Discourse Chronicle

[Here is a recap with lessons learned from when Elizabeth and I attended the C’s with four other colleagues:

Day 0

• People with a controlling personality often hurt other people’s feelings without thinking about it.

• Driving through stormy weather adds stress to fatigue.

• Planning solves many problems, but cannot account for everything, such as being delayed by Interstate accidents.

Day 1

• Adjusting to weather down south is more difficult for some than others.

• People with a controlling personality make bad team players.

• I caught up with Dr. Jan Swearingen (a graduate mentor of mine) at a Hayden-McNeil publisher party.

Day 2

• I met Dr. Cynthia Selfe at a newcomer’s breakfast and we talked about my current research on Second Life, which led to a request for a copy of a paper I am revising about avatar creation, and encouraged submission to the academic journal Computers and Composition.

• I requested many examination copies from publishers that the “Book Fairy” will leave for me later.

• I missed many interesting panels due to grading student papers and working on my own seminar papers.

Day 3

• I listened to presentations about Second Life in the composition classroom and understandably noticed minimal attention being given to theory and application.

• Elizabeth and I caught up with Dr. Dennis G. Jerz (an undergrad mentor of mine) and we snapped a picture of us in front of Preservation Hall to send to our mutual friend Dr. Joel Pace (another undergrad mentor of mine).

After spending a total of 30 hours in a van on a road trip with five other personalities, I admit the trip is definitely a learning experience, but with all due respect toward my colleagues – I prefer traveling with Elizabeth or alone. BK]

category: Life, Rhetoric and Poetics    

[Today I received my copy of the Internaional Journal of Comic Art (Vol. 10, No. 1, Spring 2008) which contains my exhibit review of The Golden Age of American Political Cartooning at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont, OH! BK]

category: Acceptances, Comics, Life, Popular Culture    

[No blog this week. I am attending the C’s conference as a workshop techie with some colleagues in New Orleans. BK]

category: Life    

[Elizabeth and I returned from presenting in San Francisco on Saturday. Both of us presented well and I am always pleased with how National PCA keeps getting better every year as I celebrate my fifth consecutive year presenting at that conference. Here is a recap about our trip:

Day 0

• Our friends David McClure and Suzan Aiken provided a ride to the airport despite learning about us flying out of Cleveland two days beforehand

• Continental Airlines kindly served a small breakfast with cereal, milk, and fresh fruit along with a snack

Day 1

• Elizabeth and I caught up with my comic scholar colleagues Area Chair Nicole Freim, her husband Jason Tondro, and Amy Nyberg at dinner

• I attended and supported fellow BGSU PhD student Jeff Geers as he panel chaired for the first time

• I caught up with other comic scholar colleagues such as Gene Kannenberg, Jr. and his wife K.A. Laity (author of Jane Quiet)

Day 4

• Elizabeth and I attended each other’s presentations and believe we did well

• My keyring with laminated sheets using “15 min.,” “10 min.,” “5 min.,” and a giant “STOP” sign received good praise as a timekeeping device

• I briefly caught up with Rey Valdez, a PhD student colleague from Texas A&M, who presented on Saturday

• I caught up with John Shelton Lawrence and he asked me to comment on an article he is submitting to a magazine about comics

• I also caught up with Erica Benson, an English professor from UW-Eau Claire, who knows Patrick Day (a professor-mentor of mine from undergraduate work)

• I won “The Korvie” from The Institute for Korvac Studies (a parody panel poking fun at academia and comic scholarship by comic scholars)

One conference down and one more to go. Elizabeth and some of our colleagues are presenting at the 4 C’s conference and facilitating a half-day workshop for college writing programs next week. I am going with them as moral and tech support since videotaping is involved with the workshop. I look forward to it because the 4 C’s is a major conference in the field of Rhetoric and Composition and being there will also give me a chance to catch up with professor-mentors I have not seen in years such as Dennis G. Jerz. I do remember, though, that techies dress in black! BK]

category: Comics, Life, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics    

[No blog this week. I am presenting “Community, Rhetoric, and Poetics in Superman: Birthright” at the National Popular Culture Association conference. BK]

category: Life, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics    

[Elizabeth’s presentation moved again due to a conflict with our flight leaving San Francisco. Here is her presentation as printed now in the program:

Friday, March 21, 2008, 8:00am – 9:30am
Golden Gate Hall Salon C2
406 Gender Studies VI: The Monstrous Feminine in Popular Fictions
Chair: Kirsten T. Saxton, Mills College

“Mommie’s Bloodlusting and Vamping: Dracula as the Autogamous Mother in Bram Stoker’s Dracula”
Joe McDermott, Mills College

I feel bad about setbacks Elizabeth experienced due to her Area Chair because I plug National PCA hard since I always have a great time with it. I know things happen without warning, but like bad customers in retail, people talk and negative feedback makes everyone working on popular culture suffer. Unfortunately, most presenters do not return after having a bad experience with PCA. BK]

category: Life, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics    

Due to the large number of applications that were received, the FPD Review Committee developed a specific set of criteria and guidelines that applications had to fulfill for acceptance. Due to the nature of the selection process, these criteria and guidelines were created to ensure the quality and fairness for all applicants. Unfortunately, your application was denied for the following reason: Transportation expenses not justified.

[I attempted this small grant opportunity at BGSU as assistance toward my upcoming trip to San Francisco for National PCA this March, but I neglected explaining purchasing two plane tickets covers both Elizabeth and I since we split costs. I am not hurt badly because I expected a rejection. The amount awarded for successful proposals is split evenly among all winning applicants regardless of need or importance.

However, I used this letter as a teachable moment with my freshmen students today. I allowed a student to open and read it aloud in class. All of them pulled for me and hoped for an acceptance, but since I failed, I drove home the point that no matter how good we are as writers we may always become better. I believe my students understand that and we continued having a good class. BK]

category: Life, Rejections, Rhetoric and Poetics    

[Elizabeth is presenting with me in March at the National Popular Culture Association conference here:

Saturday, March 22, 8:00am – 9:30am
Golden Gate Hall Salon B1
341 Gender Studies VIII: Resistance and Subversion of Gender Identity in Contemporary Popular Novels
Chair: Catherine S. Cox, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown

Signatures of Gendered Subjectivity in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home”
Catherine S. Cox, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown BK]

category: Life, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics    

[I noticed today that National Popular Culture Association placed its tentative program online and my request to be a panel chair in the Comics area again passed. The conference is being held in San Francisco this March and both Elizabeth and I will be presenting. Here is my session:

Friday, March 21, 2:30-4:00pm
Golden Gate Hall Salon B2
292 Comic Art & Comics XIV: Comics and Community
Chair: Bobby Kuechenmeister

“Community, Rhetoric, and Poetics in Superman: Birthright”
Bobby Kuechenmeister, Bowling Green State University

I look forward to panel chairing again because last year I performed my duties and presented with a cold. BK]

category: Life, Popular Culture    

[Soundtrack: James Bond Theme. I successfully finished my first semester as a PhD student at mid-December and things ended splendidly. As I reflect on fall semester, an environmental change from Texas to Ohio worked miracles, but graduate school now seems much like a James Bond movie in some ways.

For example, Bond is always confident in any situation and remains cool under pressure, which is not a bad model for teaching and professionalism. However, overconfidence is a potential pitfall to Bond’s cavalier attitude toward life. Nevertheless, Bond’s wit is admirable and helps him out of any situation resulting from self-confidence. A restoration of confidence is what I needed and definitely received from this term.

During this semester, I found myself participating in class again, communicating my ideas clearer, and making stronger connections between new and old knowledge. I became more ambitious with my research interests while learning how to trust myself again after losing numerous sessions as an MA student. I also made significant improvements in my teaching style while maintaining my integrity as an instructor.

As a result, I love both teaching and coursework again, which I know will see me through until the end and beyond. Once again I became someone confident enough to know how to read a situation and apply inherent strengths, but also use technology as an appropriate helpmate in my career, much like Bond. I also found an amazing woman who I love and who loves me in Elizabeth, so not only did I manage to save my world, but I also got the girl. BK]

category: Life