Return to the (Digitally) Living
Jan. 25th, 2012 03:48 pmHas it really been that long? Well, my end of semester, like most academics', was packed. Once my grades were turned in, it didn't really get any easier, since I had to finish the final revisions on my dissertation and get it uploaded to ProQuest. However, that is now over--that's right, it's Dr. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ajnabieh these days--and I don't have any papers to return until, ugh, Monday, so I guess I can spare a moment for the interwebs.
This semester's teaching is going well; both of my lecture courses are packed, and the students seem at least minimally engaged. (We'll see how they did on today's geography quiz, and on Friday's critical source analyses, I suppose!) I am realizing, slowly, that I can't expect undergraduate students to understand the whole breadth of things "the state" does already, so I have to, you know, explain what tax and divorce policy have to do with the politics of sex and gender (spoiler: everything), rather than them coming up with it on their own. My seminar was so small it almost got cancelled, but it's grown to a good size (5 students), and I'm quite excited to teach it.
My research is also headed in some interesting places--or at least I think they are! In particular, I've been experimenting with Storyful to organize and record data I'm collecting from Twitter on diaspora advocacy for revolutionary transitions in the Arab world. You can see the three Storyfuls I've published so far here; I think the one on Mohja Kahf is particularly interesting. As a corrollary to this, my interest in how we engage politically in online spaces, and what the methodological challenges to studying politics in digital worlds are, has only grown; so, you know, expect me to ramble about this at y'all at some point in the future. (Has anyone read any of the literature on digital ethnographies? Any suggestions?)
What else? Not much. Oh, I have a bunch of images stacked up for posts, both about food, because, well, what else do I write about? And, if you're at all interested in good indie music from the Middle East and North Africa, Mideast Tunes has been providing the soundtrack to my work life lately. I can particularly recommend Hana Malhas, who has a lovely singer-songwriter vibe in both Arabic and English, and Meen, a hip and funky combo with a lot of energy in their songs. They also seem to highlight metal music from the region, so, if that's your bag, there's plenty there for you!
And with that, I leave you--with fashion posts. Since trivial!fashion!blogging is, really, what I excel at.
( professorial fashion, or lack thereof )
ajnabieh these days--and I don't have any papers to return until, ugh, Monday, so I guess I can spare a moment for the interwebs. This semester's teaching is going well; both of my lecture courses are packed, and the students seem at least minimally engaged. (We'll see how they did on today's geography quiz, and on Friday's critical source analyses, I suppose!) I am realizing, slowly, that I can't expect undergraduate students to understand the whole breadth of things "the state" does already, so I have to, you know, explain what tax and divorce policy have to do with the politics of sex and gender (spoiler: everything), rather than them coming up with it on their own. My seminar was so small it almost got cancelled, but it's grown to a good size (5 students), and I'm quite excited to teach it.
My research is also headed in some interesting places--or at least I think they are! In particular, I've been experimenting with Storyful to organize and record data I'm collecting from Twitter on diaspora advocacy for revolutionary transitions in the Arab world. You can see the three Storyfuls I've published so far here; I think the one on Mohja Kahf is particularly interesting. As a corrollary to this, my interest in how we engage politically in online spaces, and what the methodological challenges to studying politics in digital worlds are, has only grown; so, you know, expect me to ramble about this at y'all at some point in the future. (Has anyone read any of the literature on digital ethnographies? Any suggestions?)
What else? Not much. Oh, I have a bunch of images stacked up for posts, both about food, because, well, what else do I write about? And, if you're at all interested in good indie music from the Middle East and North Africa, Mideast Tunes has been providing the soundtrack to my work life lately. I can particularly recommend Hana Malhas, who has a lovely singer-songwriter vibe in both Arabic and English, and Meen, a hip and funky combo with a lot of energy in their songs. They also seem to highlight metal music from the region, so, if that's your bag, there's plenty there for you!
And with that, I leave you--with fashion posts. Since trivial!fashion!blogging is, really, what I excel at.
( professorial fashion, or lack thereof )