Last Week's Recap

Last week, I did not do any blogging about the RSA seminar other than my entry on Wojnarowicz for the seminar itself. Frankly, when I was NYU, I had no television or internet or anything else in my dorm room to distract me, so I blogged more. At Penn State, I had a typical hotel room with cable and a hot tub close by. When the seminar was over each day, I was back in the room needing to veg out a bit and welcoming distractions. But that silence was not a commentary on the seminar, which was great.

I went hoping to get a better handle on how I could frame my work as a part of visual rhetoric. One of my exam areas for the PhD was in visual rhetoric, but that was just as the field was starting to come together, and a lot has happened since then. It always seemed like it would be a good way to frame my work, but I wanted to get a better sense of the major texts and frameworks so that I could apply them to my work. And I got that kind of information right away.

I might be wrong, but I think I was the oldest person there in terms of career. There were a few assistant professors, most of whom seemed to be in the early years of their jobs. But most of the participants were graduate students. It felt a bit odd to be the old guy in the room. And I'm sure there were moments when I was the annoying old guy in the room. I admit there were times I could not shut up, but that was because I was really getting into it and had tons of ideas in my head.

And it wasn't just about the workshop. I had lunch one day with Michael and another day with Deb. Michael and I have met a few times before and caught up on things. And Deb gave me some great ideas for some of the various projects I have in mind. And I hung out with a couple of local, non-academic friends, too.

Now, after that NYU workshop and the RSA seminar, after auditing a class at NYU last semester, the next thing is to finish the draft of that damn Wojnarowicz article, which is now what I am officially calling it. I've done a lot of thinking, and the options are all there. It's time to do it, and it's the primary goal for July.