one or two sessions after this one, but I'd pledged to drive a friend to the airport, so that was the last for me! I'm already looking forward to next year.

Meme & Monument: Supplementary Resources

Following are supplementary resources for "Meme & Monument: Writing Center (R)Evolution Through Effective Social Media Strategies," a presentation made at the International Writing Centers Association 2015 conference. This list has been compiled by Patti Poblete (@voleuseCK), Ben Erwin (@syracuseWC), and Julie Platt (@AristotleJulep)

The Slideshow: Link to Slideshare

The Handout: Link to PDF

Panel Storify: Link to Storify

The Bibliography
(last updated 12 October 2015)

Digital Devices

• Chen, Brian X. Always On: How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future--and Locked Us In, from De Capo Press. 2011.
  
  
• Hawk, Byron, Rieder, David M., and Ollie Oviedo, eds. Small Tech: The Culture of Digital Tools, from University of Minnesota Press. 2007.

Education and Technology, or Educational Technologies

• Cassidy, Margaret. BookEnds: The Changing Media Environment of American Classrooms, from Hampton Press. 2004.
  
  
• Cuban, Larry. Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology Since 1920, from Teachers College Press. 1986.
  
  
• Davidson, Cathy and David Theo Goldberg. The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Report on Digital Media and Learning. 2009.
  Available as a free download on the MIT Press website.
  
  
• DeVoss, Danielle Nicole, Eidman-Aadahl, Elyse, and Troy Hicks. Because Digital Writing Matters: Improving Student Writing in Online and Multimedia Environments, from the National Writing Project. 2010.
  
  
• Lanham, Richard A. The Electronic Word: Democracy, Technology, and the Arts, from the University of Chicago Press. 1993.
  
  
• Losh, Elizabeth. The War on Learning: Gaining Ground in the Digital University, from MIT Press. 2014.
  
  
• Selfe, Cynthia L. Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century: The Importance of Paying Attention, from Southern Illinois University Press. 1999.

Social Media

• Magette, Kristin. Embracing Social Media: A Practical Guide to Manage Risk and Leverage Opportunity, from Rowman & Littlefield. 2014.
  
  
• Priego, Ernesto. "How Twitter will revolutionise academic research and teaching. The Guardian. 12 September 2011.

Technology and Policy

• Brooks-Young, Susan. Critical Technology Issues for School Leaders, from Corwin Press. 2006.
  
  
• Brooks-Young, Susan. Making Technology Standards Work for You: A Guide to the NETS-A for School Administrators, 3rd edition, from the International Society for Technology in Education. 2013.

Computers & Writing 2015: Bibliography

This is a placeholder post, where I will later be posting my "inspired by" bibliography for my two presentations at the 2015 Computers & Writing conference, held in Wisconsin this upcoming weekend.

I will take this opportunity to thank a handful of folks: Samantha Blackmon and Thomas Rickert, whose seminars in New Media Studies, Public Rhetorics, and Posthuman Rhetorics guided much of the scholarly work that informed my two presentations. Patricia Sullivan, who helped me, and still helps me, work through the ways everyday practice and emotions weave around, into, and beyond the things academics talk about. And all my fandom friends, from Livejournal and even before, who provided me with a weird and wonderful community that so beautifully nudged (or tempted) me to where I am today.

[links and annotations still updated, 6/4/2015]

Digital Devices, Pervasive

• Chen, Brian X. Always On: How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future--and Locked Us In, from De Capo Press. 2011.
  
  
• Hawk, Byron, Rieder, David M., and Ollie Oviedo, eds. Small Tech: The Culture of Digital Tools, from University of Minnesota Press. 2007.

Education and Technology, or Educational Technologies

• Cassidy, Margaret. BookEnds: The Changing Media Environment of American Classrooms, from Hampton Press. 2004.
  
  
• Cuban, Larry. Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology Since 1920, from Teachers College Press. 1986.
  
  
• Davidson, Cathy and David Theo Goldberg. The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Report on Digital Media and Learning. 2009.
  Available as a free download on the MIT Press website.
  
  
• DeVoss, Danielle Nicole, Eidman-Aadahl, Elyse, and Troy Hicks. Because Digital Writing Matters: Improving Student Writing in Online and Multimedia Environments, from the National Writing Project. 2010.
  
  
• Lanham, Richard A. The Electronic Word: Democracy, Technology, and the Arts, from the University of Chicago Press. 1993.
  
  
• Losh, Elizabeth. The War on Learning: Gaining Ground in the Digital University, from MIT Press. 2014.
  
  
• Selfe, Cynthia L. Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century: The Importance of Paying Attention, from Southern Illinois University Press. 1999.

Networked Culture

• Brown, John Seely and Paul Duguid. The Social Life of Information, from Harvard Business School Press. 2000.
  
  
• Dean, Jodi. Blog Theory: Feedback and Capture in the Circuits of Drive, from Polity Books. 2010.
  
  
• Debray, Regis. Transmitting Culture, from Columbia University Press. 2000.
  
  
• Fernandez, Maria, Wilding, Faith, and Michelle M. Wright. Domain Errors! Cyberfeminist Practices, from subRosa. 2002.
  
  
• Harold, Christine. OurSpace: Resisting the Corporate Control of Culture, from University of Minnesota Press. 2009.
  
  
• Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture, from NYU Press. 2008.
  
  
• Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture, from Routledge. 1992.
  
  
• Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity, from Penguin. 2004.
  
  
• Preece, Jenny. Online Communities: Designing Usability and Supporting Sociability, from Wiley. 2000.

Social Media

• Magette, Kristin. Embracing Social Media: A Practical Guide to Manage Risk and Leverage Opportunity, from Rowman & Littlefield. 2014.
  
  
• Priego, Ernesto. "How Twitter will revolutionise academic research and teaching. The Guardian. 12 September 2011.

Technology and Policy

• Brooks-Young, Susan. Critical Technology Issues for School Leaders, from Corwin Press. 2006.
  
  
• Brooks-Young, Susan. Making Technology Standards Work for You: A Guide to the NETS-A for School Administrators, 3rd edition, from the International Society for Technology in Education. 2013.

How to Plan for Conferences

For the Presentation:

1. If you've got an Apple, make sure to bring a dongle (AKA that thing that connects your laptop to a projector). Actually, bring one even if you don't have an Apple device. Ten minutes before panels begin, start calling out your rental rates.
   
   
2. If you're doing a presentation with sound, bring some speakers with you. Some easy-travel ones can be found at a decent price. For a cheaper price, you can get more awkward ones that you can bang around a bit.
   
   
3. Print out your outline (or whatever) before you leave wherever your workday printer lives. Don't rely on the hotel business center or the university printing lab. At the midnight before your presentation, they will both be either out of paper or out of toner. TRUST ME, I know.
   
   
4. Do you have a flash drive? Do you have two flash drives? Bring 'em.
   
   
5. Test your presentation materials in three different locations. If it's a video/slideshow/electronic thing, that means three different computers. If you're reading or consulting notes, then run through it in front of actual human people. Not only does this minimize technological problems during the presentation itself, it allows you to check your running time, and also discover which words you are bad at pronouncing.
   
   
6. Seriously, assume every single thing will go wrong, technologically. Mentally accept that you may have to freestyle for 10-15 minutes because an electromagnetic pulse has crashed all of civilization, but people still desperately want to hear your thoughts on pedagogy.
   
   
7. If you're in a panel with folks you know, don't forget to set a time limit for each piece. If you're in a panel with strangers, plan for about 10-12 minutes. Yes, your ideas are complex, but you also only have an hour or so. If there's plenty of time after everybody has given their talk, great! More time for Q&A.
   
   
8. Make sure you identify yourself, even if you were already introduced by the panel chair. And let people know that you are happy to share your materials if they want to follow up with you. Because, hey, you should be.

For Convention Center/Conference Room Survival:

1. It is either going to be too cold or too hot in the convention rooms. Plan your outfits as layers, not ensembles. (I have a shawl that I keep wadded up in the bottom of my purse.)
   
   
2. Always have an alternate plan. If you think that one panel in a smallish room sounds can't miss? Chances are fifty other people did, too.
   
   
3. Go to at least one panel where you know nothing about the topic.
   
   
4. Bring granola bars, because you might sleep in and miss breakfast. Or you might have panels you want to attend during lunch, and restaurants in convention centers are expensive. If you can manage it, I'd recommend dried fruit and/or a bunch of slightly-ripe bananas.
   
   
5. Bring a refillable water bottle, and if you're a caffeine addict, a traveling mug. They'll usually have water available, and if you also have access to coffee? You will want to fill up rather than wrangling flimsy disposable cups.
   
   
6. Bring a small paperback book, or a couple of text-heavy magazines. Yeah, conferences are for learning and networking, but doing it 24/7 will burn you out. If you have a spare ten minutes, sit in a quiet space and disconnect.
   
   
7. Bring a small bottle of the painkiller of your choice, and a handful of cough drops. Even if you don't need them, somebody will. (If you REALLY want to impress people: pack of Kleenex, a few bandaids, nail scissors, and tweezers.)
   
   
8. If you have business cards, have them handy--even if you're not a very networky person, somebody might ask you for contact information. You have smart things to say! People want access! (If you don't have business cards, I recommend Moo.com--they're a little pricier than Vistaprint, but you can do more fun things with graphics.)
   
   
9. Have mints or gum for after lunch (unless you have the energy to run back to your hotel room to brush your teeth). Also, check your teeth for spinach, etc. If you don't carry around a mirror, your phone probably has a camera you can use to the same effect.
   
   
10. Usually you can count on hotels and convention vendors to provide you with pens and notepaper, but bring a couple of your preferred pens, too. You won't regret it.
    
    
11. Carry your phone/laptop/tablet charger around with you. At all times. When you enter a new room, scope out the available outlets. You may need them, and you'll need to get to them discreetly.

For Your Tourist/Foodie Times:

1. Check out the menus of the restaurants within/closest to the conference site. Check when they're open, as well. If you get caught up in a conversation with an old friend or a new colleague, you can then easily suggest a place to continue without having to worry about dietary restrictions or getting lost or busting your budget.
   
   
2. If you like checking out local landmarks or doing touristy things, the convention center or conference planners probably have a list of suggestions, as well as how to get to them. You will probably have to miss out on 2-3 hours of conference time (there's no quick popping down the block).
   
   
3. Whether you have meals provided, or if you are doing the "find something nearby" food plan, resign yourself to the fact that you will likely be presented with food you aren't super-excited about. As long as you're not allergic to it, you will survive it (or survive by going a bit food-light, depending on the situation). Make a deal with yourself: pick one meal where you won't compromise. (Breakfast if you're a morning person, or dinner if you make reservations in advance.) Because, sure, you hate those weird sticky danishes that you always get stuck with at the continental breakfast, but BY GOD, you are having yourself some hash and French toast tomorrow.

#IowaWCC: Iowa Writing Center Consortium 2015

This Friday, March 27, was the Iowa Writing Center Consortium, located here at Iowa State, organized by the College of Business Communication Center. This was my first regional WC meeting, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It was lovely!

As per usual, here are some Storify archives:

• Opening and #A4
  The opening session was fun--Chris Nelson did a quick talk about this year's theme, then we teamed up to map out our ideal writing centers. I fell in love with the Crayola Super Tip markers they let us use for our brainstorming.
  
  I presented in #A4 (I did some independent hashtagging today, for the sake of my own organization), along with Shaohua Pei and Kathy Rose, two of the Writing and Media Center's awesome graduate consultants.
  
  
• #B4: What Do You Do Here? Clarifying Expectations for Students and Faculty
  Presented by Jamie Sass, Marshalltown Community College
  
  
• #C2: Creating our CReW: Collaborating with Librarians
  Presented by Susan Pagnac, Central College
  
  
• #D3: We have a writing center? Social Media Marketing Strategies
  Presented by Kelly Jondle and Sarah Curran, Iowa State University, @ISUWMC

And that was all for #IowaWCC! A fun, low-key conference with folks who are invested in the discussion. I'm looking forward to the next meeting already--which, I think, will be the Midwest Writing Centers Association meeting in March 2016.

#4c15: Conference on College Composition and Communication: "Risk and Reward"

The 2015 Conference on College Composition and Communication Annual Convention (AKA CCCC, or 4Cs), Risk and Reward was held March 18-21 in Tampa, Florida. In addition to my usual conference wanderings, I signed up to be a Social Media Correspondent, and got a fancy ribbon and everything! I also volunteered to livetweet the Asian/Asian American Caucus-sponsored session, chaired a session, and spent a few hours volunteering for 4C4Equality. Busy times! Plus, gorgeous, gorgeous Florida.

To make things a little easier to navigate, I've included program descriptions of the panels I attended. Also, this giant data-crunching thing says I was one of the "Top 10 Vertices, Ranked by Betweenness Centrality," whatever that means. Sounds fancy?

THURSDAY

• #genkey: Thursday Opening General Session and Chair's Address
  Joyce Locke, Sharon Crowley, Adam Banks
  Some pictures from Tuesday evening wanderings, and then the opening general session. Some encouragement was offered, some awards were given, and then Adam Banks TORE IT UP and sent us out to learn.
  
  
• #A24: Better Breathers are Better Learners
  Asao Inoue, chair; Emily Beals; Jeremiah Henry; Jennifer Consilio; Susan Naomi Bernstein, respondent
  This panel explores connections among mindfulness, meditation, and yoga with writing pedagogy to help strengthen student writing.
  
  
• #B06: Asian/Asian American Scholarship in Rhetoric and Composition: Risks and Rewards (Sponsored by the Asian/Asian American Caucus)
  Terese Guinsatao Monberg, chair; K. Jyoejin Yoon; Phuong Tran, Edward Lee, Michael Pak, Scott Kaalele; Jolivette Mecenas; Linh Dich; Lehua Ledbetter; Hui Wu, respondent
  Discusses historical and emergent work in Asian/Asian American studies in rhetoric/composition to explore its risks and rewards.
  
  
• #C08: Historiographies of Risk: Missed Encounters with Islamic Rhetorics
  Richard Johnson-Sheehan, chair; Priya Sirohi; Trevor Meyer; Erin Cromer
  Attention to missed encounters with the legacy of Islamic rhetoric opens up a space for new intellectual thought in composition.
  
  
• #E01: The Rhetoric of Advanced College Writing
  Patti Poblete, chair; Sarah Banting; Eric Detweiler; Matt Baker
  Classical rhetoric provides insight into invention, arrangement, theses, and hedging, as well as the very nature of college writing.

FRIDAY

• #F44: Risk and Reward within Writing Program Ecologies
  Elizabeth Wardle, chair; Sara Webb-Sunderhaus; Kristi Costello; Mary Jo Reiff; Amy Devitt; Daniel Sanford; Kelly Kinney; Anis Bawarshi; Paul Walker
  Drawing on an ecological framework, this roundtable explores fluctuations and risk-taking within varied writing program ecologies.
  
  
• #G13: Risk or Reward?: Rhetorical Agency and the Administrative Call for Faculty of Color
  Staci Perryman-Clark, chair; Collin Craig; Aja Martinez; David Green, respondent
  This roundtable provides an open discussion about the role of racialized and gendered bodies as WPA practitioners.
  
  
• #4C4E and #K06: Postcards from the CCCC: A Workshop for Your Writing
  4C4Equality and #K06's Kathleen Blake Yancey, Nancy Sommers, Doug Hesse
  Participants will compose three parallel tasks in sequence--responding to an object, a photograph, a meal--and three postcards.

SATURDAY

• #L05: Mutha Werk: The Risk, the Struggle, the Tools of Saving and Honoring Black Women’s Lives
  Elaine Richardson, chair; Ersula Ore; Gwendolyn Pough, respondent
  This panel lays bare the risks, rhetorics, and realities of being a Black woman.
  
  
• #M16: Making Composition: The Maker Movement, Materiality, Multimodality
  John Walter; Kristin Arola; John Sherrill
  Maker Movement and writing: (material) composition, materiality, and multimodality in print and digital environments.

What a fantastic, illuminating conference. Loved it. Loved it all.

#CLab15: The IWCA Collaborative @ CCCC 2015

The IWCA Collaborative @ CCCC was held on Wednesday, March 18, in USF Health's CAMLS, in Tampa, Florida. This was my first time at the Collaborative--previously on CCCC Wednesdays, I've gone to RNF or ATTW. The Collaborative was less formal (no talks during breakfast or lunch), which surprised me, but it also allowed more time for conversation with colleagues and friends. Below are my Storifyed tweets from the different sessions--I've included the descriptions from the programs, to make things a little easier to investigate.

• #A3: Writing Center Spaces: Designing Research
  Roberta Kjesrud, Western Washington University
  Despite recent higher education research illuminating the enormous impact of space on learning, writing-centered discussions of ideal spaces often feature recommendations based on personal aesthetic and lore-based groupthink. And despite theoretical challenges to this groupthink (Grutsch McKinney, for example), writing center studies contains little parallel research. In this session, participants will imagine an ideal writing center, consider how findings from higher education research complicate that ideal, and then brainstorm research projects to inform effective writing center space design.
  
  
• #B4: Studying Writing Center Stories: Methods for Qualitative Narrative Inquiry
  Jackie Grutsch McKinney, Ball State University; Michelle Miley, Montana State University; and Andrea Scott, Pitzer College
  Stories are inescapable in writing center work and talk. We tell stories of perseverance and defeat, understanding and indifference. Yet recent scholarship (Journet, 2012; Babcock and Thonus, 2012; Grutsch McKinney 2013) suggests that though we often exchange stories, we rarely study them. In this roundtable, we will begin with our experience of capturing narratives as data in our separate studies: an ethnography, survey, and interview project. Then, facilitators will guide participants through a discussion of analysis and how they might use these qualitative methods and others to study the stories of writing center work.
  
  
• #C5: Works-in-Progress Session 1
  Reviewers: Kerri Jordan, Mississippi College; Sherry Wynn Perdue, Oakland University; and Trixie Smith, Michigan State University
  
  
  1. Mission Statements: Connecting Work in the Writing Center to Stakeholder Expectations (WiP)
     Katherine Bridgman, Texas A&M San Antonio
     
     
  2. Motivators for Writing in College and the Enactment of the Writing Lab as the Bridge in the Motivational Process (WiP)
     Elizabeth Busekrus, Missouri Baptist University
     
     
  3. Tutoring Research in the Writing Center (WiP)
     Talinn Phillips, Ohio University
     
     
  4. Analyzing Directive Student Tutoring Strategies (WiP)
     Kathy Rose, Iowa State University, and Jillian Grauman, Iowa State University
  
  
  
• #D5: Data Dash
  Anne Canavan, Jessica Clements, Karen Johnson, Ariel Slotter, Adrienne Williams, Jessica Weidner
  
  1. Integrating with Existing Assessment, Or How to Avoid Reinventing the Wheel (Data Dash)
     Anne Canavan, Emporia State University
     This presentation will report on a model of using existing assessment protocols in order to generate quantitative data for student support services. By tracking which students attend writing centers, and how often, and correlating that data with wider university assessment protocols, student support centers can attain correlative data about the effectiveness of services.
     
     
  2. SLACs, RAD Research, and WCD Turnover: Using Programmatic Agility to Collaboratively “Pull RAD Research Out of a Hat” (Data Dash)
     Jessica Clements, Whitworth University
     With three WCDs in four years, my SLAC intuition seemed to have fallen prey to the perennial problems of professional status and writing center administration; however, my WPA partner and I actively collaborated to suggest that effective programmatic change, including RAD research, in the context of SLACs can be understood as a function programmatic agility—the capacity of WPAs and WCDs to coordinate and diffuse a shared vision for writing/instruction synchronously viamultiple administrative platforms. This presentation speaks to the WC as case study for effective programmatic agility in action, essentially creating something (data for future RAD research) from nothing.
     
     
  3. Shared Spaces in a Learning Commons: Examining Writers’ Perceptions of Safe Spaces and Ability to Achieve Writing Goals (Data Dash)
     Karen Johnson, Shippensburg University; Ariel Slotter, Shippensburg University, Jessica Weidner, Shppensburg University; andAdrienne Williams, Shippensburg University
     Writing centers should function as safe spaces for students seeking an interested reader. As more writing centers become integrated into a learning commons model, we must examine the impact that these shared spaces may have on writers’ perceptions and experiences in our centers. This session will share our examination of shared spaces in a learning commons. Using surveys and interviews, we will present findings about the impact of a writing center’s spatial design on students’ perceptions and their writing development.

And that's all for the IWCA Collaborative. It was super, super fascinating, and while, by necessity, without the breadth of IWCA/NCPTW, there was a wide range of viewpoints provided. Definitely looking forward to the next IWCA get-together in Pittsburgh, October 8-10!

#ISCORE2015, March 5-6, 2015

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a good slice of the Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity, a local conference that feeds into the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity. I was able to attend the (first ever) professional development pre-conference sessions, plus the first half of the conference proper. Naturally, I Tweeted.

• Kathleen Wong(Lau): "Micro-Interracial Social Support: Creating a Place for Intergroup Conflict"
  
  
• Jordan Baumgardner & Evan Knoespel: "Origin Stories: A Personal and Professional Exploration of White Privilege"
  
  
• Jonathon Webb: "Navigating Difficult Dialogues: Accessing the Wisdom of Our Ancestors"
  
  
• Brian Behnken: "Integration Rushes on to Amalgamation"
  
  
• Buford, Corona, Perry, & Montero: “Do You Want an A? Asian American Stereotypes”
  
  
• Maitland & Kunor: "Beyond Our Screens: Race and Social Media"

A great conference, with lots of crunchy discussion. I'm looking forward to participating more fully next year!

2014 in Numbers

So in 2014, lots of important stuff happened. The top three: I finished my dissertation and successfully defended it, I moved to Iowa State to begin as Assistant Director of the Writing and Media Center, and I was awarded my Ph.D. in English: Rhetoric and Composition. Along the way, I survived the job market gauntlet, had lots of emotions, and did some crazy traveling.

I also consumed a lot of media, which is detailed below. As mentioned in my previous post, I read 101 books. I usually keep track of comics I've read, games I've played, and TV I've watched, too, but that sort of got away from me this summer. Ah, well. Let's just say it was a lot and leave it at that.

Concerts: 9

• HEAVning of Whimsy (talent show) [03 April 2014]
• Buddy [19 September 2014]
• Meiko [19 September 2014]
• Butch Walker [18 October 2014]
• Ryan Adams [18 October 2014]
• Jenny Scheinman [21 October 2014]
• Ani DiFranco [21 October 2014]
• Leslie DiNicola [14 November 2014]
• Anna Nalick [14 November 2014]

Conferences and Conventions: 7

• 129th Modern Language Association Convention, Chicago [9-12 January 2014]
• Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, Indianapolis [19 March 2014]
• Conference on College Composition and Communication, Indianapolis [20-23 March 2014]
• Advance Placement Scoring in Louisville, KY [9-15 June 2014]
• Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference, Normal, IL [17-19 July 2014]
• International Writing Centers Association/National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing, Orlando, FL [30 October - 01 November, 2014]
• National Council of Teachers of English 2014, Washington, DC [20-23 November 2014]

Festivals: 1

• International Food & Wine Festival @ Epcot Center [01 November 2014]

Lectures and Readings: 9

• Laverne Cox, hosted by Purdue's LGBTQ Center [26 March 2014]
• Zadie Smith at Purdue's Literary Awards [17 April 2014]
• Kelsey Timmerman, "WHERE Am I Wearing?" [02 September 2014]
• Michio Kaku, "How Science Will Revolutionize Business, Medicine, Jobs, and Life" [19 September 2014]
• "The Symbolism of the Sand Mandala," Monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery [23 September 2014]
• Juan Battle, "Closets are for Clothes: Being LGBT in Black America" [29 September 2014]
• Jane Smiley, "Writing About Iowa: A Conversation with Jane Smiley" [06 October 2014]
• Sanjaya Rajaram, "In the Footsteps of Normal Borlaug: The Golden Years of Wheat Production" [13 October 2014]
• Sam Taylor, "Politically Engaged Poetry for the 21st Century" [06 November 2014]

MOOCs Completed: 2

• Moralities of Everyday Life, Paul Bloom, Yale, Coursera
• The Art of Poetry, Robert Pinsky, Boston University, EdX

Movies: 28

• Pacific Rim (DVD)
• Her (theatre)
• Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (theatre)
• Vampire Academy (theatre)
• Much Ado About Nothing (DVD)
• Veronica Mars (streaming & theatre)
• Captain America 2: Winter Soldier (theatre)
• Edge of Tomorrow (theatre)
• Divergent (theatre, twice)
• Megashark vs. Octopus (DVD)
• Frozen (DVD)
• Godzilla (theatre)
• X-Men: Days of the Future Past (theatre, twice)
• Guardians of the Galaxy (theatre, thrice)
• Don Jon (streaming)
• The LEGO Movie (streaming)
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes (DVD)
• Lucy (theatre)
• The Giver (theatre)
• Snowpiercer (streaming)
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (theatre, twice)
• Annie (theatre)

Theatre: 4

• Hamlet, The Acting Company [29 March 2014]
• Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, The Acting Company [30 March 2014]
• West Side Story, Troika Entertainment [24 April 2014]
• "An Evening with Colin and Brad," Colin Mochrie & Brad Sherwood [26 October 2014]

Not a bad year.