Portfolio

Herein lies my adventures in creation.

I'm interested in all things interesting; that is, I like putting myself and my work out there in multiple arenas and communities to see what gets feedback. I split time between the silly and the serious, engaging with a diversified audience of users across multiple networks.

That's a highfalutin way of saying I research social media but also write jokes. Take a look, won't you?


Adventures in Internet

I like to dabble in internets.

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@AcademicTitles

I started @AcademicTitles as a creative outlet to write fake but somewhat believable scholarly article titles. I expanded the scope of this novelty account to include actual titles I found in my dissertation research prep. To grow my audience I concentrated on posting finely tuned content on a consistent basis, rather than pursue an aggressive follow-back strategy.

In the Conservatory

My Tumblr since 2006 and a solid representation of my sense of humor and internet culture. It's where I hone my curation skills and where I dump most of my one-off jokes, Photoshopped or otherwise.

You Made It Beard

Another Tumblr project I recently started and probably the silliest project I've ever committed to. Essentially it's a Photoshop project that thinks the guests on Pete Holmes's "You Made It Weird" podcast need more facial hair.



Adventures in Social Media

I study and utilize social media for my research and for myself.

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Communication, Rhetoric, & Digital Media

My PhD program is still relatively new (founded in 2006) and was a little surprised that we didn't have much of a social media presence. For a group of digital media scholars, we weren't putting out much of an ethos to that effect, so I started a blog to showcase the work our students are doing. A Facebook page and Twitter account shortly followed.

Kraft Foods Corporate

As a social media analyst for the Center for Emerging Technologies, I was brought in as a consultant for Kraft Foods, Inc. to define their social audience and plan their corporate social media strategy. Unfortunately almost all of the documents we produced are protected by confidentiality agreements, but I planned, designed, and wrote an editorial calendar for the Kraft Foods Corporate Facebook page to complement their existing brand pages.



Adventures in Research

With six years of grad school under my belt, I've accrued a diverse set of research skills and interests. I primarily work with rhetorical analysis and content analysis, though I've approached projects with mixed qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

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Dissertation

My dissertation research is on the rhetoric of internet culture and attempts to wrangle rhetorical theory into alignment with the lulz. I explore genre theory, kairos, ethos v. pathos, and memes in the public sphere to show the usefulness of turning to a 2,500 year-old field to understand the future of sharing and shaping content online.

Publications

Speaking Engagements

I've given dozens of conference presentations, workshops, and roundtable discussions. For a full list, see my CV.



Adventures in Design

Most of my design experience .

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CRDM Symposium

Our program hosted a symposium on Materializing Communication and Rhetoric in 2009. I served as a research assistant for the planning committee, handling coding for the website and design for the posters. To perfect the poster I worked with Brad Phillips, an interaction and design professional with Foxtrot Bravo Alpha in Austin.

MatCom Symposium Mini Poster

Genre Across Borders (GxB)

I had the opportunity to work on GxB as a research assistant for almost 2 years, and during my tenure I bootstrapped enough UI, UX, and information architecture to assemble a Drupal-based resource for genre studies. It's in more experienced hands now and I'm looking forward to see it develop into a robust research community.