Doing Weird, Awesome Things in Graduate School
Big surprise: school happened and I dropped off the face of the Earth. Well, kind of – this Earth. I’ve been busy elsewhere doing – as I’ve suggested – some weird and awesome things that have really made this semester fulfilling, as frenzied as it’s been thus far.
Over this summer, I worked with a colleague in my department to create a social media presence for my department at UT. We launched a Twitter feed in July that delivers interesting links of interest to American Studies scholars and researchers, local announcements, news about our illustrious faculty members and students, and blog updates.
And, natch, we have a new blog! AMS :: ATX is our other baby, which was launched in late August and features lengthier content: interviews with faculty members, graduate and faculty research updates, interesting lists, departmental announcements, and more. We also have a centralized space there for calls for papers, a calendar of campus and local events, and updates about local museum exhibitions here in Austin.
Anyway, if you’d like to see what I’ve been writing over there, check it all here.
Needless to say, it’s been a lot of work, and the work continues – so that’s where I’ve been spending most of my blogging/internet time. We’re also hard at work redesigning the website, so keep an eye out for lots of new bells and whistles as far as the aesthetics are concerned.
I’ve also been hard at work writing for LaughSpin, which I’ve really been digging. We’ve been writing and pushing lists a lot lately (like this), so it’s been fun to write lengthier content for the site. Writing for LaughSpin has left me hoping to spend some time meditating on the place of comedy in American life, especially subversive, political comedy. Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce, I’m coming your way.
Last, I’ve been fortunate to be in a class on documentary that’s encouraging a little more creative expression than I’ve had in other graduate seminars, so I’ve been really thrilled to expand my creation beyond paper writing and note-taking. In the near future I’ll put up some of the things I’ve made for that class so you can get a sense for how awesome American Studies is (we can do fun things!).
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