Big Dog

10 April 2026: This is one of my favorite moments from the latest set of student paper conferences that I finished today:

I'm talking with a student whose mother has just had surgery. When the conference ends, I tell him that I hope her recovery continues to go well. I don't know why, but I wask him, "What do you call your mom? Mom? Mama? Mommy?"

He pauses for a moment.

"I actually call her 'Big Dog.'"

I burst out laughing as he adds, "Yeah, she thanked me for helping her with something and I said, 'Whatever you need, Big Dog." 

Amazing. 

Talking sports with boys...

4 February 2026: Long-ass day--like, 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. with essentially only an hour of alone time to get some work done. But? A pretty good day overall.

I just want to focus on/write about 90 minutes of it here: the time I spent in conferences with three ENGL 102 students. I had a blast talking with these three young men about their essays--one on Nikola Jokic, one on Mark Cuban and the Mavericks, and one on VJ Edgecomb. 

I didn't know much about the first and third topics, but I learned a lot (and am now obsessed with Jokic). It's just fun to listen to students talk about their passions and help them write about them.

Some quick math shows me that I spent 270 minutes today teaching and conferences--out of 720 minutes on campus. Those 270 minutes remind me of why it's all worth it. 

SSAWW 2025

7 November 2025: Back at my favorite conference! Already had several quiet "fangirl" moments. I attended a session about how author societies can collaborate and speak to our current moment(s). What a perfect encapsulation of the kind of meaningful work these scholars do. 

You don't know until you are there...

14 October 2025: Spent a lot of today revisiting and chopping down my SSAWW paper. I finished a decent draft over the summer, but then set it aside until today. (I had planned for 20 minutes, but I am on a panel of four, so I needed to chop, chop, chop.)

Last weekend, I sent the session chair the information he requested, including an abstract. 

Reading the paper today, I realized that abstract doesn't really fit the paper. It's too broad, too generic. It doesn't say what the paper is actually about. But of course that's because I wrote it before I wrote the essay. 

So, I just emailed him with a new version.

This is a good lesson for my students: you shouldn't waste too much time on introductions or an exact thesis early on. You don't know what you are going to argue until you make the argument. Then you revise, revise, revise.

Feeling pretty good about it, but it is a weird little essay. 

Almost done...

6 May 2025: A couple of days ago, I titled my post "Almost there..." I want to argue that today's post, titled "Almost done..." sounds the same, but it actually means something different in my head. In the first post, I was talking about an idea--almost having it down. I (think I) finally got it--yesterday.

Today "Almost done..." refers to a decent complete draft of the paper. I have a couple of places where I need to write another sentence or two, but I think I can knock them out on Sunday. (Tomorrow is booked from start to finish with other stuff.)

If I can knock those sentences out, that'll be the last item on my weekly "to do" list: a complete draft. (Yes, those lists are back, and that's okay.) 

It does feel a bit weird to be pressuring myself to have a solid, polished draft of this thing done in the next week or so. The conference is in November and I don't know yet if I'll have 15 or 20 minutes. But the one thing I know is that if I can get things done ahead of time--before the semester starts--I'll be happier. 

"Return need not be regression"

13 May 2025: “Power, too, can be adapted—that is, destabilized, disrupted—and again both memory and mutation, theme and variation are at work. Return need not be regression” (Hutcheon 175).

Thinking a lot about Hutcheon's work on adaptation--particularly this idea--as I conceptuatlize my SSAWW paper, about a YA book inspired by Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper." 

Work Cited

Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2013. 

SSAWW 2025!

22 April 2025: (Once again trying to start the day with a positive post!) I realized this morning that I hadn't stopped to really feel good about an email I got yesterday: my abstract for SSAWW 2025 was accepted. I am delighted to get to work on a weird little paper about a YA book inspired by "The Yellow Wallpaper." It should be a fun summer project. And SSAWW is in Philadelphia, one of my favorite conference cities (with a nearby Vogel bonus). 

Breakfast with some of my favs...

22 March 2025: After a really great breakfast at a Turkish restaurant, I left this small contigent of our students (who were headed to the Warhol Museum) and headed home. (The other three headed home with Tim and Kevin a few hours earlier.) It's great to be home, but it was a really lovely few days. Affirming in all the best ways.

Convention, Day 2

21 March 2025: One of those days that flew by but also feels very long. But what a fun one! College students are the best (esp. English majors, duh) and Tim is the best. 

Convention Time!

20 March 2025: Writing this from my hotel room in Pittsburgh after a great first day at the Sigma Tau Delta Convention. Our students are so terrific and spending time with them is such a joy.

New (little) project...

10 January 2025: With the exception of opening convocation, today was a kind of quiet day, which worked out just fine. Did some more preparation for Monday (and beyond), filed/sorted/tossed a lot of papers from last semester, and ran some errands. 

I also got (a bit more) started on a new research project: a proposal for SSAWW in Philadelphia in November. It feels good to jump into a new (small) project. The rhythms of the process--having an idea, searching for sources, tracking them down, getting a sense of the conversation, finding ways into it--are pleasantly familiar and quietly exciting. Nerdy as heck, but I am who I am. 

Conferences, Incidents, and grading...

19 November 2024: The post's title more or less sums up my day on campus. 

Conferences--and I've got 38 scheduled for this week--are going just fine. They are, as always, invigorating and exhausting. 

As for Incidents, we started a two-day discussion of it in Gender and Women's Studies and, as it always does, the conversation went so well.

Grading? Well, there's a lot of it and it keeps coming. But bit by bit, I'll get through it.  

13 conferences...

10 April 2024: Met with thirteen students, more or less back-to-back, each for thirty minute paper conferences. It was, as blocks of conferences always are, exhausting and exhilirating. 

Literacy Leaders Conference

25 March 2023: Spent this morning attending and giving two presentations at the Literacy Leaders conference on campus, sponsored by the School of Education. Most attendees were local K12 teachers--the folks with some of the hardest and most important jobs in the world. It really was a privilege to talk to them about teaching and writing. 

Nashville

4 March 2023: 

[Catch-up post]

Tim and I delivered our presentation on Saturday morning to a small crowd, but we did just fine and it was fun. In the afternoon, he and Kevin (and Tim's friend Janet from college) showed me some of their favorite sites. (Tim went to Belmont.) As with any "Tim Venture," the food was top-notch. A good day--with over 20K steps, which is how you know you did a lot. 

To Nashville...eventually!

3 March 2022: 

[Catch-up post]

Friday was a long day. Tim, Kevin, and I flew down to Nashville, where Tim and I were presenting at the N.O.S.S. conference on Saturday morning. Bad weather led to flight delays, long rental car lines, and just a heck of a trip. Thought we'd be getting to the hotel at 7 or so. Was actually after midnight. But we made it.

 

SSAWW

4 November 2021: Here are your clues: replying to  work emails that piled up during sessions, hotel artwork in the background, and a lanyard that I only just realized I forgot to remove. That's right: in-person conferences are back!

There's that feeling again...

3 November 2021: That feeling my post title refers to? That particular brand of low-level anxiety before a trip, in this case, a trip for a conference. Haven't felt this in two years! (I have done conferences since then, but they've been virtual.) Remarkable how similar the feelings are, including a whole lot of "I wish this were already over even though I know it will be fun" and "Can't wait to pull back into the driveway." 

Sunday on the downslope...

31 October 2021: Spent most of today at the office. Got a decent amount of work done: a ton of grading, senate prep, and practiced/revised my two conference papers. Even attended a Zoom training session for moderating a hybrid panel at SSAWW this week. Look: it's not an ideal way to spend a weekend day, but it wasn't awful and I got home by 5:00 and have been taking it pretty easy since then. Breathing more easily on the downslope of this semester...

Conference paper progress...

19 October 2021: Today I finished a decent draft of my MAPACA paper (still some revising and polishing to do) and started practicing my SSAWW paper. I hadn't touched the latter since July (!), when I finished a really polished draft and set it aside. It feels very good to see both projects nearing their conclusion.