Jana Remy
  • Writing
    • Disability
    • Making History
    • Digital Humanities
      • dayofDH
    • Canoeing
    • Creative Nonfiction & Essays
    • Feminism
    • Bibliographies
      • Pacific Worlds Bibliography
    • Social Media
      • Mentions/Links
  • Scholarship
    • Awards/Fellowships
    • Conferences & Invited Talks
    • Collaboration
    • Workshops
    • Conference Planning
    • Technical Skills
  • Teaching
    • Blogposts About Teaching

Jana Remy

  • Writing
    • Disability
    • Making History
    • Digital Humanities
      • dayofDH
    • Canoeing
    • Creative Nonfiction & Essays
    • Feminism
    • Bibliographies
      • Pacific Worlds Bibliography
    • Social Media
      • Mentions/Links
  • Scholarship
    • Awards/Fellowships
    • Conferences & Invited Talks
    • Collaboration
    • Workshops
    • Conference Planning
    • Technical Skills
  • Teaching
    • Blogposts About Teaching
Monthly Archives

November 2012

make me smilessc

short shameful confession #25

We’re not 20 anymore…

He said, as we jumped into the car before 7am to take Catgirl to school.  We’d had a long evening in Los Angeles with new-to-me Belgian friends Hans and Lien.  Dinner was at a popup restaurant, The Hart + the Hunter (by our favorite chefs from Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing) with drinks afterwards at The Dresden Room.

There’s something to be said for an evening filled with vigorous conversation, simple southern-style foods, and the hours flying by.

The next morning, however, one does have to get up and get the girl to school and get to work and…one does realize that it just isn’t as easy to roll into bed in the middle of the night and out of bed in the early morning as it used to be…

Previous Short Shameful Confessions

November 16, 2012
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on teaching…
deep thoughtsteaching

on teaching…

I used to teach religion classes to Mormon teenagers every morning, and that’s how I learned that I wanted to be a teacher.

Although I was up at the ungodly hour of 4:30 every morning to commute to my teaching gig and it was a thankless and unpaid position, I loved it.  I came home alive and ready for more.  Late into the evening I would stay up scheming ways of edu-taining my students–so none of us would be nodding off in class, and I loved that challenge.

After from teaching in the college classroom this afternoon, I’m feeling that same adrenaline surge.  Today my students gave some two-minute lightning presentations.  It was a daunting task–to get up in front of the class and try to hold their attention while speaking about the implications of the involvement of the federal government on the environment of the American West.  But they did well, even through a bit of nervous shakiness and laughter.  And I came away marveling at the fact that they are doing hard work and, above all, learning.

November 13, 2012
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Changing my c.v. to a resume for #alt-ac job applications
digital humanitiesschool

Changing my c.v. to a resume for #alt-ac job applications

When I began applying for alt-ac positions instead of traditional faculty jobs, I soon realized that most of these jobs asked for a resume rather than a c.v.  Given the variety in the ways that anyone structures their resumes and vitae, it was hard to know exactly how to make the changes to mine to reflect the expected differences between the two types of documents.  Moreover, I’ve learned in the meantime that I’m not the only one with this problem!  So I’m posting my c.v. and resume here as a sample for others who are applying for alt-ac careers, and welcome any feedback you might have on these or any examples in this vein that you would like to share.

First, here is my current c.v. [PDF]

You’ll see that I keep the formatting quite simple, with the following categories:

Current Position
Education
Teaching Areas
Dissertation
Articles and Book Chapters
Notable Online Publications
Awards, Fellowships
Talks & Presentations
Professional Activities

Even from these categories it might be obvious that I’m a non-traditional scholar–because of the unusual category of “Notable Online Publications.” I felt that it was important to have a place to mark my online work as well as my publication in print formats, so I chose to add this section to my c.v.

And now, here is my current resume [PDF], which I’ve used in applying for positions that are “alternative” to a traditional tenure-teaching path.

This is a much shorter document, and focuses on experience and skills rather than on awards and publications.  It has the following categories, with the strongest emphasis being on my Technical Skills and on my work in the Digital Humanities:

Current Position
Education
Technical Skills
Recent Talks about Digital Humanities
Selected Professional Activities

One peculiarity on my resume is a lack of an employment history other than my current position.  This is because I’ve had very little paid employment outside of my work as a TA or tutor.  Generally this comes up in job interviews and I explain about being in graduate school and point to the various non-paying projects, such as hosting a podcast and serving on conference committees, that gave me important skills.  Because I’ve only applied to jobs within the academy, this lack of employment history has not seemed to be much of a barrier.  However, I suspect that if I were seeking employment in the “industry,” I might encounter more difficulties with not having had much work experience.

In addition to both of these documents, I also maintain an online portfolio at my janaremy.com domain name.  This site breaks down some elements of my resume into more detailed categories and also offers hyperlinks to the various projects, conferences, and activities that I mention on my c.v.  Though I don’t track my website analytics closely enough to know how often this has been consulted by hiring committees, I do get a few dozen hits on these pages on any given week, so it seems worth keeping this section of my portfolio updated regularly.

Screenshot showing the dropdown menu on my website.

Being still in the early stage of my career, I offer these examples with the caveat that they’ve been successful for me so far, but that I’m far from being an expert on what hiring committees are seeking from their applicants.  And, I welcome links to your vitae and resumes in the comments below this post, as well as any feedback on my documents that you can offer.

November 8, 2012
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hope there’s someone…
lovesongs/poetry

hope there’s someone…

There’s something about Antony & the Johnson’s, that when they come onto my Spotify station I start to feel a bit more raw and tender (and vulnerable). Not such a bad thing to happen, a strong reminder of the people that I care the most about:

What music does that for you?

November 7, 2012
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Teaching with a Typewriter…
deep thoughtsdigital humanities

Teaching with a Typewriter…

This semester I’m teaching a class with a strong technology component.  So far my students have used flickr, wordpress, SIMILE timelines, Wordle, Wikipedia, GDocs, Blackboard, and Prezi.  On my midterm evaluations several of them commented that they had technology-fatigue after learning so many different tools.  As a result, I decided it was high time to get old-school.

So, last week I brought in my Royal typewriter to class for the students to use for a short in-class assignment, where they would write a twitter-length summary of the day’s reading.  I learned that not one of them had used a manual typewriter before–most of them couldn’t even figure out how to load in a sheet of paper and no idea what the ding of a carriage return meant (much less how to pull on the lever to move the carriage back to the other side of the page).  Only one of them had the finger strength to consistently hit the keys hard enough to make an ink impression on the paper.  Afterwards I wondered if perhaps they were scared of breaking the machine–despite my encouraging them to pound on the keys.

Bringing a typewriter was a bit of a stunt, but I think it also underscored how useful technology can be in the classroom.  In their reflective writing after the exercise, most praised academic technology (although they still have a strong distaste for Prezi).  None of them want to have to type out an assignment manually again, although one of them said that if she could “choose” to use a typewriter on a school assignment that it might be fun.

As an instructor I’m doing all I can to not only teach the students the ins-and-outs of technology, but to foster an environment where the students are constantly working at the edge of their knowledge–to keep them actively involved in what we’re learning together.  Because of that, I expect them to feel frustrated with and even tired of technology.  I expect them to fail sometimes when they try something new (or in this case, when they try to use a tool so old that they might not have ever encountered one in real life before).  More than showing off mastery of a technological tools, I expect the students to be curious and experimental.  I want them to play with and explore the use of tools in ways that are unique to them and aren’t a carbon copy of the way that I use them.

November 5, 2012
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That was not funny…(a Halloween rant)
deep thoughtsworld

That was not funny…(a Halloween rant)

I don’t care much for Halloween.  I don’t mind the little girls in their faery costumes and the boys dressed as ninjas or the doorbell ringing all evening long.  But, I do have a lot of fears of violence and things that “go bump in the night” so I find October to be a generally tedious month where I’m flipping off the radio every time there’s an ad for a spook-tastic theme park.  I don’t like being scared and I don’t enjoy gory anything (in fact, I often find such things to be “triggers” for the very real horrors that I experience day-to-day).

So last night when I went to a local market (Wholesome Choice in Irvine) to pick up ingredients for dinner, I thought little about the creepy Halloween display in the doorway of the store.  When I first saw it a few weeks ago I remember thinking it in poor taste–it featured a life-size grim reaper character with a large scythe.  So when I entered last night it was with barely a glance at that decor while I attempted to navigate my shopping cart through the crowded entryway that included a crowd waiting in front of the bakery area for the next batch of fresh bread.  I was looking in that direction when I realized that the creature from the Halloween display was now leaning over my shoulder, with his arms upraised to scare me.  I screamed and shuddered, as I processed the fact that this was a store employee wearing the grim reaper costume (not a mannequin) and that he was standing in the doorway display to scare passersby.  I also realized that the bakery line was actually a crowd of onlookers who had gathered to see the customers entering the store being “scared.”

They were laughing, uproariously, after seeing how badly I’d been frightened by the grim reaper character.

I stopped right there and stated loudly, “That was not funny.”

This made the onlookers laugh even harder.

“That was not funny,” I stated even more emphatically.

One man started arguing with me.  “It was funny,” he explained.  “And it’s getting even funnier now.”  He was laughing so hard that it was hard for him to respond to me.

I stepped through the doorway and hovered in the produce section and watched more people enter the store.  As I did so I realized that nearly every woman who entered got the same fright treatment and the gawking laughter.

The women who were scared weren’t laughing.  Most of them immediately put their hands to their hearts or to their foreheads, as if in pain.  And then they walked through the laughing gauntlet with frowns on their faces.

As I continued pushing my cart through the store, every few seconds I would hear another scream from the front of the shop and then more laughter.  I didn’t know what to do so I started tweeting what I’d experienced.  I wanted to track down a manager.  I wanted to stand in the front of the store and warn other women entering.  I wanted to take that scythe from that grim reaper and hit him over the head with it (and also do the same to that man who kept laughing at me as I became more angry at being frightened).  But I was still shaking so hard I could barely type.  I couldn’t even remember what I’d come to the store to buy.  I pushed my cart aimlessly through the aisles wondering what to do.

Most of all, I was trying to figure out why that had been such a scary experience for me, and why I couldn’t shrug it off as a Halloween prank.  And I wanted to find a quiet place and sit down and cry.

Because, perhaps it reminded me of this experience from not too long ago:

I’d dropped my daughter off at the church’s childcare area so I could attend a talk with other women from my congregation.  The talk was by a local author who was a hero of mine (Emma Lou Thayne).  It would be the first time that I would hear her in person.  I had a book of hers in my bag in hopes that I could get her to sign it at the end of her talk.

So perhaps that’s why I ignored the feeling of discomfort at seeing the childcare being staffed by two teenage boys rather than by adults.  I didn’t recognize them as part of our congregation, but saw other women dropping off their children and figured that it was fine.

About 30 minutes into the talk, a member of the bishopric (the clergy) pulled me out of the meeting, and motioned for me to walk down the hall with him towards the childcare area.  As we walked he explained that the boys in the nursery had been nephews of a woman in our congregation and should not have been left in charge of the children.  My heart started thumping hard in my chest.

“They had your daughter in the middle of the room and were throwing things at her–small toys.  They were making her cry and then laughing at her as she got more and more upset.  They encouraged some of the other children to throw things at her, or to poke her.  Another mother dropped by to check on the children and stopped them and called in the bishopric.”

“I’m sorry,” he said.

And then I remembered a scenario that plays out over and over again when I take out my outrigger canoe in Newport Harbor alone.  Invariably, if it is a weekend, that will mean that there are a handful of rental duffies in the harbor being piloted by groups who are drinking too much.  Despite the area being a “no-wake zone” where speeds are supposed to be kept to below 5mph, the renters don’t adhere to the rules when there’s an opportunity to harass a lone female paddler.

Sometimes the men (and it is always men) humor themselves by yelling rude taunts at me,

“Show me your tits!”

“Watch for sharks!”

“Paddle FASTER!”

“How well do you swim??”

This latter one is probably the scariest.  It’s usually accompanied by a gunning motor and a veer of the boat in my direction.  They are always laughing.

I swim well.  And I can often paddle my lightweight canoe faster than the duffies with their bloated load of drunken passengers.  But I also know the power of boat motors with their scythe-like propellers, and that they can be lethal for anyone in the water nearby.  With just a few feet between me and them, the danger is utterly real.

And it is not funny.

It is not funny to hire a costumed killer to stand in your store and scare women.

It is not funny to taunt someone smaller and younger than you.

It is not funny to pick on a stranger simply because she is alone or more vulnerable than you.

I scare easily because a lifetime of experience as a woman has taught me that I should be afraid of the dark, of teenage boys, of men that are taller than me, and of partiers steering rental boats.  Being scared hasn’t stopped me from paddling my canoe alone, but it did stop me from using church-sponsored childcare staffed by strangers, and it has now stopped me from shopping at my neighborhood grocery store.

I’ve tried to imagine a scenario where a store manager came up with the idea of frightening female customers as they entered the store and thought it would increase sales or customer satisfaction, and I cannot come up with any justification for spooking customers that makes business sense.  So my conclusion is that was ignorant and mean.  Moreover, I cannot conceive of a reason that I would continue to trust a store manager with such poor judgment to sell me the kind of high-quality food that I want to nourish myself and my family.

 

 

November 1, 2012
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About Me

About Me

Hi there friend, and welcome to my blog. I started writing on the internet two decades ago. Since then I've started and finished a PhD program, left the Mormon church and became a Quaker, got divorced, remarried, found full-time work in academia, took up rock climbing and outrigger canoeing, and traveled across the globe (China! Belgium! Italy! Chicago! Montana! Portland! Gettysburg! and oh-so-many points in-between). This blog is eclectic and random--it has poetry and cooking and books. And cats. And flowers. And the ocean (my ocean). But in that sense it's a good reflection of me and my wide-ranging, far-reaching, magpie curiosity.

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