Big Bend Community College William C. Bonaudi Library

#BigBendCCBookChallengeBookTalk.

Month: March
From: Amanda Miller
Book Title: The Queen of the Tearling, by Erika Johansen

"Kelsea Raleigh Glynn is 19 years old and uncrowned queen of the Tearling. She is an orphan raised in isolation, a lover of books, and social justice. Around her neck sits the royal jewel that marks her as the heir-apparent, known as the Tearling Sapphire. On her 19th birthday, a group nine armored knights arrive at her guardians' cottage to escort her to New London and her throne. Once there, Kelsea must depose of her uncle, the regent, and begin the process of bringing her kingdom back from the brink of destruction. This formidable task takes on new meaning for her when she realizes that the kingdom's enemies are both within and without the borders.  kingdom's enemies are both within and without the borders. Slave traders who have profited from the dubious truce her mother agreed to and the Red Queen of Mortmesne, a seemingly immortal sorceress. As Kelsea discovers the magic that lays within her and the sapphire she wears she begins to question what events in the past led them to this self-destructive road. She seeks answers to the beginning of the Tearling history, the crossing from the old world to the new one. And what went wrong with the founder's dream of a "better world." I listened to the unabridged audiobook read by Katherine Kellgren. This is an unforgettable tale, both written and narrated, of destiny, magic, and the fight against malevolent forces bent on dominating the world.   As the first book in this trilogy wrapped up questions remained... what is the crossing? What were the original settlers running from? What happened to the dream? "

Join our read a book a month challenge.  Have you read a

good book lately?  Tell us about it.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdjyD7PG8C4REqxiG99Z3sT26a0LDiUnHw9oX8zBAbFTAkngA/viewform?usp=sf_link

#LifelongreadingIsLifelongLearning #ReadOn #ShareReading #NewYearsResolution #12in12

The Library has doubled its digital holdings.  in May, we are going to share a Database A Day to share the wonderful new holdings!

How do you find these databases?  Go to the Library. Select Databases A-Z. Find them by subject or title. 

May 1: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection | EBSCO

"Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection is an essential full-text database for psychologists, counselors, researchers and students. It provides hundreds of full-text psychology journals, including many indexed in PsycINFO. It offers particularly strong coverage in child and adolescent psychology and counseling.
-Nearly 480 full-text journals
-More than 290 full-text journals with citations in PsycINFO 
-Anthropology
-Emotional and behavioral characteristics
-Mental processes
-Observational and experimental methods
-Psychiatry and psychology
Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection provides access to hundreds of full-text journals and offers particularly strong coverage in child and adolescent psychology and various areas of counseling." - From EBSCO​

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May 2:  African American History Database

Covering more than 500 years of the African-American experience, African-American History offers a fresh way to explore the full spectrum of African-American history and culture. Includes articles, sharable slideshows, videos, primary sources, and more—that provides a study guide for a particular subject or era. -- From Infobase

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May 3:  Gale in Context: World History

"Gale In Context: World History reaches back to the ancient world—and forward to today's headlines—to deliver a chronicle of the people, cultures, events, and societies that have formed the history of the human race. A range of topics such as Aztecs, Industrial Revolution, Silk Road, the Buddha, Space Race, and more provide a wide perspective across the globe. Rare primary sources, reliable reference, and multimedia content are aligned to curriculum and put this vast subject into context for students. World History is cross-searchable with Gale In Context: U.S. History for users with access to both resources."-From Publisher

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May 4:  Vocations and Careers | Gale One File

"OneFile: Vocations and Careers provides access to journals and magazines that aid users in researching a vocation, finding an appropriate institution of learning, job searching, and maintaining a career. The database offers hundreds of current and applicable periodicals, from general career guides to highly specialized industry journals."- From Publisher

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May 5:  Legal Collection | EBSCO

"Containing full text for hundreds of the most respected scholarly law journals, Legal Collection is a valuable database of information on current issues, studies, thoughts and trends of the legal world.

Legal Collection offers information centered on the discipline of law and legal topics including criminal justice, ethics, federal law, international law, labor and human resource law, medical law, organized crime and the environment." - From Publisher.

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May 6:  Health Source: Nursing Academic | EBSCO

"Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition provides researchers, allied health professionals, nurses and medical educators with access to full-text scholarly journals focusing on many medical disciplines. It provides indexing, abstracts and full-text for hundreds of nursing and allied health journals, many of which are peer-reviewed. "

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May 7: Gale Access - One Link to All Gale Databases

"It’s important that today’s researchers access complete, credible, and up-to-date content. From student favorites like Gale’s In Context suite to our flagship InfoTrac databases, we offer dozens of powerful research platforms to put vetted sources right at your users’ fingertips."

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May 8: EBSCO eBooks - Better than EVER!

"EBSCO eBooks are online versions of print books that your library has either purchased with a perpetual license or via an annual subscription. eBooks that are owned will be available to the library in perpetuity, with provisions being made for long term access and preservation. eBooks available via subscription are renewed annually for the library to retain access. EBSCO eBooks are available from all major academic publishers in virtually all academic disciplines."-From Publisher

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May 9: Diversity Studies "Culture in the Global Community" | Gale

"A must-have for social science, history and liberal arts coursework, the Gale OneFile: Diversity Studies explores cultural differences, contributions and influences in the global community. This collection includes more than 2.7 million articles from 150 journals, updated daily.

Exclusive features, including Topic Finder,and a mobile-optimized interface, support and enhance the search experience." - From Publisher

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May 10:  Core Math & Science Skills | PrepStep | EBSCO

"A must-have for social science, history and liberal arts coursework, the Gale OneFile: Diversity Studies explores cultural differences, contributions and influences in the global community. This collection includes more than 2.7 million articles from 150 journals, updated daily. Exclusive features, including Topic Finder,and a mobile-optimized interface, support and enhance the search experience." - From Publisher

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May 11: eHRAF (Human Resources Files) World Cultures

"eHRAF World Cultures contains ethnographic collections covering all aspects of cultural and social life. eHRAF is unique in having subject indexing at the paragraph level. This allows detailed and precise searching for concepts not easily found with keywords." - From Publisher

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May 12: American Indian History | Infobase

"Offers fast access to more than 15,000 years of culture and history, covering more than 600 Native American groups, through tablet/mobile-friendly videos and slideshows, images, biographies of key people, event and topic entries, primary sources, maps and graphs, and timelines. With a user-friendly interface, this award-winning database allows for an interactive, multifaceted look at the indigenous peoples of the Americas. An important feature is full cross-searchability across all the Infobase history databases for an even more comprehensive view of history." From Publisher

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May 13:  Articles First - Not Full Text - Use to Request Full-Text Articles
 

Use this to request articles you cannot find in full text. "The ArticleFirst® database describes items listed on the table of contents pages of individual issues of over 12,000 journals, describing one article, news story, letter, or other item from a journal." From Publisher.

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May 14: Biography in Context | Gale

"Gale In Context: Biography is an engaging experience for those seeking contextual information on the world's most influential people. Organized into a user-friendly portal experience, it merges Gale's authoritative reference content, including Lives & Perspectives, with periodicals and multimedia. Users can browse to find people based on occupation, role, or historical period, or search based on name, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth/death dates and places, or gender, as well as by keyword and full text." -From Publisher

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May 15: Britannica Encyclopedia Academic

"Online Encyclopedia. Explore the fact-checked online encyclopedia from Encyclopaedia Britannica with hundreds of thousands of objective articles, biographies, videos, and images." From Publisher

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May 16: Computer Source | EBSCO

"Computer Source EBSCO is a full-text database covering computing, technology and engineering disciplines." From Publisher

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May 17: Environmental Issues & Policy | Gale
 

"Gale OneFile: Environmental Studies and Policy answers inquiries about environmental concerns with coverage journals and reference content from Delmar and diverse perspectives from the scientific community, governmental policymakers, and corporate interests." - From Publisher

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May 18: eHRAF Archeology| Yale

"eHRAF Archaeology focuses on in-depth descriptive documents of archaeological traditions from around the world. eHRAF is unique in having subject indexing at the paragraph level. This allows detailed and precise searching for concepts not easily found with keywords." From Publisher

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May 19: Points of View | EBSCO

"Containing resources that present multiple sides of an issue, this database provides rich content that can help students assess and develop persuasive arguments and essays, better understand controversial issues and develop analytical thinking skills."--From Publisher

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May 20: Poetry and Short Story Reference Center | EBSCO

"Poetry & Short Story Reference Center is a rich full-text database of hundreds of thousands of classic and contemporary poems, plus thousands of short stories, biographies, essays, lesson plans and learning guides. It also includes high-quality videos and audio recordings from the Academy of American Poets and other sources."- From Publisher

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May 21: Legal Information Reference Center | EBSCO

"Legal Information Reference Center is an online database designed to assist the general public in legal matters of all kinds. It includes exclusive full text for many top consumer legal reference books, as well as thousands of legal forms." - From Publisher

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May 22: Google Scholar Set Up To Find BigBendCC Full Text

Our link in Databases A-Z sets you up for a full-text search. Look for BigBendCC Full Text in the right margin. "Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts, and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other web sites."- From Publisher

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May 23: Biomedical Research | EBSCO

"Biomedical Research Database is designed for doctors, research scientists, students and clinical specialists, Biomedical Reference Collection: Basic Edition provides full-text, indexing and abstracts for top biomedical journals. It covers a range of subjects, including medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine and pre-clinical sciences.:-from Publisher

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May 24: Business Insights : Global | Gale

"Overall, Business Insights: Global is a good resource for both undergraduate and graduate business-school students. The site offers plenty of unique features, such as the six-item comparison, and an impressive number of graphing and data-conversion options. Case studies add extra depth. Gale Business Insights: Global is recommended to libraries serving business-school students."-From Booklist

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May 25: Statistical Abstract | Proquest

"Published annually by the federal government since 1878, the Statistical Abstract of the United States is the best known statistical reference publication in the country, and perhaps the world. You’ll find it behind nearly every reference desk in U.S. libraries as the authoritative go-to source. Librarians value the Statistical Abstract as both an answer book and a guide to statistical sources. As a comprehensive collection of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States, it is a snapshot of America and its people."-From Publisher

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May 26: General Science | EBSCO

"General Science EBSCO: This database provides full-text articles from a wide range of publications — from specialized to general interest periodicals — covering science-related questions, topics and subjects."- From Publisher

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May 27:  Gardening, Landscape, & Horticulture | Gale

"Gale OnFile: Gardening and Horticulture serves horticultural enthusiasts of all levels with more than 3.6 million articles from more than 100 journals, as well as more than 20 reference titles from Delmar, including Handbook of Flowers; Foliage and Creative Design; Computer Graphics for Landscape Architects; and more. Exclusive features, including Topic Finder, InterLink, and a mobile-optimized interface, support and enhance the search experience." - From Publisher

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May 28:  AGRICOLA

"Containing bibliographic records from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library, AGRICOLA provides millions of citations relating to the field of agriculture. Citations are comprised of journal articles, book chapters, theses, patents, software, audiovisual materials and technical reports to support agricultural research." From Publisher. To find full text that's available in this extensive records, select Linked Full Text on the left.

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May 29:  Family Studies Abstracts | EBSCO

"With bibliographic records covering family dynamics topics, Family Studies Abstracts is an excellent source for family studies researchers. Scholars can access unique content and highly regarded works. Subjects include: Divorce , Family therapy. Marriage, and Family dynamics." - From Publisher. To find full text, use LINKED FULL TEXT to the left of search results.

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May 30:  Faculty Select | EBSCO Trial Until June 30, 2020

We only have a trial on this until June 30.! "EBSCO Faculty Select empowers academic libraries to directly support textbook affordability efforts. Through a single interface, faculty can search and access quality open textbooks, Open Educational Resources (OER), and request access to unrestricted library e-books from top academic publishers. By leveraging free open materials and low-cost library-licensed resources, faculty can transform their courses and reduce the cost burden for students. " By Publisher

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May 31:  New York Times 1980-Current | PROQUEST

"The New York Times (sometimes abbreviated as the NYT and NYTimes) is an American newspaper based in New York City with worldwide influence and readership.[6][7][8] Founded in 1851, the paper has won 130 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper.[9][10] The Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S.[11] Nicknamed "The Gray Lady",[12] the Times has long been regarded within the industry as a national "newspaper of record".[13] The paper's motto, "All the News That's Fit to Print", appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page." From Wikipedia

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Is there a book, a movie, or something in particular that drove you to your studies in Philosophy & Religion?

The Fabric of the Heavens: The Development of Astronomy and Dynamics by Stephen Toulmin and June Goodfield (Harper & Row, 1965) was the first assigned college text that I absolutely devoured and was excited to discuss in class. I was an engineering student in my hometown Wichita State University and taking philosophy courses on the side because I was an atheist in a town full of Baptists and I enjoyed reading Nietzsche’s critiques of religion and finding Christianity’s origins in Plato. Ben Rogers’ course “Science and the Modern World” introduced me to the history and philosophy of science which showed me that my knowledge of math and physics could be connected to my interest in historical philosophers.

What's your approach to research?  Do you go in with a plan or are you random?

I use it as an excuse to go to experts. When I wanted to write about Aristotle’s theory of catharsis, I found a recent collection Essays on Aristotle’s Poetics by Amélie Rorty and the essays about catharsis were all discussing Martha Nussbaum’s theory. That gave me a good excuse to finally read her famous book The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy. Sometimes it’s a good excuse to talk to someone I know about something they know a lot about. When I wanted to know more about the variations of Superman or the Greek mythology in Wonder Woman, I talked to Eric Van Woert at Olde World Trading Company in downtown Moses Lake where we spent hours looking at old comics. Cara Stoddard, a former BBCC English Instructor, encouraged me to read more Slavoj Žižek. Thinking about the travels of Bilbo Baggins gave me the excuse I needed to read Cosmopolitanism by Kwame Anthony Appiah.

Do you have a set of "go to" journals, authors, blogs, databases, or websites you use to keep up to date in your field?  And also - as your field is inherently cross-disciplinary - anything else you use to keep intellectually tuned up?

My dissertation was on Charles Sanders Peirce and so for many years, I subscribed to The Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society. I achieved a life-goal by presenting an essay at The Charles S. Peirce International Centennial Congress in 2014 at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

I try to regularly attend local philosophy conferences such as PLATO-WA and the Northwest Philosophy Conference. I have a huge backlog of philosophy books that are waiting for me to read including a new translation of the Bhagavad Gita. And I’m always on the lookout for online resources for my students such as this YouTube cartoon presentation of The Trolley Problem narrated by Harry Shearer. 

You’ve caught me at a funny time in my life because I’ve put my research projects on hold. I’ve got about three or four essay ideas in my head but I’m waiting until I can take a sabbatical to pursue them. Instead, I’m using my brain to be a Dungeon Master to play Dungeons & Dragons. I’m more likely nowadays to be reading Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes to research the Blood War between the chaotic evil demons from the infinite Abyss and the lawful evil devils of the Nine Hells. Writing is such a private occupation while DMing is a way that I can obsessively research and use it to play a game with others.

You recently hosted a philosophy conference in Moses Lake.  What were some of the hot topics covered? Also, which topics were most robustly - and maybe most loudly - discussed?

PLATO-WA is the Philosophy and Logic Associated Teachers of Washington. We are a group of philosophy instructors at community colleges in our state. Basically, this is my peer group. My friend Paul Herrick organized us in a successful effort to keep the SQR status of PHIL&120 Symbolic Logic. We’ve kept it going as a place to discuss teaching philosophy and logic in community colleges. Paul likes it when we meet east of the mountains and so I hosted the 2020 event.

All of our presentations were about how to explain difficult philosophical ideas to introductory students in freshman-level courses. There were presentations on the Socratic Method and on using open educational sources, but there was also an emphasis this year on non-Western ideas with presentations on Brahma in Hinduism and how to lead a discussion on Taoism given that the Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao.

However, I like to think that my presentation caused the most discussion. I spoke about teaching Marshall McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage and I shared about ninety examples of memes that my students had submitted on a variety of philosophical topics.

Dennis Knepp list of Pop Culture Publications, April 2020.

I’ve long been interested in presenting philosophical ideas to a broader audience and so this is a list of my publications that were meant for the public. I challenge myself to write about a different topic each time. Most of these are published by John Wiley & Sons or the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series edited by William Irwin.

“A Phenomenology of Christmas,” a five-part series, Columbia Basin Herald, December 2004. Each essay was an examination of Christmas through one of the five senses.

“Bella’s Vampire Semiotics” in Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality, John Wiley &   
            Sons, Inc., 2009. I use Bella’s discovery that Edward is a vampire to introduce the triadic semiotics of Charles Sanders 
            Peirce.

“’You’re Nothing But a Pack of Cards!’: Alice Doesn’t Have a Social Contract” in Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy:
            Curiouser and Curiouser, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2010. I justify Alice’s rejection of the guilty verdict of the sham trial
            using the social contract theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.

“Why We Enjoy Reading about Men Who Hate Women: Aristotle’s Cathartic Appeal,” in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and
            Philosophy: Everything is Fire, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012. I use Martha Nussbaum’s interpretation of Aristotle’s
            theory of catharsis to understand why we enjoying reading violent stories about abused people rather than stories of
            nice people doing nice things.

“Bilbo Baggins: the Cosmopolitan Hobbit,” in The Hobbit and Philosophy: For When You’ve Lost Your Dwarves, Your Wizard,
            and Your Way, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012. I use Biblo’s appreciation of other cultures outside the Shire to introduce
            Kwame Anthony Appiah’s theory of cosmopolitanism.

“Gods, Drugs and Ghosts: Finding Dionysius and Apollo in Black Sabbath and the Birth of Heavy Metal,” in Black Sabbath and
            Philosophy: Mastering Reality, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2013. Series editor William Irwin requested that I write about
            drugs and Black Sabbath and so I used it to introduce Nietzsche’s analysis of Apollo and Dionysius in the birth of       
            ancient theater. This is my most experimental published writing.

“Superman Family Resemblance,” in Superman and Philosophy: What Would the Man of Steel Do?, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
            2013. I use the different variations of Superman to introduce Wittgenstein’s concept of a family resemblance.

“’We have an indigenous population of humanoids called the Na’vi’: Native American philosophy in Avatar,” in Avatar and
            Philosophy: Learning to See, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2014. I use the Na’vi to introduce contemporary Native
            Americans philosophers and Scott Pratt’s Native Pragmatism.

“Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication,” in Steve Jobs and Philosophy: For Those Who Think Different, Carus Publishing
            Company, 2015. I use Steve Jobs’ theory of design aesthetics to introduce Slavoj Žižek’s interpretation of the Hegelian
            dialectic.

“The Mind of Blue Snaggletooth: The Intentional Stance, Vintage Star Wars Action Figures, and the Origins of Religion,” in The
             Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy: You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2016. I use
             playing with action figures as an introduction to Daniel Dennett’s philosophy of mind and his speculations about the
             origins of religion.

“Merciful Minerva in a Modern Metropolis,” in Wonder Woman and Philosophy: The Amazonian Mystique, John Wiley & Sons,
             Inc., 2017. I use the Greek mythology found in Wonder Woman to introduce Hegel’s philosophy of history. This
             became the basis for a public lecture at the Salon Series at the Moses Lake Museum and Art Center.

“Remembering, Reminding, and Forgetting with Leonard Shelby, in The Philosophy of Christopher Nolan, Lexington Books,
             2017. I use Leonard Shelby’s tattoos in Nolan’s Memento as an introduction to the triadic semiotics of Charles Sanders
             Peirce as a means of finding knowledge but then undercut that search with Plato’s critique of writing found in
             his Phaedrus.

Interview with:  Dr. Allison Palumbo, English Instructor, Big Bend Community College

Tell us about your new book that is coming out.  When did you first become fascinated heroines in mass media?

Love and the Fighting Female:   A Critical Study of Onscreen Depictions ISBN: 9781476677392

It’s my first book, and I am very excited and a little nervous to be putting my ideas out into the world.

When I first began to understand the idea of a hero, I was a child of the 70s and early 80s, and I didn’t really differentiate between male and female heroes. I just loved heroism and all the heroes on film and television at the time (particularly Wonder Woman and Superman and Luke Skywalker). It wasn’t until I started to get older and notice a distinct difference in how male-bodied and female-bodied heroes were portrayed and that there was a pattern. The male was always stronger, always the one to do the final rescue, and let’s face it, there were at least 20 or more male heroes to every 1 female, especially back then. The female-bodied hero almost always had to be saved, still, and she had to wear ridiculous clothes that were not appropriate for a fighter (still a problem), which made me dissatisfied.

Dr. Allison Palumbo, 4, with brother Eric, 8. Palumbo's personal collection.

When I first began to understand the idea of a hero, I was a child of the 70s and early 80s, and I didn’t really differentiate between male and female heroes. I just loved heroism and all the heroes on film and television at the time (particularly Wonder Woman and Superman and Luke Skywalker). It wasn’t until I started to get older and notice a distinct difference in how male-bodied and female-bodied heroes were portrayed and that there was a pattern. The male was always stronger, always the one to do the final rescue, and let’s face it, there were at least 20 or more male heroes to every 1 female, especially back then. The female-bodied hero almost always had to be saved, still, and she had to wear ridiculous clothes that were not appropriate for a fighter (still a problem), which made me dissatisfied.

So, I started trying to find exceptions to what seemed like an unspoken rule that heroic women onscreen couldn’t be as badass as heroic men. It was something of an obsession, and that stayed with me over the years. And I found them. And I noticed that more of them emerged in popular culture starting in the 1990s, and they have only increased since. And I began to notice that even though these fighting female characters (as I call them in the book) were doing things no one had seen women do onscreen, there were still many ways that their strength and independence were attenuated—always reduced in some way in the narrative. Particularly if there was a romance involved.

Why romance? Because at the same time I was seeing patterns of female heroes being restrained or limited in some way that male heroes weren’t, I was seeing story after story of women giving everything up for love, of changing themselves in some drastic way and, frankly, losing themselves. I wanted to explore the negative implications of both issues at the same time. So, an idea was born. And that idea led me to a paper I wrote when I was completing my Ph.D. coursework at the University of Kentucky, and that paper became the basis of my dissertation and then book.

What kind of research does it take to pull together a book?  What was the hardest resource to find? How did you manage your citations?

I was very fortunate that I was studying at a university with one of the best-endowed libraries in the country, so I never had trouble finding resources. Libraries matter! And how well-funded a library is has everything to do with how much it can provide students. Anyway, I had to read books and academic journal articles on so many topics: violent women, male and female heroes, gender and race ideologies, feminist theories on popular culture, film, and television, autonomy, romance. I basically had to become familiar with every credible source (and some not-so-credible) I could find that had anything to do with my topic, so I could be sure that my work 1) contributed new perspectives and information to what was already available and 2) speak to or relate my work to relevant work others were doing. The only resources I had to struggle a bit to find were recordings of some earlier TV shows from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s like Honey West and Get Christie Love and McMillan and Wife (and that show was TERRIBLE—so hard to watch, as was the 1990s TV version of La Femme Nikita…ugh, so many hours).

As for my citations, I used standard MLA documentation for my work, which is typical for my field, though I also used Endnotes, which aren’t as standard except in longer works. I made sure that I took really good notes as I read from the works I used, identifying when I would write quotes and paraphrases (what page it was from and the author). I had to be particularly careful because evidence of plagiarism in my book—even accidental plagiarism—would basically keep anyone from even reading my scholarship after that because I would have lost all credibility. But I am not worried because I took such careful notes.

What is your mental space when it comes to research?  Do you have a plan? Are you random?  Is it a research rabbit hole or a carefully planned expedition?

Great question! When I was an undergraduate, I always started with a plan, but the longest paper I wrote then was only 40 pages for my senior thesis. It’s a lot easier to envision an idea that size—I could wrap my head around the whole construct and build from there. I was very organized then—note cards and number systems and outlines.

As my studies continued and the ideas I engaged with and created became more complex, my carefully crafted plans for approaches were replaced by random rabbit holes. I would just pick a topic related to my general ideas and then start reading until I started to get a sense of that topic’s complexities and nuances, so then I could start to see if it related to my idea or if it helped me construct my idea more. Some reading just led me to more reading. I read a lot of work that I didn’t technically use in the book but that made me understand the field and disciplines I was engaging with enough that I could be conversant in them and fit with expectations. After I did that long enough and on enough topics, then I could start to think about what was missing, or what was wrong, or what had been overlooked in what others said, so I could figure out what I had to say, what my contribution could be.

As I often tell my ENG 101 students, crying is a big part of my research process now when I sit down to start the writing, mainly because my work at this point in my writing abilities has to be so well-developed and aware of what’s out there. I will often get overwhelmed at the beginning, worry about how on earth I can accomplish this project, fear that I will not have anything interesting or useful or intelligent to say, and then the tears. This is after hundreds and hundreds of pages of formal writing experience. This is after even reminding myself I’ve done it before and can do it again.

But as I also tell my students, once the crying ended, I had so many notes from my reading and watching that I didn’t have to stare at a blank page—I had already been writing for months! All I had to do was pick a note I had written and use that to answer the question “what does this have to do with anything?” In writing through that, to explain it to myself, it helped me start to see the shape of my idea form. If that note didn’t go anywhere, then I would pick another one and do it again, until I could focus on a thesis—my main point. Then, the shape would become more clear and the work a little more narrow.

Writing should always be a little hard for people because it means that they are challenging themselves with what they are saying. Just because I freak out, in the beginning, doesn’t mean I won’t finish it. I have accepted it will happen and that, when I’m ready, I will move on and be fine. Every new chapter, the process would start again, but I didn’t and I don’t fear the fear anymore, so to speak. It means I am going to do more and better because I care about succeeding.

So I now embrace the fear and also failure—my book is something like 350 pages, but I also have about as many pages of notes that I didn’t use, thoughts that I didn’t pursue, and I even at one point had half of a chapter written before I realized that it wasn’t where I wanted to go, so I stopped that train. But I kept it all in files with my drafts because one never knows where the next project will lead.

Much of your research involved film and video. How did you approach and manage this?

At one point, in my deepest research phase, I would read some books and articles for a few hours and then watch 6-8 hours of TV and films a day. I was the master binger. It might sound easy, but it was not. Trying to maintain close attention to anything that long is difficult, much less to be analyzing it at the same time. My process was similar to a process I show my ENG 102 students when we practice visual analysis using a Key and Peele sketch, “Substitute Teacher”—with lots of pauses and time for gathering ideas about moments, scenes, dialogue, settings, sounds, etc. So, in my research, I would watch a bit, pause, take notes, rewind, catch quotes, pause, rewind again. I had to be very careful because I can reread passages and a whole book more easily and quickly than I can watch 5 seasons of a broadcast show with 23 episodes. There was no time to watch them all again, so I had to get it right the first time and then go back for selective episodes or moments. (My spouse stopped watching the shows with me very early on because it was so annoying for him to have the story interrupted all the time.) I needed to make sure I had heard correctly and quoted correctly, again, so my work would be credible for the kind of skeptical audiences who read scholarship. It was mentally exhausting and also very sedentary, so I had to make sure to get off my butt every day for at least a walk to stay sane.