One Badass Jedi

:: how jedi are you? ::

Feedback Request

Fearless readers:

I spent much of the weekend working on my "Program of Research" essay that's included in every academic job application packet. It's not uncommon for an academic application packet to exceed 100 pages--it's a total pain to pull these things together. A Program of Research essay basically details research interests and emphasizes areas of expertise. Anyway, I totally reworked my essay and this is the end result. Keeping in mind that I'm writing for an academic audience, any comments regarding organization, flow, clarity, and the like are welcome.

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Statement of Research

Throughout my academic sojourn I have always self-identified as a rhetorical scholar committed to understanding the ways in which communication, both discursive and non-discursive, is employed as a means of constructing, negotiating, and transforming ourselves, others, and the world around us. Implicated in the inclusion of both discursive and non-discursive communication is not only the critical analysis of historical speeches, essays, pamphlets, and newspaper articles, but also such artifacts as film, television, radio, live theater, magazines, fashion, music, art, architecture, and dance. Of particular interest for my research program are sites of rhetorical resistance. Acts of rhetorical resistance, practices that challenge hegemonic cultural norms and social conventions, offer an opportunity to examine how communicators engage in the constitution of self, other, power, authority, and place. My program of research focuses attention on three specific areas of rhetorical resistance: the day-to-day performance of self and other, the practice of alternative spiritualities, and the consumption of popular culture.

Working within the complex cultural milieu of hegemonic traditions, beliefs, attitudes, ideas, institutions, and behavioral conventions, interacting selves negotiate a host of discordant and concordant understandings. Grounded in social knowledge and interpretive understandings, active rhetorical agents accomplish and perform the articulation of varied perspectives, the negotiation of ever-changing meanings, and the co-constitution of malleable subject positions. Drawing on the likes of Lenore Langsdorf, Michael McGee, and Calvin Schrag, I examine the dynamic confluence of individual and collective subjectivities and the shift from rhetoric-as-being-in-the-world to rhetoric-as-becoming. In my dissertation, Performative rhetoric and the reclamation of the subcultural self, I argue Schrag’s vision of the rhetorically performed self provides a more accurate means by which to investigate the co-creation of the subcultural self, hegemonic cultural other, and resistant ideologies of spectacular subcultures (goth, punk, raver, skater, etc). A manuscript based on my basic dissertation argument is currently under revision for the journal, Popular Communication.

A second vector of my research examines the rhetoric of alternative spiritualities as a potential source of social change and civil disobedience. To what extent might rhetorical strategies based in earth-based spirituality, Buddhism, Taoism, New Ageism, and the like, provide new ways of conceptualizing and addressing issues of social justice, peace, and political action? My essay, “Rhetorical visions: Narratives of transformation,” draws on the collected writings of Starhawk--ecofeminist, activist, and witch--and advances storytelling as a means by which to enact cultural change. Examining an anti-globalization essay by Starhawk and a campaign speech by John Edwards, I explicate the efficacy of rhetorical visions as a source of social transformation and political action.

A third trajectory of my research centers on the intersection of rhetoric, popular culture, and everyday practices of the self. When examined critically, what does an artifact--film, television program, advertisement, fashion trend, etc.--reveal about cultural attitudes, beliefs, and values? Does an artifact perpetuate or challenge a cultural myth, dominant discourse, or institutional ideology? Additionally, to what extent do active human agents use popular culture as a means of navigating everyday life? My current work-in-progress, “Rhetoric as becoming: Living the way of the jedi,” examines the relationship between the cultural myths of Star Wars and the rise of a real-life Jedi spirituality. Discursive exchanges, posted to an internet message board, provide an opportunity to elucidate how cultural myths, subjectivities, and emergent ideologies converge, resulting in the rhetorical co-creation of a coherent spiritual path.

The nature of my research, the exploration of the interplay between rhetorics of resistance and subjectivity, necessitates an interest in ethnography. In order to fully understand the negotiation of individual and collective subjectivities, I frequently conduct long-term observations of a group (goths, spiritual practitioners, or Star Wars fans, for instance) and the individual members of the group. Positioning myself as an active-member-researcher or complete-member-researcher, I gather a broad range of data (informal conversations, nonverbal interactions, informal/formal interviews, material culture, message board posts, public emails, etc.) and examine salient texts for implicated subject positions, related ideologies, indicators of dominance and inequality, and resistance to structures of dominance and inequality.

Researching acts of resistance in relation to the performance of self and other, the practice of alternative spiritualities, and the consumption of popular culture provides almost limitless opportunities for future research. That said, I believe my on-going program of research reveals two, interrelated directions: 1) the investigation of the rhetorical performance of the everyday self as a source of resistance to hegemonic cultural norms; and 2) the exploration of non-violent rhetorical methods of cultural transformation. My continued critical analysis of everyday subjectivity may yield a dynamic portrait of human interaction as meaning-making event and active site of the rhetorical negotiation of self, other, and cultural ideologies. Additionally, I hope my research concerning the transformative potential of non-violent, spiritually-based rhetorics offers new ways of understanding, approaching, and resolving individual disagreements, political conflicts, and social injustices. Together, these two foci address the driving question behind my work: To what degree are we, as speaking and acting agents, capable of co-creating the cultures and communities in which we wish to live?
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Anyone make it to the end?

Bring on the Feast!

Appetizer On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest), how attractive do you think you are?

7.0. STK and I had this discussion a couple nights ago, oddly enough. I originally gave myself an 8--STK suggested I was a little full of myself.

Soup What local restaurant would you recommend to a visitor to your town or city?

The Watercourse. Best vegetarian food in the city.

Salad What's a lesson you had to learn the hard way?

All my problems are of my own making. I spent years blaming everyone else for the things that went haywire in my life. I finally figured out that I was the common denominator. What a revelation.

Main Course Name something in your life that you feel you can depend on 100%.

STK.

Dessert If you could see the front page of a newspaper from September 24, 2104, what would you imagine the headline might be?

Republicans and Democrats Fail to Address Important Campaign Issues.*

*Last night, I spent an hour listening to a radio interview with Ralph Nader. He spent the entire freaking hour speaking about issues AND took cold calls from the audience.

Today's Required Reading

A handful of interesting essays I encountered during my morning coffee and read ression. Take a look:

The Beauty of Leaves
American Indian or Native American?
Life on Mars?
Cthulhu for President
We Call it Mabon

Among the Living

Yes, I'm alive. In the midst of trying to finish the dissertation (30 pages to go, I think), look for tenure track teaching prospects, teaching, and grading (the papers have started to roll in), I haven't had anything too exciting to report.

A couple popular culture items worth mentioning:

Justice League Unlimited recently featured an eisode in which the Green Lantern Corp made an appearance. Kyle Rayner, my favorite Green Lantern, actually had a couple speaking lines!

STK and I saw Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. If you like the serials of the 30s and 40s (Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, etc), you'll enjoy the film. Don't expect anything deep or profound--this one is all style and little substance.

Feasting

Appetizer: How are you today?

Tired & disheartened, but okay. I'm tired of writing & disheartened by some feedback I received. I took a risk and went with something out of the ordinary--I shouldn't have. Now I'm re-writing the piece in the traditional format ::grumbles:: Note to self: challenge the system when you have a full time position and tenure. Duh.

Soup: Name 3 television shows you watch on a regular basis.

Teen Titans. Monk. Smallville.

Salad: What's the scariest weather situation you've experienced?

Growing up in Iowa, I experienced numerous close calls with tornadoes. In my teens, a bolt of lightning struck a tree about 20 yards from where I was standing. I could feel a buzz of electricity move through my body. A very odd feeling, to be sure.

Main Course: If you could wake up tomorrow morning in another country, where would you want to be?

The United Kingdom.

Dessert: What do you usually wear to sleep?

Boxer briefs. Hanes or Fruit of the Loom, thanks.

Thanks to Friday's Feast for providing yet another moment of blogging fun.

Temporary Suffering

All the faults of our mind – our selfishness, ignorance, anger, attachment, guilt, and other disturbing thoughts – are temporary, not permanent and everlasting. And since the cause of our suffering – our disturbing thoughts and obscurations – is temporary, our suffering is also temporary.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche, "Ultimate Healing:

Spam from Me to Me

Okay, if your sensibilities are offended by the content of naughty spam, you should probably skip this post.

I just received an interesting piece of spam. Here's the content:

--
Make her curnm over and over all weekend long
Super V\AGRA Will Keep you up ALL weekend long!
- Do what you know she will love!
- Be king of the bedroom
- Save $$$ from online pharmaces
- NO PRE/SCRIP/TION REQ/UIRED!
---

When I checked out the originating address, I discovered the email was from me! Is there something I need to tell myself? Has STK been talking to me about my bedroom prowess, or apparent lack thereof, and I don't know about it? Why am I last the person to know these things? The agony.

The Heteroglossic Moment

A fragment from today's disserting:

In the midst of this maelstrom of multiplicities, the co-authored self and other emerge. Facing one another in the dialogic encounter, the space of communicative praxis, speaking and acting subjects orient themselves for and toward the other. Grounded in their social knowledge and interpretive understandings, active rhetorical agents accomplish and perform the articulation of varied perspectives, the negotiation of ever-changing meanings, and the co-constitution of malleable subject positions. For Schrag (1986), this intentional and overt accomplishing with the other through discourse and action is an "indelible feature of the creation and preservation of meaning . . ." and implicative of communicative rhetoric (p. 180).

As Schrag (1992) argues in The resources of rationality: A response to the postmodern challenge Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia proves useful in understanding the creation and preservation of meaning in the encounter of self and other. Bakhtin’s notion of heteroglossia, always situated within the dialogic interaction, refers to the moment of convergence between conflicting discourses and social meanings. Describing this moment Bakhtin (1981) explains, "At any given moment of its evolution, language is stratified not only into linguistic dialects in the strict sense of the word . . . , but also . . . into languages that socio-ideological: languages of social groups, 'professional' and 'generic' languages, languages of generations and so forth” (p. 272). Central to the multiple voices and ideologies always at work in the realm of heteroglossia are the "centripetal and centrifugal functions and forces of discourse . . ." (Schrag, 1992, p. 84). Bakhtin describes centripetal and centrifugal forces as the dialogic interplay of the "processes of centralization and decentralization, of unification and disunification . . ." (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 272). Building on Bakhtin, Schrag (1992) characterizes centripetal forces as harmonizing, unifying, and homogenizing tensions of discursive and non-discursive interplay; centrifugal forces, on the other hand, are the discordant, inconsistent, and heterogenous elements at play in the heteroglossic moment. The vigorous interplay of centripetal and centrifugal tensions gives rise to a living, active, and dynamic portrait of human interaction as meaning-making event and site of the rhetorical negotiation of self, other, and cultural ideologies.

Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination (C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Schrag, C. O. (1992). The resources of rationality: A response to the postmodern challenge. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Senseless

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces launched air strikes on the Iraqi town of Falluja Monday, killing at least seven Iraqis, including women and children, a doctor said.

Iyad Mohamed of Falluja Hospital said 10 other Iraqis had been injured in the strikes on different parts of the town, just west of Baghdad.

Witnesses saw black columns of smoke rising over Falluja and said hundreds of families had begun leaving the town, which is under the control of insurgents fighting U.S. forces and the American-backed interim Iraqi government.

U.S. forces used loudspeakers to call on the people of the Falluja to cooperate with them and "expel terrorists from the center of the city."

Just so we don't forget, the U.S. "liberators" continue to kill innocents. What a senseless war.

Format Repair Attempted . . . And Failed. Screw IE!

I spent some time trying to fix the bizarre format problem that Tiffany reported several months back. Alas, I can't find the problem. Even when I reinstall the original template without any of my modifications, the blog still doesn't display properly in IE. ::shrugs:: So, I'm just going to leave it alone. If you want to see my blog in all its proper glory, switch to Firefox.

Problem solved.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer What movie soundtracks do you own?

Star Wars: Episodes I, II, IV, V, VI, Star Wars: The Ultimate Edition, Braveheart, Star Trek: First Contact, Josie and the Pussycats, Flash Gordon.

Soup How much cash do you usually carry with you?

less than $5.00. The only time I carry cash is when I go clubbing or to a rock show.

Salad Are you more comfortable around men or women? Why?

Women, without question. I can't stand the sexist behavior of many men ("Did you see her tits?" -- a real quote from a VERY educated former friend). Appreciating someone's beauty is one thing, objectifying them is another. I also don't like the excessively competitive and aggressive behavior displayed by many men. Don't slug me in the arm. Ever. Friends don't hit one another. I don't care about your salary, the speed of your car, or the size of your penis. I suspect there's some correlation between sportscars and penis size but I'll leave that research for my colleagues in gender studies. I don't want to talk about the Broncos, how you got nematodes out of your lawn, or the cool new dirt-resistant ultra gloss paint you discovered at Home Depot. I also don't care about the difference between a v6 or v8 (that's a tomato drink, right?), the advantages of 350 hp or 250 hp, or the differences between the 1963 & 1964 Mustang. I'd rather talk about feelings, fashion, and skin care products. Ultimately, the reason I'm probably more comfortable around women is that I tend to be more effeminate than most men.

Main Course What is the most mischievous thing you remember doing as a child?

I colored a rubber band black and secured the trigger of the kitchen sink sprayer thing in the "on" position. When my mother tried to use the sink, the sprayer gave her a shower. hehe.

There was also the time I fired a roman candle at a police car, tried to burn an "86" in the high school lawn with gasoline, and rifled a rock through a very large plate glass window at a mall. Rather than miscievous, I consider those things criminal, destructive, and more than a little stupid. What was I thinking?

Dessert Who is the funniest member of your family?

Me, of course.

Bananarama

One of my colleagues made the following comment as we entered the room in which our sexual harassment seminar was held.

A: [digging through her backpack and extracting a piece of fruit] Do you think it's inappropriate to eat a banana during a sexual harassment seminar?
Me: No comment.

I Survived the Haunted Office And All I Got Was This Crappy Blog Entry

Well, I finally did it. I finally spent the night in the haunted office. As I had a sexual harassment seminar on late Wednesday afternoon and had to be back at school by 7:30 AM this morning, I decided to stay at school (I commute 1.25 hours to work--thankfully, I usually teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays).* I worked on my dissertation through much of the evening, and finally crashed on my office floor around 1 AM. Not a single spectre haunted my sleep. Maybe next time.

*I'm also fortunate in that my office is down the hall from the Department of Dance locker rooms. As such, I have access to a fully functional shower.

365 Days Later

One year ago tomorrow, Kathleen and I exchanged wedding vows. Hard to believe how fast a year has elapsed. Unbelieveable. To celebrate our one year anniversary, we packed our bags and headed to the Gold Lake Mountain Resort and Spa for eighteen luxurious hours. We arrived on Friday night around 5 PM, checked into our cabin, and began our overnight adventure with dinner. While I opted for a appetizer/entree/dessert combination of portabello mushroom tips, summer vegetables & lemon couscous, and lemon/strawberry shortbread, Kathleen went with the corn chowder, Altantic salmon, and chocolate mousse. Everything was delicious. Immediately following dinner, we donned our Gold Lake Spa robes* and headed for an hour long couple's massage. Is there anything better than a massage? I don't think so. Our muscles jelloed from the massage, we stumbled through the dark to the lakeside hot pools. With stars twinkling overhead, we basked in the warmth of the water until our eyes ached from tiredness. Waking at 8 AM Saturday, we breakfasted on fruit & nut bread, mellon, coffee, and a variety of juices. Our bodies rejuvenated and our spirits content, we made the 1.5 hour drive back home.

Believe it or not, the high point of the weekend wasn't the trip to the mountains. The most wonderful part of the weekend, and we both commented on this, was the understanding that we've both found a life partner, an honest-to-goodness person with whom we're comfortable spending the rest of our lives. Kathleen and I share some commonalities when it comes to relationships: our pasts are littered with some spectacular wreckage. And we both admit that much of the wreckage was of our own making. As a result of unresolved issues and poor choices, we found ourselves in some rather dysfuntional partnerships. We like to think of those experiences as life lessons--we had to learn some things before finding a healthy relationship. So here we are, in our mid thirties, finally on the road of relationship happiness. In case anyone is wondering, we're just as happy today as the day we married. The honeymoon continues.

*Someone wrote "Long Live the Robes!" in the spa's guestbook. To that we say, "Huzzah!"

Friday's Feast

Appetizer. If someone gave you 3 new goldfish today, what would you name them?

Zod. Ursula. Non.

Soup. What's the worst movie you've seen this year so far?

In a theater: Van Helsing. What a mess. Still, it was a silly diversion on a late summer evening.

Television: Raptor Island. Complete rubbish. Not a single redeeming quality.

Salad. If given the chance and you could pick the person, would you want to switch lives with someone on earth for one whole day?

Thich Nhat Hanh

Main Course. What's your favorite season? Name 2 things you love about it.

Fall. I love the smell and the colors. And Halloween.

Dessert. What is something you frequently buy that you don't really need?

Comic books.

Brough to you by Friday's Feast

Code Pink!

I love this group.

Activists Disrupt Convention

Brought to you by Code Pink: Women for Peace.