Hello, world!
Perhaps that’s overstating it a bit. I would, however, like to extend a friendly “hiya” to those who’ve stumbled upon this blog – classmates, colleagues, and passersby alike. I’m new to WordPress, so while this blog will be used to discuss issues relevant to my Research in Writing and Rhetoric course, it also represents another link in the rapidly expanding network of online spaces I inhabit. As someone who loves to use the Web for work and play, I welcome the opportunity. =)
I suppose that brings me to the “research” part of this research narrative. While I’ve always loved computers and Internet technologies, I really didn’t begin bringing this recreational interest into my academic life until a year ago, during fall semester of 2006. That semester, I took Dr. Blair’s Computer-Mediated Writing course and developed a Web portfolio using various technologies (iMovie, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, etc.), while also reading some pretty cool scholarship on new media and digital rhetoric(s). At the same time, I was working with Donna Haraway in my literary theory class (cyborgs, anyone?) and was a little surprised at just how much I was enjoying cyberfeminist scholarship. About midway through the semester, I knew that this wasn’t just a passing curiosity. In the spring, I took a course on technoscience and cyberspace as an elective, and I also found ways to incorporate my continued interest in Web technologies into the content of other courses. One of my research projects that semester explored YouTube as a site of epideictic rhetoric – I had so much fun with the project and noticed so many other areas of potential exploration that I’m now pretty sure that my dissertation work will engage YouTube in some way, if not as the central focus. This class couldn’t have come a better time!
