fulbright proposal

8/2/2019 Fulbright Proposal

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Proposal for ELMCIP Fulbright Lecturer/Scholar Position

Digital media is slowly transforming the way we read, write, and study literature, and literary

studies need to embrace that which is native to digital media in order to stay relevant in an

increasingly post-literate world. The study of electronic literature thrives mainly in the margins

of the discipline, in specialized journals, such asElectronic Book Review, and in highly technicalareas, such as the digital humanities. The problem is that many literary scholars cannot relate to

these discussions well because they dont have the specialized training required. The field of

electronic literature needs to move in from the margins of academia in order to strengthen the

discipline of literary studies.

One way to do so is to employ well established critical tools such as close reading,

biographical study, and bibliographic scholarshipand enriching them by placing them in

conversation with more recent media-savvy approaches, such as critical code studies, software

studies, media-specific analysis. The other strategy is to publish literary criticism in traditional

journals with a high impact factor, such as The Explicator, American Literature, CanadianLiterature, PMLA, and others. Literary studies cannot afford to ignore the contributions

electronic literature brings to the table, particularly as new generations are raised reading and

writing on screens.

A recurring concern in the past three Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) conferences and

echoed in the recent E-Poetry 2011 has been how electronic literature can break into the

mainstream of literary studies, and the ELMCIP project is one way of addressing this issue. Two

of its stated goals are:

Examine how electronic literature communities benefit from current educational modelsand develop pedagogical tools.

Study how electronic literature manifests in conventional cultural contexts and evaluatethe effects of distributing and exhibiting e-lit in such contexts.

My proposal would benefit the hosts, the field, and the discipline by making strong efforts

towards publication in conventional literary journals in order to raise awareness of the field of

electronic literature. This 11-month Fulbright lecturer/scholar position will give me the

opportunity to teach three courses at the University of Bergen that will train a cohort of students

to appreciate, analyze, and publish close readings of works of electronic literature, while I

conduct archival research on theArteroids Development Folder, and publish articles inmainstream literary journals.

Research Activities

The field of electronic literature is a relatively recent one in literary history, its early experiments

go as far back as the 1950s, beginning in the mid 1980s, slowly developing a literary scene by

the early 1990s with Eastgate Systems, and having significant growth with the rise of the World


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Wide Web. Much of its theoretical writing has been built upon Poststructural theories and

practical issues that arise from creating academic digital resources for manuscript and print

works. The theoretical corpus of New Media Literature was largely focused on trying to define

electronic literature and textualitycoming to terms with its particularities (or perceived

particularities)but little work has been done in using such theories to perform insightful

readings of works of electronic literature.

I am a Formalist at heart and have long been interested in the impact of media in literary

workswhat Charles Bernstein has called a technoformalist. I have studied, taught, and

presented on topics as diverse as comic books and graphic novels, serial literature, film, modern

poetry, visual poetry traditions, artists books, and electronic literature. In all of these areas, I

have been fascinated by how meaning can be constructed through the material characteristics of

each medium, paying close attention to the linguistic, graphical, aural, and behavioral aspects of

texts in order to make insightful readings of the works I encounter, study, and teach. My

dissertation, Typing the Dancing Signifier: Jim Andrews (Vis)Poetics, is the first single author

study in the field of electronic literature and models the kinds of close-readings discussed in the

proposal, and which I feel are much needed in the field.

I am the custodian of a set of materials that poet Jim Andrews has been generous in sharing with

me: the Arteroids Development Folder, as well as notebook full of notes, diagrams, graphs,

and ideas that document his work inNio, Arteroids, Jig-Sound, DBcinema and in other recent

projects. These materials are a gold mine of information for a scholar interested in studying

Arteroids in depth as a work of e-literature, as a first generation electronic object, as a computer

game, and as a record of an artists work with programmable media, among others. My research

activities will be focused on developing a publishable archive of the materials in theArteroids

Development Folder, as well as editing and conceptualizing a critical edition of Jim Andrews

electronic poem and videogame.

The final chapter of my dissertation makes a case for the importance of these materials and how

they enrich the experience ofArteroids, justifying their use for the creation of a critical edition of

this important poem and videogame. My editorial approach is informed by the bibliographic

theories of Jerome McGann, Peter Shillingsburg, G. Thomas Tanselle, and John Bryant (among

others), attuning them to electronic textuality with the work of New Media theorists, such as

Mathew Kirschenbaum and N. Katherine Hayles. An important collaborator in my research is

Jim Andrews himself, with whom I enjoy a good professional relationship.

My research will be done through the study of bibliography and digital preservation and using

this knowledge to perform a descriptive and analytical bibliography of the materials in the

Arteroids Development Folder. Correspondence and collaboration with Jim Andrews will also be

an important research method. A tentative time-frame follows:

Months 1-3: research, reading, preparation.


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Months 4- 8 months: preparation of descriptive and analytical bibliography. Months 9-11: preparation ofArteroids Archive and resource for publication.

I will seek publication through multiple venues:

University presses, such as MIT Press, and Johns Hopkins University Press. Peer-reviewed electronic journals in the field of electronic literature:Electronic Book

Review,Digital Humanities Quarterly, andLeonardo Electronic Almanac.

Traditional peer-reviewed journals in the discipline, such as The Explicator, AmericanLiterature, and PMLA.

Digital humanities sites, such as MITH and ELO. Group blogs, such asNetPoetic.

Teaching Activities

The University of Bergen has several professors in the field of electronic literature, such as Scottand Jill Rettberg, and has therefore prepared and attracted a student body that is interested in the

material. An area in which they could use my expertise is in electronic poetry, since their

preparation is more geared towards narrative, hypertext, and gaming. My studies in 20th century

poetry and poetics and how it informs electronic poetry, as well as my focus on Bibliographic

and Formalist media-specific analysis of works of electronic literature would complement their

offerings in the field.

My classes are very student-centered, incorporating Readers Response methods and Formalism

towards the study of literary and other texts, while empowering students with theory. I use

course websites (and am experienced with course management systems, blogs, and websites) toexpand upon in-class discussions, integrate Web 2.0 tools (such as bibliographic management

tools, social bookmarking services, and social networks) to transform the class into a research

and learning community. Students are active contributors to the courses I teach, and I see my role

as a facilitator and resource for the students as they go through a series of learning experiences.

I have been deeply involved in curriculum planning and administrative responsibilities, both as a

member of my departments Literature Sector (as chair and member) and Graduate Committee,

and as an Associate Dean of Assessment and Educational Technologies. I directed a masters

thesis on webcomics, and am currently directing another on videogames. This academic year I

will be teaching two special topics courses I designed that are relevant to this proposal: agraduate course titled The Materials of Poetry in the Fall and an undergraduate course titled

Introduction to Electronic Literature in the Spring.

My preparation would allow me to teach any of the courses listed in the position description at

University of Bergen, but am most interested in the following: DIKULT103: Digital Genres:

Digital Art, Electronic Literature and Computer Games; DIKULT203: Electronic Literature; and

DIKULT304: Graduate Seminar: Topics in Digital Culture. As far as adapting to teaching at


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University of Bergen, one of my first steps in teaching a course is to assess what the students

already know about the subject, as well as their interests, in order to fine tune the course to better

serve our common goals.

Since 1992, I have taught a variety of literature and composition courses, to students of various

levels of ESL proficiency and expertise in the field: introductory, advanced undergraduate, andgraduate. My curriculum vitae contains a list of courses that are relevant to the advertised

position. The position advertisement states that the courses would be taught in English, but I

imagine that my students may not have native English proficiency. Fortunately, I already make

adjustments for that in my teaching, since Spanish is the first language of almost all of my

students at the University of Puerto Rico. Some of these adjustments include allotting time to

explain some vocabulary and cultural contexts the students may not be aware of, and speaking as

slowly and clearly as their language proficiency level requires. I relish the opportunity to interact

with students and colleagues from other cultures.

Conclusion

I am an experienced traveler, interested in living abroad and adapting to new environments and

bringing these experiences home to Puerto Rico to share with students, colleagues, friends and

family. I have traveled to France several times, living for a month in Paris as I took intensive

French classes at the Sorbonne and working in a volunteer work camp in central France for three

weeks, restoring the trail up to the ruins of a medieval castle in the town of Nonette. I have

traveled through Europe several times, as well as Honduras, Mexico, Canada, and many areas of

the United States. For both my masters and doctoral studies, I moved alone to universities in the

United States in places where I had no friends or family: Ohio and Maryland. In all of these

cases, I have been exceedingly successful at adapting to the environments and making lifelongfriendships and professional relationships, while expanding awareness of Puerto Rico, its people,

and culture. As a cultural ambassador I am as fun as it gets: I am a good salsa dancer and have

taught many people how to dance this Caribbean music. I also love cooking, and can prepare

local and international dishes.

For me, this would be an opportunity to jump-start my academic career in my area of expertise

shortly after completing my dissertation. I would benefit from the opportunity to focus 100% of

my time on my specialization, both in teaching and research. This is an area that is not covered in

the courses offered at the University of Puerto Rico: Mayaguez Campus and I can only weave in

the topic marginally into existing courses. This will allow me the time to focus on improving mypublication record, since I wont be occupied by heavy off-topic teaching and administrative

workloads. Participating in this project will allow me to develop courses, which I can then

propose for adoption at my home institution.

The opportunity to participate in the ELMCIP project through this Fulbright Lecturer/Scholar

position comes at a moment in my career where it can have a tremendous impact on the course of


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my professional development, and simultaneously benefit the ELMCIP project, the University of

Bergen, the field of electronic literature, the discipline of literary studies, and the University of

Puerto Rico.

fulbright proposal

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