digital digs

University Cynicism

As I have written here and elsewhere, the commodification of higher education (i.e. the creation of an academic marketplace) represents the end of education as we have known it. It is not coincidental that this process occurs in tandem with the development of new media. This does not mean that new media is anti-educational or anti-intellectual, but rather that it alters our notions of thought and information to such an extent as to make schools impractical. Obviously part of this transformation has been the commodification of information as part of the information economy. Colleges are now a segement of the information service industry.

What has been lost/is being lost in this transformation is not all to be lamented.

a dis/honest man is hard to find

As I become engaged in a College commitee regarding plagiarism, I have begun to sense connections with my recent intellectual interests (see Code of Friendship). Believe me; now one is more suprpised than I. However, plagiarism is clearly related to copyright and intellectual property (i.e. authorship). It is also obviously a question of ethics (i.e. a "code" of friendship). As I write in that post, ethical codes might be understood as cryptographic and/or steganographic. Furthermore, one might add into this mix, as I do in my post on steganography and memory, that these same processes relate to the anamorphic gaze articulated by Lacan. If, as is often discussed, Hamlet mis/recognizes his father's ghost; a similar anamorphosis occurs in the author's mis/recognition of the text as "his" child (think about this in the terms of the patriarchy interrogated by Derrida in "Plato's Pharmacy"). All of which brings me full circle to the notion of the ethics of authorship. I have already brought together several of these themes in my most recent post on plagiarism (I hate to be so self-referential, but then I wouldn't want to plagiarize myself).

In any case, that is what I see as the intellectual-philosohpical context for the practical institutional problem of plagiarism. And despite the way many academics continue to deride "theory," I believe this context can actually help us in the following ways.

Blogging for Interns

At this site at Maryville College, student interns are blogging about their experiences. It's a great idea to centralize such a record. It provides a way for these students to connect with others going through similar experiences and allows other students to get a sense of what an internship might be like.

From a marketing standpoint, either for a college or a major, its also nice to be able present these blogs in a cohesive way on a website, rather than linking to various blogs (though pedagogically speaking, I think the latter would work fine).

Our professional writing program has a required internship, but we're still small. However the English department has many student teachers who already keep logs. This might be good for them and the many other student teachers at Cortland.

Return to the draft?

We've likely all heard this question in the past few months. But some Americans are already being pressed into service by our government. And it is to the discredit of all American journalists that I end up going to the UK Guardian to read this story. In a nutshell, soldiers seeking to leave the military are being forced to remain if their division has been called to duty in Iraq or Afganistan in the next 90 days.

Even the mainstream press has covered the problem of continuing to occupy Iraq and Afganistan for an extended period of time while fighting the war on "terror" (I liked John Stuart's quip, next "we'll take on that bastard ennui!").

In any case, college students face a legitimate concern in the face of the draft. I remember being 20 when the first Gulf War started. I was born in England, so I want so far as to acquire an application for a British passport so I could get the hell out if necessary. Why? Because, I thought, and still think that the first Gulf War was fought on illegitimate, unethical grounds. And I believe the same about our current engagement.

Already by that time, the whole college deferment thing was in the past. Now, I read that the "escape to Canada" strategy is being restricted. All of which bring us to the "don't ask; don't tell" policy, but in this case you not only need to "tell" you need to prove. In the words of Bill Murray and Harold Ramis in Stripes, "We're willing to learn."

CAE Defense Fund

Those of us who have been involved in new media studies recognize the contributions of the Critical Arts Ensemble. Now one of its members, and a fellow SUNY colleague, Steve Kurtz, has been arrested under the auspicies of the "Patriot Act." This site details the events and provides further information.

Though I cannot speak to the particulars of this event, I have taught the work of the CAE, and I am otherwise familiar with it. I cannot help but think that this is an egregious overreaction on the part of our government to an artist who legitimately questions the future of our society: a democratic responsibility to which we are all beholden.

Panels of CNYCLL Conference

In this, my first year as director of the CNYCLL conference, I am striving to make the conference better reflect the breadth of English Studies, and perhaps some of its closest interdisciplinary partners. To this end I am establishing six new panels on postdisciplinary rhetoric, cyberpunk literature, digital cinema, new media pedagogy, rhetoric of new media, and video games and interactive fiction. There are also a growing number of panels on writing (professional, technical, creative, rhet/comp., etc.).

If you are interested in participating in one of these panels, chairing a panel or proposing a related panel, the deadline for proposals is July 15th.

BUILDING NEW COMMUNITIES: Postdisciplinary Rhetoric and Literary Studies
As the conference theme suggests, for language and literary studies to move forward it must address its own notions of futurity, which are, in large part, conditioned by their disciplinary histories. That is, to use Thomas Kuhn’s language, our own disciplinary paradigms structure our notion of our future. And, in our case, this is a double-bind, as our disciplinary paradigms incorporate our concepts of what is possible in language. This panel seeks presentations that consider the possibility of an academic/intellectual discourse on language and literature beyond the structures of disciplinarity which continue to haunt our practice.

See the other five...

Professional Writing

I have initiated a new blog; this one will be group-authored and include my colleagues at SUNY-Cortland, David Franke and Vicki Boynton. Professional Writing will discuss issues general and specific related to the formation of a professional writing program. The three of us have been at it for a few years now. There is surprisingly llittle research on this new but growing splinter of English Studies curriculum. David and I are currently at work on an edited collection on the formation of such programs. We are hoping this site will be of use to our continuing scholarship in this area as well as having practical applications for the ongoing success of our program.