What the eff?
I’m a Californian now living in Brooklyn. A part-time mom and rest-of-the time doctoral student in American Studies at NYU. Lover of the following: iced coffee, historical minutiae, mind-bending theory, Twilight Zone marathons, gadgets, and talking loud.
Contact
If you Google me, you’ll find this:
Google+
Academia.edu
Mendeley
F.A.Q.
Q. What’s your dissertation about?
A. Many graduate students hate this question because, depending on where they are in their process, they don’t have a clear answer. The following is about as succinct as I can get without causing a nosebleed.
My dissertation, “Is a Laugh Treason?” Caricature, Slavery, and Citizenship in the Age of Revolution, considers print culture, specifically caricature, in the Atlantic World from 1760 to 1848. My work situates the history of eighteenth century caricature and capitalism as a history of bodies in transit, both literally and figuratively. The movement of literal bodies in the slave trade created an increased meaning — as they circulated as laborers, consumers, and commodities, they signified and translated their social and political status in print. In this context, representations of the body become vital to our understanding of the nascent modern socio-political landscape. An analysis of what I call “information capital” requires discussion not only of the circulation of eighteenth century printed materials — such as Atlantic print pamphlets, periodicals, correspondences, and broadsides — but also the process of meaning-making in personhood and citizenship. As yet, a critical race theory that examines caricature and print culture of the eighteenth century Atlantic remains underdeveloped. My project is designed to fill that void and will explain how artistic production and commercial circulation of the printed word and image were central to discourses of racial hierarchy and modes of resistance in the revolutionary Atlantic World.
Q. Oh, so you’re an eighteenth century historian?
A. Not really — I’m a generalist working on a specialized eighteenth century project.
Q. What’s a “generalist?”
A. This is a tricky term. Some in my field consider generalist a pejorative because It conveys a lack of expertise and professional value. But framing my work as generalist allows me to focus on knowledge production as a process rather than an innate gift. An expert has comprehensive knowledge or skill in a particular area, the area of expertise in which I work is in the skill of learning. My interests are broad reaching — but the element that ties this blog together is my focus on practice. This is why you’ll find disparate topics ranging from the politics of motherhood to infographics to the Atlantic Slave Trade to the digital humanities.
Q. So why blog?
A. Writing, even good writing, can only hold my attention for up to 2,000 words before my mind begins to wander or life demands my attention. This coincides with the number of words I can type in one sitting without a break. My previous attempts at blogging degenerated into single serving entries of links and quotes without much, if any, narrative or author-generated content. The few times I did venture into long form essays, I enjoyed the feedback from my readers and members from the blogging community at large. So why did those blogs fail? Because they were anonymous, plain and simple. Not to say that anonymous blogging doesn’t work for many authors and that a pseudonym can grant an element of freedom, but it simply did not work for me. I want to participate in the collaborative potential of the web and I couldn’t do that without coming out of the shadows. I work best when I collaborate and I sincerely hope that you’ll leave feedback in the comments, it is in dialogue where we all thrive best.
Q. I’m interested in reading on, where do I go from here?
A. Awesome! You can subscribe to my feed and/or follow me on twitter.
I hope you enjoy your stay.