This December, Kevin A. Wisniewski and Felix Burgos released the special issue Tours & Detours, part of their journal Textshop Experiments (ISSN: 2377-9039). Wisniewski (Cohort 15) and Burgos (Cohort 14) are currently both Ph.D. candidates in the Language, Literacy & Culture PhD Program.

TE is an electronic, open-access journal dedicated to works on and operating in the apparatus of electracy.  It publishes scholarly and creative projects on and in new media, Internet culture, and experimental writing. 

The editors were first introduced to electracy by Professor Craig Saper in his seminar with the same name and continued to work with related concepts in Independent Studies and as editorial assistants for Saper’s co-edited anthology Electracy: Gregory L. Ulmer’s Textshop Experiments (Davies Group, 2015). 

The two were immediately aware of a void present in academic journals and related venues dedicated to experimental Humanities projects and started a forum for students and faculty to discuss and share their work and experiences.  From here, Textshop was born, and Wisniewski and Burgos built a new infrastructure and impressive advisory board, which included Saper, for the journal.  Published last May, Issue 1: The Textshop (T)issue acted as a response to the aforementioned anthology.  It was visited by over 5,000 unique viewers. 

 The latest issue Tours & Detours has compiled an impressive fifteen original works, including pieces from scholars Barry Mauer (University of Central Florida), Sergio C. Figueiredo (Kennesaw State University), Matthew Newcomb (SUNY New Paltz), and Megan M. McIntyre (Dartmouth College) and artists matthew and allen, Curt Cloninger, and David Prescott-Steed, as well as fellow doctoral students from the University of Southern California and Clemson University.

 Wisniewski and Burgos are delighted by the overwhelmingly positive response the journal has received and are already at work on Issue 3 and the production line-up for 2017-2018, which includes a new chapbook series.

Textshop Experiments may be viewed at http://www.TextshopExperiments.org/.

Let Your Research Tell a Story

A Saturday Brunch Workshop Presented by Laura Wexler of The Stoop Storytelling Series

On January 28, 2017, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in Maryland from all disciplines are invited to attend a workshop on the campus of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, Maryland (near BWI airport.) Attendees will learn how to couch their research to tell their personal professional stories. This is a Maryland-wide event, and includes schools within the University System of Maryland (USM) and the Maryland Independent College and University Association (MICUA). 

Event Details

Event: Let Your Research Tell a Story – Telling Your Personal Professional Story Workshop

Date: Saturday, January 28, 2017

Time: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Location:  University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Campus, Sherman Hall Lecture Hall 003

Registration:

Attendees who are part of the UMBC community: Please click the “I Can Attend” button on http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/45663.

Attendees outside the UMBC community: Please indicate your interest in attending in the comments section below.

Workshop Mission

Participants will learn to use the tools of true, personal storytelling to create and share an engaging and accessible story about their research focus, project, or goals. Participants will:

● enhance their understanding of true, personal storytelling as a powerful tool of communication to engage and connect with a variety of audiences, and explain complex issues in an accessible and relatable way.

● improve their ability to identify and enact the principles of powerful true, personal storytelling.

● create a 3- to 5-minute engaging true, personal tale that illuminates their research focus and findings.

● Share that personal research tale with a group of peers and receive feedback.

Workshop Structure

9:30 AM – 10:00 AM Registration and breakfast

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Lecture

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM  Breakout Sessions

12:30 PM – 1:00 PM    Final Reconvenes and Synthesize

University System of Maryland (USM) and Maryland Independent College and University Asssociation (MICUA) School Listing:

Workshop Presenter

Laura Wexler is the co-founder and co-producer of The Stoop Storytelling Series, a Baltimore-based cultural event and podcast in which “ordinary” people tell extraordinary true tales about their lives. Since 2006, Laura has presented workshops in true, personal storytelling for a range of organizations, businesses, and individuals. Her storytelling curriculum is based on 10 years of teaching memoir writing at the collegiate and graduate level, and her experience coaching more than 1,000 people to tell the true, personal tales of their lives. In addition to her work with The Stoop, Laura is the author of the book, Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America (Scribner), as well as nonfiction published in The Washington Post Magazine, The New York Times, and elsewhere. She currently writes and develops projects for TV and film. Stoopstorytelling.com

Stoop Stories:

Let Your Research Tell a Story

A Saturday Brunch Workshop

Presented by Laura Wexler of The Stoop Storytelling Series

Photo collage developed from individual images that are the property of the Stoop Stories Series website.

On January 28, 2017, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in Maryland from all disciplines are invited to attend a workshop on the campus of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, Maryland (near BWI airport.) Attendees will learn how to couch their research to tell their personal professional stories. This is a Maryland-wide event, and includes schools within the University System of Maryland (USM) and the Maryland Independent College and University Association (MICUA). 

Event Details

Event: Let Your Research Tell a Story – Telling Your Personal Professional Story Workshop

Date: Saturday, January 28, 2017

Time: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Location:  University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Sherman Hall – Lecture Hall 003.

Driving directions: UMBC 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 Administration Drive Garage

Parking: Parking is free on the weekend, please use the visitor spaces on
upper Admin Drive Garage or Hilltop Circle parking spaces A & D.  Do not pay for the visitor spaces, no permit is required.

Walking from Administration Drive Garage directions: Sherman Building at UMBC 

Registration:

Attendees who are part of the UMBC community: Please click the “I Can Attend” button on http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/45663 and register on the Eventbrite website (click on the orange button below).

Attendees outside the UMBC community: Please register on the Eventbrite website (click on the orange button below).

If you bring a guest, who is a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow in another state, please have them register individually. If you bring a guest who is a friend of family member, they are welcome to attend as we are operating according to  “The Jessica Effect” https://promiseagep.com/2016/08/10/what-is-the-jessica-effect/. Please email promisestaff@gmail.com to let us know how many people will be coming with you so that we can plan food accordingly.

Workshop Mission

Participants will learn to use the tools of true, personal storytelling to create and share an engaging and accessible story about their research focus, project, or goals. Participants will:

● Enhance their understanding of true, personal storytelling as a powerful tool of communication to engage and connect with a variety of audiences, and explain complex issues in an accessible and relatable way.

● Improve their ability to identify and enact the principles of powerful true, personal storytelling.

● Create a 3- to 5-minute engaging true, personal tale that illuminates their research focus and findings.

● Share that personal research tale with a group of peers and receive feedback.

Workshop Structure

9:30 AM – 10:00 AM Registration and Continental breakfast

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Lecture

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM  Breakout Sessions / Brunch

12:30 PM – 1:00 PM    Final Reconvenes and Synthesize

University System of Maryland (USM) and Maryland Independent College and University Association (MICUA) School Listing:

Workshop Presenter

Laura Wexler’s photo and biographical information are the property Stoop Stories, and Johns Hopkins University, where Wexler is a member of the adjunct faculty.

Laura Wexler is the co-founder and co-producer of The Stoop Storytelling Series, a Baltimore-based cultural event and podcast in which “ordinary” people tell extraordinary true tales about their lives. Since 2006, Laura has presented workshops in true, personal storytelling for a range of organizations, businesses, and individuals. Her storytelling curriculum is based on 10 years of teaching memoir writing at the collegiate and graduate level, and her experience coaching more than 1,000 people to tell the true, personal tales of their lives. In addition to her work with The Stoop, Laura is the author of the book, Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America (Scribner), as well as nonfiction published in The Washington Post Magazine, The New York Times, and elsewhere. She currently writes and develops projects for TV and film.

–Stoopstorytelling.com

Key Co-Sponsors: The Graduate School at UMBC, PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP

in partnership with MICUA

and the University System of Maryland via PROMISE

Learn about the 3MT:

Speaker: Scott Morgan, The Morgan Group

Date: Dec. 6, 2016

Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM

Location: Commons 318

Register at: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/gsa/events/45290. 

The Winter Dissertation House is coming to UMBC (January 17-20, 2017). Graduate students who plan to participate should follow the application procedures on the application webpage for the Dissertation House (below). Open application period: November 29, 2016– January 13, 2017. (Please note that there are only 12 to 15 slots for this event, consider applying early). Applications received after January 6, 2016 will be considered for the DH waiting list.

Event: Winter 2017 Dissertation House

Dates: January 17, 2017 – January 20, 2017

Time: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM each day

Location: University of Maryland Baltimore County, Commons 328 and Commons 329

Registration: Please login to MyUMBC (http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/45501), click “I can attend” below, *AND* follow the application procedures on the main website for the Dissertation House: https://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/apply/. Application period to apply to attend the Dissertation House: Nov. 29, 2016 – Dec. 30, 2016

Event Details: 

• The Dissertation House runs from 9 AM – 5PM, for four days, Tuesday, January 17 through Friday, January 20.
• Students must plan to attend the full session, for each of the 4 days. 
• Daily schedule includes 2 mini-lectures, and 5 hours of writing per day.
• Breakfast, Lunch, and a snack will be served daily.
• The Dissertation House is free for UMBC’s graduate students.
• There are 15 to 18 spaces available for the Dissertation House. 
• Details regarding eligibility can be found on the application page of the website for the Dissertation House.

Read about The Dissertation House in UMBC’s Alumni Magazine: Byrne, R.  (2011, Fall) “The Write Stuff”, UMBC Magazine. p. 12. More information about the DissertationHouse: https://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/about/

Dissertation House Application Procedures

Both the on-campus setting and the retreat setting provide Dissertation House participants with productive and rewarding scholastic engagement.  Students who participate in this program will spend each day thinking, writing, and sharing ideas about their doctoral dissertations.  Students will learn effective time-management skills; learn how to set small manageable goals, and will meet with a dissertation coach in one-on-one consultations to discuss and address obstacles that might prevent them completing their degrees.

The Dissertation House period can span either a Tuesday – Friday (9 a.m. – 5 p.m., non-residential) or a Friday – Sunday weekend (includes evening sessions) commitment to focus on the doctoral dissertation.  The Dissertation House activities focus on areas where students typically have difficulty: conceptualizing a topic, writing a literature review, transitioning from a proposal to a dissertation, analyzing data, writing the last chapter, and editing.
Students may apply to attend the next Dissertation House during open application enrollment, by submitting two parts of an application.

PART I:

I. Submit a brief description (maximum 2 pages, font size 11-12 point 1 inch margins) that describes the project that you wish to accomplish during the Dissertation Houseperiod.  Applications will neither be reviewed nor accepted outside of the application enrollment period.

PART II:

II. Please use the following guidelines  for the application:

(1) Summary of the project, including research question(s), data or texts, and method

(2) Amount completed on the project to date

(3) Any obstacles that you are encountering that hinder completion of the dissertation.

(4) Include the following header information with the description:

• Name
• Address
• Telephone numbers (home, office, and fax)
• E-mail address
• Academic Program and Year in the program

Dates/Location: January 19 to 22th (Tuesday – Friday), 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Dissertation House will be held in COMM 329 (for Dissertation House) and COMM 332 (for one-on-one sessions).

Application Enrollment Period: Application can be submitted within a designated 2-week period, usually scheduled 1-2 months prior to the next Dissertation House session.  Email applications to promisestaff@gmail.com.  Please use the words “Dissertation House” in the subject line of your email.

Selection Process: Eighteen participants will be selected for participation in the Dissertation House.  The following applicants will have priority:  (1) Applicants who plan to finish the Ph.D. within the next 6 months; (2) Individuals who are working on dissertations and theses rather than a proposal; (3) Applicants who submit earliest; and (4) Individuals who appear most able to benefit from the services offered at the Dissertation House.

If your application is accepted, you will receive an acceptance notice via email and additional details about the Dissertation House.  All students, including those who have not applied or those who are not selected, have the option to participate in the next online challenge, a virtual version of the Dissertation House: https://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/blog-online-challenge/winter-2016-challenge/