Writing and Mindfulness I first encountered meditation during the spring semester of my senior year of college. A group of twenty or so of us sat in a two-tiered circle, red and blue light shimmering inside from the interfaith center’s stained glass windows, as a philosophy professor/smiling mystic led us in breathing exercises. These exercises … Continue reading Writing and Mindfulness
Yesterday, I presented a paper on French sociologist Bruno Latour and the Flint water crisis at the Northeast Modern Language Association conference held in Baltimore, Maryland. I gave my 20 minute talk as part of a roundtable session on a panel titled "Actor-Network Theory and the Latourian Turn in American Literary Study" alongside three other … Continue reading NeMLA 2017 Presentation- Baltimore, MD
Lots of work within rhetoric and composition has been put into examining the intersection of gender and writing in higher education over the past thirty years. I can't summarize it here, but instead I'll steer the mindful and attentive reader(s) toward the work of Gwendolyn Pough, whose published articles I've been moving through lately, and … Continue reading Writing The Academy
One of my favorite writers, the Depression-era labor theorist and literary organizer Mike Gold, called upon the young writers of his day to stand boldly against passivity, to dare to speak and make their voices known, to audaciously demand an audience and to demand that audience's attention. Gold writes "the best and newest thing a young … Continue reading Go Left, Young Writers!
A reading of Elizabeth Losh’s 2014 book The War On Learning uncovers many interesting and provocative challenges on the trend toward “distance learning” popular among many institutions of higher education in recent years. Modern universities, which Siva Vaidhyanathan has characterized as being remarkably “willing to experiment” within realms of knowledge and content delivery, have in recent years taped … Continue reading Distance Learning Epistemologies
Here’s a small snippet of the final chapter of my MA thesis “Dissenting Voice(s),” in which I look at social media, Anonymous/Wikileaks hacktivism and the implications of intensified blending of the personal and the political: The human-tool interaction, in the case of social medias like YouTube, is one of publication, of announcement, of transmittal to some … Continue reading Dissenting Voice(s)
I’d like to address the topic of Comparative Media Studies, a field N. Katherine Hayles introduces early in her 2012 book How We Think and that she revisits periodically throughout the progression of her arguments in the book. Hayles draws on a variety of examples where Comparative Media Studies (CMS from here on) is integrated into a collegiate seminar, with … Continue reading Comparative Media Studies
The following is the abstract to JD Richter’s MA Thesis, written at the University at Buffalo: “Birth of the Authors: Digital Collaboration, Electrate Invention and the Dissenting Voice.” Abstract: Rhetorical invention occurring in the sphere of the social web increasingly takes on the form of collaborators working in tandem with one another to compose and … Continue reading Birth Of The Authors
I've been reluctant to share anything from my current novel-project-in-progress on this blog, but I don't see the following simple paragraphs making many waves since, you know, we don't meet any actual characters. To be frank-- the novel explores small towns. It asks questions. It ventures answers. It plays with groups of people who aren't quite … Continue reading Novel Excerpt- March 2017
Ambedo JD Richter To be successful in Millennial America without sacrificing soul and artistry—that was the goal, the tightrope to be walked in a concrete land of parking garages and traffic lights, where everything is bought and sold, where a person’s selfhood is bartered for attention and defined to the outside world as a collection … Continue reading Ambedo (A Chapter from A Novel Written Long Ago…)
