If you haven’t given your support to anyone yet, you can make a donation to our team – Never Walk Alone – by going online to http://vcaidspartnership.givezooks.com/grassroots_fundraisers/ventura-county-aids-walk-for-life-team-never-walk-alone – Keri has set up the team’s fundraising site there.

You can also go to VCAP’s blog to post a comment about why you’re walking, or why you would if you could, or just to share your story or some thoughts or some love.

  Song of the Moment: "Celebration," Kool & the Gang END OF LINE

For me, this is a new direction for an old set of skills. Foremost among these is editing; I have been a print editor in the past, focusing on grammar, style, and consistency among multiple authors. I think this project also counts as digital humanities/social sciences, as we’re trying to build an online community. Finally, I’m using regular old planning and organizational skills to pull the whole thing together.

Check it out! Subscribe, comment, participate if you’re so inclined. I’m hoping this project will also get me going on this blog again. I haven’t had a lot of kvetching to do, and I’ve been très busy with work, dissertation, and life in general, but I’d like to get back into blogging. Wish me luck!

Song of the moment: "Own the Night," Chaka Khan
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The PhD program in English is, in many ways, an apprenticeship: you are being taught by English professors to use their tools and processes with the ultimate goal of becoming an English professor. But there are other options, other paths that are open to you, that you might take for any of a number of reasons.

Traditionally, the alternative career paths for an English major have been the relatively obvious ones. The book Great Jobs for English Majors lists exactly five paths (DeGalan and Lambert iii-iv):

1. Writing, Editing, and Publishing

2. Teaching

3. Advertising and Public Relations

4. Business Administration and Management

5. Technical Writing

While this may not seem to be an extraordinarily rich set of choices, it is worth looking at what the book has to say.

Perhaps most importantly, the “Career Paths” section of Great Jobs starts with this claim: “[English] has always been not only a mainstay of the college curriculum, but also the foundation of our work in many other academic areas. Of all the liberal arts degrees, it opens the most doors and makes the graduate versatile and highly employable…” (114). The authors point out that one of the core skill sets for almost any job is communication. The ability to write and/or speak clearly is a tremendously valuable asset. Regardless of the field or industry, documents need to be produced, reports given, and presentations made. An advanced degree in English means a greater facility with vocabulary and language, higher quality of expression and style, and stronger ability with rhetoric and argument than most other disciplines. In addition to excellent communication skills, your English degree also means strong research skills, an aptitude for analysis and critical thinking, and the capacity to parse dense content through close reading. All of these can be seen as “transferable skills” that have value over a wide range of career paths.

The paths laid out in Great Jobs are rather conventional, but we can lose sight of these possibilities when surrounded by pure academia. Path 1, writing, editing, and publishing, is perhaps the most obvious. However, it’s worth reminding ourselves just how wide these fields are. Writers are needed everywhere. They are of course a mainstay in media, as writers generate content for entertainment and information (for fiction and non-fiction books, magazines, web sites, television, film, radio, games, and more). Larger organizations (corporate, non-profit, educational, religious, government, etc.) often use individuals or entire units for internal communications (writing and communicating policies, standards, or other information) that “rival the commercial publishing industry in quality” (DeGalan and Lambert 119). The grant writer or proposal writer in academic and non-profit institutions is a position that can command both power and prestige and is instrumental to the success of many organizations; similarly, institutions need someone to produce their white papers or position papers when a research project is complete. While a bachelor’s degree is perhaps sufficient for general publishing jobs, specialized niches are also out there. The academic presses, both large and small, are a viable option if your interests lie in that direction; the role of acquisitions editor is particularly suited to an English PhD—though be warned that you must work your way up to that position. Reference books, such as encyclopedias, don’t research, write, or edit themselves. Take a look at your library, and think about where some of those eccentric items have come from, what it takes to produce them. Writing, editing, and publishing can offer an interesting career if you think about it from that perspective.

Path 2 is the second-most obvious career path: teaching. Again, though, there is more to this than meets the eye. We are being trained to teach writing and literature at the university level, but “teaching” encompasses an awful lot more than that. If you’re still considering the professoriate, do not forget the junior and community colleges, which will focus more on teaching than on research or service. There may also be openings in professional and vocational schools; for example, a local graduate school for health professionals has a series of “professional writing” courses, and they have in the past come to our department looking for instructors. High schools can attract PhDs, too, especially to teach AP or other advanced English classes. Private schools in particular can offer lucrative teaching careers for the holder of an advanced English degree. In addition to traditional teaching, there is the professional tutoring industry (Huntington, Kaplan, Sylvan, etc.), as well as units like UCSB’s own Writing Center. Larger organizations may also have in-house training departments where teaching skills will be valued. For someone who enjoys teaching but perhaps is seeking another context for that work, there are many options available.

The third path, advertising and public relations, is not often an attractive one to those in our field. There are, of course, all the journalism, marketing, communication, and PR undergrads with whom to compete on a general level. However, interesting opportunities still exist in this field, and we are—don’t even try to deny it—masters of persuasion and spin to rival any of those other degree programs. While it’s likely that you originally became an English major because you didn’t want to do that kind of work, it’s also possible that your goals or interests have changed. If you find it an attractive option, there’s no reason not to try for a job in this area. It’s a strong industry, and with your PhD you may be able to command a higher starting salary than most. Remember also that all kinds of organizations (colleges and universities, government agencies, medical institutions, professional organizations, etc.) have PR departments—this portion of the job market can sometimes be overlooked by strong candidates who want to go for the big PR firms and the biggest bucks. Also related to public relations is the area of media campaigns. If you have a political or activist bent along with organizational ability, it may be possible to turn your skills and talents to campaign management in politics or to aiding in the design and production of media campaigns for non-profit, governmental, or other organizations.

Path 4, business administration and management, is one that is almost universally overlooked by people in our field. It is, however, much more than it seems, and holds a lot of promise for the English PhD. At a basic level, this is where the communication skills and other transferable skills mentioned earlier come into play. I got my master’s degree in English from a small Midwestern university. At their annual career fair, corporate America comes looking specifically for the English grad students because we know how to communicate. They told us that these skills are more valuable to them than business-school knowledge, which can be learned on the fly; on the other hand, they consistently see MBAs who can’t write quality memos or reports and who can’t communicate well within the company or with clients and partners outside of it. But administration is more than just corporate middle-management. For PhDs in particular, academic administration is another great option. There are positions with academic units, such as departmental, division, or college staff, or administrative units, like the registrar, Graduate Division (or its equivalent), or the offices of the chancellor or president. Not only do you bring to such careers the skills you have been building, but you have experience with the bureaucracy (for good or ill) and an understanding of the organization, its methods, and its goals. Non-profit and governmental administration can also make for fulfilling careers in this area; an administrator or manager position with the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Library of Congress, for example, can combine administrative work with the humanities training we value. Private foundations and think tanks, while difficult to get into, can also provide challenging and rewarding work. Management is a very viable option for an English grad seeking an alternative to the academic career path.

Finally, there is the technical writing path. Great Jobs distinguishes this from the general writing path by its focus on interpreting and making comprehensible technical or complex information. This path is centered on the production of manuals, reports, and other technical documents. Like the PR path, this is a field that may seem generally made for the BAs or for those in other fields like communication or even engineering. However, it is still the case that no one writes better than we do. A PhD in English who also has a technical background can use that to put a technological spin on any of the previous paths. If, for instance, 3M or Target will hire an English grad for her or his communication skills, IBM or HP may be even more excited about an English grad who also understands hardware or software. An administrative or communication position at the National Science Foundation or the U.S. Patent Office can be added to the list of careers to consider.

Great Jobs therefore has a lot to offer if we put a little emphasis on the extra training we have received as graduate students. However, there are more paths that may be open as well, depending on your interests and specific areas of specialization. For instance, your affinity for and knowledge of historical texts might qualify you for work as a special collections curator or archivist. If your training includes strong language work, then translation—whether of historical or contemporary works, or perhaps of institutional or technical documents—is an area in which you may thrive. Various organizations employ researchers, people who can locate information in all its various forms and hiding places; this is a skill at which we excel, and some may enjoy that work even more than writing. If your strength is in interpersonal skills and you have an interest in the entertainment industry, think about trying on the role of literary agent or talent manager.

If you are doing more than just English—which is true to some degree for most of us—then you may be able to turn your avocation, side emphasis, or hobby into a strength that is bolstered by your academic skills. This has been my own experience: with a side emphasis in technology (including UCSB’s doctoral emphasis in Technology and Society), it was almost natural for me to get involved with classroom technology as part of my study and my teaching. This, combined with a small network of people in the field, helped to land me a career in instructional technology, in which I use my skills in technology, research, teaching, communication, and writing—all of which I acquired or honed as an English student. Similarly, Sarah Smith-Robbins went almost overnight from being an English graduate student with a focus on teaching writing to one of the world’s foremost experts on interactive teaching because of her interest in and enthusiasm for Second Life; she is now Director of Emerging Technologies at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business (“Our Staff”). Taylor Whitmer, a 2007 double BA in English and Communication from UCSB, became a research analyst for NB Real Estate (now Capita Symonds Real Estate), one of the top commercial property agencies in the United Kingdom.

Remember, finally, that any of the jobs mentioned herein can be pursued on a part-time basis. The terms consultant, free-lance, or—for the bravest of souls—entrepreneur conjure up specters of instability and insecurity. Keep in mind, though, that security (at least until you have tenure) is a slippery and relative thing. Self-employment, while definitely not secure enough for some, can provide flexibility, freedom, and excitement for others. Like anything else that has been mentioned here, this is not for everyone; still, it should not be overlooked as an available option.

When considering the “job market,” it may help to know that the market can be much broader than is generally imagined. With some creativity, it may be possible to find rewarding and even lucrative work in any of a number of areas. Think about your dissertation: aside from its academic value, does it speak to a particular industry or area of human endeavor? Perhaps there’s a ready-made job for you as an expert in that domain. Or perhaps you can talk your way into the creation of a dream job in some institution or agency. Hopefully, the options brought up here can at least provide places to look when thinking about the next step. The massive achievement that is the English PhD can truly take you almost anywhere.

References

DeGalan, Julie, and Stephen Lambert. Great Jobs for English Majors. Lincolnwood: VGM Career Horizons, 2000. Print.

“Our Staff.” Indiana University Kelley School of Business. 2011. Web.

 Song of the Moment: "Einstein vs Stephen Hawking - 
Epic Rap Battles of History #7," NicePeter
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I’m looking at Media Choice models. Specifically, I’m working on finding a way to translate one (or parts of several) into a model that will help analyze the choices that Second Life landowners make in designing their spaces. The area that informs this thinking is Media Richness theory (Daft & Lengel, 1984). However, it turns out that there are a whole lot of “refinements” to Media Richness, and it’s hard to decide which way to go. Social influence is definitely worth looking at, and I feel drawn to Channel Expansion. But can we make a reasonable analogy between the choice of a communication channel on one hand and design decisions on the other?

I feel like the answer should be “yes.” There’s something about the symbolism involved in each that, I think, can be transferred into a common (or at least parallel) language using semiotics. But at the moment, this is just a fledgling thought.

Does it even sound doable, let alone reasonable? More to come…

Song of the moment: "Stand," R.E.M.
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I’m not sure why it is, but I still feel a visceral disgust at that abominable vehicle. I don’t think I’ve felt so strongly about an automobile before, at least not negatively. It was just…so completely ugly. There was nothing, in my opinion, remotely pretty about it.

Except its being broken.

I suppose you could say that it did have a positive effect on me: I could not have gotten so much joy out of its destruction if it had never been created in the first place. But something about that logic strikes me as not quite right.

Forgive me for beating a dead horse (or a dead Batmobile). I just needed to get that out, I guess.

Song of the Moment: "Say Hey (I Love  You)," Michael Franti & Spearhead

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“What Are We Doing, Anyway?” (11/13/09)

I’d like to revisit Amanda Visconti’s blog post about the must-have technical skills for a digital humanist.

Our department’s Literature.Culture.Media Center was fortunate enough to be visited by Dr. Patrik Svensson today. Of course, I had class and then a meeting during his talk, but I was able to make the reception afterward and hear him talk about digital humanities–and, in particular, the state of the field.

Or lack thereof. It turns out that “digital humanities” is, like most things humanities, a slippery thing to define. Do you remember when it was “humanities computing”? Do you remember even further back, when it was just a humanist who knew a little about Unix, HTML, or C+?

But to get to the point: what are we doing when we claim to be “digital humanists”? We are clearly not all doing the same thing, or (I suspect) even on the same page at least part of the time. So what would you say to someone from the “outside” if they asked you what you mean by digital humanities?

Part of my reason for asking is that, even though I’m in an English department, my dissertation has slid significantly into the social sciences by way of online virtual worlds. I keep my humanist focus, at least in my own mind, by steadfastly sticking to qualitative methodologies. But my digital credibility–well, I’m not so sure where I stand. I use a lot of technology, and I understand a lot about its technical underpinnings, but coding left me behind right about when amateur programmers switched from PASCAL to C. Yes indeed, that was a very long time ago.

Thus, I consider myself part of the DH universe mostly because my object of study (virtual worlds) is digital, and I approach the analysis of it from a humanities or humanist perspective.

But that’s just one approach. As implied by Amanda’s blog post, the DH universe also includes those people who do humanities with digital tools, often creating said tools themselves with their programming prowess. Is that enough? How digital do you have to be, or how humanities, to be considered DH? Is it even right to try to fit such disparate activities under a single categorical umbrella?

One pragmatic / cynical way to look at it is in terms of fads and funding. The money (what little there is) is in digital humanities, so we have an interest in being considered digital humanists. But when the money turns its attention elsewhere in a few years, what will we have left?

What are we doing? What are you doing, and why do you call it digital humanities?

Song of the Moment: "Do You Love Me," The Contours
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But I also read Circuit of Heaven, a novel about which I feel much, much better. In fact, it turned out to be a great suggestion, and one that will very likely be incorporated into the dissertation work. Thanks, Billy! The same goes–with thanks to Liberty, this time–for Otherland, which is now almost officially a primary text for my project. Both of these works cover the themes I’m looking for without being painful to read, and were in fact extremely enjoyable. After I’m done with the dissertation, I’m going to seek out the sequel(s) to Otherland. (Of course, there’s an awful lot of reading I’m going to seek out at that point…)

Among other candidates are several films, specifically The Matrix, The Thirteenth Floor, and Existenz, which all interestingly came out at about the same time.

And the work progresses…

Song of the Moment: "One Brown Mouse," Jethro Tull
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Part of the problem is that I’m closing in on the ABD phase of the PhD program. Yup, one more course remaining, and then all I have to do is write a minor book while three faculty members monitor every step of the process.

Good times.

The funniest thing is, the more research I’m doing for this dissertation on virtual worlds, the less time I have to spend in virtual worlds. Did I say “funny?” Sometimes it seems cosmically perverse. That’s OK, though. I’m still learning a lot, and I’m still enjoying most of the learning that I’m doing.

One thing I’m look at right now is fiction centered on/in virtual worlds. My hope is to find some good fiction to which I can apply the research I am doing for a literary application of the work. This is where I need some help. I’m not sure what’s out there as far as relevant fiction goes. My current list:

• Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
• Tea from an Empty Cup, Pat Cadigan
• Otherland, Tad Williams
• Circuit of Heaven, Dennis Danvers
• ANIMA, Dalian Hansen

I haven’t yet read Otherland and ANIMA (subtitled A Novel about Second Life). If you’re familiar with even a couple of these titles, you can probably see where my thinking is.  (If not, what I’m looking for are stories which take place in or prominently feature digital virtual worlds – not, however, just representations of the internet like Gibson’s “matrix” in the Sprawl series, but worlds designed and presented as such.) I know there are not many readers of this blog, but I’m asking in every venue available to me, including this one, whether anyone has suggestions for other works I might look at.

Thomas More’s Utopia has been suggested, as has Edwin Abbott’s Flatland. I haven’t read them, but I’d also love to get feedback on whether either one fits.

Let me know. I can use all the help I can get. Hey, who can’t?

Song of the Moment: "Rockstar," Nickelback
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In any case, I live in the land of the political initiative, referendum, or proposition, and it seems we’re called to the polls at least a couple of times every year to cast votes on the welfare and direction of the Golden State. Which, if you ask me, is pretty cool, though it takes a little getting used to.

This November, along with the national ballot, we have several state and local measures to consider. The two of these that I think are of greatest import are Propositions 4 and 8. I might talk about 4 some other time, but for right now my concern is Prop 8.

Put simply, Prop 8 if passed would ban same-sex marriages in California. You may or may not know that this is an issue that’s gone back and forth in this state; most recently, a California Supreme Court ruling held that it was unlawful to limit “marriage” to strictly man-woman couples. This means that same-sex marriages are valid and recognized in California at the moment, but Proposition 8 aims to add wording to the state constitution to the effect that only a man-woman marriage would be valid and recognized here.

That’s just wrong. There are a whole host of reasons that I hold that opinion, and I may go into them another time. What interests me right now, though, is that this issue – both locally and nationally – points a giant, sore finger at the massively gaping hole in the supposed wall between church and state. Half the problem here is the blanket use of the term “marriage.” If you stop to think about it, you realize that agents of religious authority (clergy) are given permission to perform a ceremony that affects the status of a couple in the eyes of governmental / civil authority. If we’re supposed to support the separation of church and state, isn’t that whole setup in direct conflict of the principle?

There should, from the very founding of this nation, have been a distinction made between the union of two people in a religious context and a similar (though not identical, and sometimes completely different) union in a civil context. The fact that some religions or denominations recognize same-sex marriage while their local governments do not points to that as a basic truth. Or how about this  one?: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (yes, the Mormons) once allowed and recognized polygamy (some fundamentalist groups not affiliated with the mainstream church still do), but the federal government of the USA has never recognized polygamous marriages. This demonstrates quite clearly that marriage does not mean the same thing to religion as it does to government.

But those who support Prop 8 – that is, those who wish to ban same-sex marriage – conflate the two contexts. They claim that if the state recognizes same-sex marriages, then their religious beliefs will be in danger. But wait: if we really have separation of church and state, then no state decision can impinge upon their beliefs. So what’s to be afraid of? The Catholic Church supports Prop 8, but the state is not going to force Catholic priests to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies. So the Catholic Church (and all who support Prop 8) is not really defending their right to do things their way; they’re specifically hoping to restrict the rights of others to do things a different way.

I think civil union (marriage in the civil context) should be separated from matrimony (marriage in the religious context) altogether as a matter of principle. It would make sense for those who are religious to have the two be combined or overlapped in some way, but we now live in a time where there are lots of people who for many differing reasons have or want nothing to do matrimony, while still desiring the rights and responsibilities of civil union. Not to mention many who are married in name but don’t really live that way.

It’s to the benefit of the state to allow same-sex marriages. Just as with heterosexual marriages, it promotes social stability and contributes to economic stability. Beyond that, though, it’s straight-up illegal for the state to discriminate against people on the basis of religion or sexual preference / orientation (among other things, of course). By banning or prohibiting same-sex marriage, for whatever reasons, the state is by definition treating one group of people (homosexual couples desiring to be married) differently from another (heterosexual couples desiring to be married) on the basis of sexual orientation and possibly religion. These two sets of people are otherwise indistinguishable: in each case you have two people who are probably in love and want to publicly and socially declare an intent to commit permanently to each other and obtain all the rights and responsibilities that accompany such a declaration; the only difference is that one pair has different plumbing, while the other pair has the same plumbing. The state should not be in the business of discriminating between people on the separate or combined bases of sexual orientation and religion.

Wait, isn’t that basically what the California Supreme Court said?

Come on, people. How hard is it, really? Do you want to live in a land where discrimination is ok? I probably shouldn’t ask that question – too many people, if they answered truthfully, would say “Yes.” But if you don’t, then oppose Proposition 8 this November. If you live in California, vote against it. If you don’t live in California, urge any Californians you may know or come into contact with to vote against it. It’s that simple.

Song of the Moment: "Hawaii Five-O," The Ventures
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The result is, as everyone who’s into these things knows, the size zero shoe. You purchase a pair of shoes, and they look fabulous, and they’re designed for size 0 feet, so you adjust your Foot Size slider to 0 so they’ll look right. And, in theory, there’s nothing wrong with that – to a point.

In fact, though, it’s systemic. It’s institutionalized. It’s become accepted practice. And there is something seriously wrong with that.

How is this different from virtual foot-binding? Avatars are being asked to change their bodies in order to fit social norms or fashions. No, they’re not even being asked. In some cases, they’re being politely reminded, but often the bodily deformation is simply taken for granted. And, as we know, it’s not just shoes. There exists a whole host of clothing items that are designed only for avatars that are designed within a relatively narrow (both literally and figuratively) size spectrum. And, I recently learned, the same goes for poses and animations.

Now, this isn’t the case for all designers. When it comes to shoes in particular (but also for other size-sensitive items), there are a handful of creators who for their own reasons give us mod perms. Some of those who don’t will still sell their shoes in two sizes (such as 0 and 10, or 0 and 30), which is at least a little accommodating. And there are starting to be designers who cater specifically to “plus-sized” or otherwise non-standard (as if!) avatars.

But in a world that prides itself on diversity, where even a basic avatar can have any of dozens of attributes sized from 0 to 100 (you should hit the Random button sometime and see what happens), this strikes me as simply insensitive. It’s no different from FL’s neurotic and neurosis-producing insistence that beauty and taste are a single vision that must be administered in a top-down manner. We know better than that, don’t we? How is it that this kind of thinking found its way into our virtual world?

And worse, how is it that we as residents put up with it?

Song of the moment: "Put Your Top Down," Tré Little
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