AFTERSHOCKS: OUTCOMES AND TAKEAWAYS FOR FUTURE WORK
Outcomes/Takeaways ⇢ Ideas
The reoccurring theme in this course is the work of wonder. We must develop a sense of wonder in order to be “sensitive analysts of our world.” As we have discussed in great detail, this “feeling of surprise mingled with admiration [is] caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.” This means that we need to have an investment in and act upon these curiosities in order to see beyond the beauties we already know. We need to understand the work of form and of borders in order to situate ourselves in positions where we can move around/challenge them. We need to understand the things we know, as well as how they have come to be, and then (and only then) can we challenge/break/expand our original ways of noticing and begin to open our eyes and minds to the things we could learn. Because of its fixation on language and imagination, literary study is a particularly good place to develop these habits of mind--especially when textual analysis is linked to broader worlds of technology, classification, and social identity, as they are in this course.
Poking holes in ‘how things are’ and ‘how things should be’ allows for us to bring these elements (practices, traditions, objects, etc.) to our attention differently, prompting us to remark upon them from new angles. Through this act of “noticing differently” (which is the title of a class session), we begin to track elements we thought we understood and bring forward new definitions/explanations for their placements and uses. In following the life/death (and potentials/restrictions) of these elements, we do the work of finding anchor points in both history and the present and moving even further. We may begin to understand these elements in new societal/cultural positions in the future. The work that we did in this course (through the wundertopfs, literature, in-class exercises, and the lectures as a whole) encouraged a search for new explanations that had lead us to uncultivated landing points, which served us with the privilege and burden of seeing for ourselves. There lies a necessary commitment to asking new, unmapped questions.
Outcomes/Takeaways ⇢ Omeka Workflow
Working with the Omeka digital collections builder, I developed a better understanding of the universal processes of identification/recognition/classification--specifically in the world of digital data--as well as the restrictions that these standards place upon the items they display. Dublin Core structures a systematic approach to attaching data to items. The structure of the “add item” process in Omeka prioritizes certain information and provides a rhythm/order to filling in the blanks. Though not every box needs to be filled with information (title, subject, description, creator, source, etc.) in order to move on to the next stage (Dublin Core ⇢ Item Type Metadata⇢ Files ⇢Tags) these data set categories remain visible when the item is added. Because of this, the item continues to be displayed in the same rigid way and it becomes understood with “missing” information. In the case of this exhibit, we did not rely on all of the information that was allotted space to be represented and because of this, I left it blank. I was consistent with the data categories I did include because I found myself being sucked into wanting a neat and compact presentation (this speaks to how we view social/cultural objects as well). There were some categories that I had clear data for and there were others where I had to put in the best fitting information because what the filing system called for was not something I was able to provide accurately. As a result, the presentation of each item included in this database is influenced first by the rigidity of Dublin Core as a standard, and second by the choices that I made in logging these items: the information I rendered important or best fitting. A significant thing that I understood after interacting with Omeka is that databases/exhibits like this are inevitably influenced by the stylistic choices of those who played a role in creating them.
Going into the Omeka site without prior knowledge--Dr. Guerra simply told me to play around and see what I see--was very beneficial to me. With minimal direction, I had to build my own understanding of Omeka, and figure things out for myself. It is easy to be told how something works, but because Dr. Guerra let me run wild I got to find my own place to start. I found it less daunting, and more interesting because I had no expectation of what it was “supposed” to look like. I think that my experience with Omeka has forced me to be more attentive to the details/information that I took for granted (crediting Prownian Analysis of course). Having to do the work of inputting the information--knowing what to look for, understanding its significance, and typing it out myself--has allowed me to be a player in this sort of format. I learned new terminologies, I associated certain data sets to the point of presentation, figuring out what is needed to make up for the inability to have things tangible and why they are significant. Doing the work of becoming familiar with the design/layout/language of Omeka has not only afforded me a comfortability with Dublin Core, but it has provided me with a sort of map of the processes of exploring other sites/filing systems/templates/data sets that I may encounter in my working life.
Outcomes/Takeaways ⇢ Teaching Assistant
The moments in my experience of being a teaching assistant that stick out to me are many and varied: doing the work for this Omeka site, spending time at the same table every day reading over students’ essays and talking through their ideas, and conversations I had with Dr. Guerra (both about the ideas of the class and about how to manage the work of organizing and delivering the class amidst other job duties and interruptions of life). One very valuable thing that came out of this experience for me is that I started to learn how to take more of an authoritative approach to this content. I learned what it means to speak from a point more of understanding (my own obviously) than that of questioning. I don’t stray too far from the line that separates both of these things, but through my experience working with Dr. Guerra, I feel as if a responsible teacher/mentor needs to manage both sides well. They need to frame the conversation, cover the essential information and core facts, and delimit the task at hand, while at the same time being aware of and encouraging explorations in places where it might be useful to poke holes in surface understandings.
I also learned how to own and benefit from misfires or shortfalls. I spent a lot of time with Virginia Jackson’s book on Emily Dickinson (Dickinson’s Misery), but I just couldn’t pull everything together well enough to prompt a solid class discussion. I don’t think that many students understand the work a professor does beyond the lecture. As I assumed those shoes, I learned the hard way what it means to truly be prepared/know my stuff. Again, it’s not just knowing, but understanding where a productive question could or should be asked. In this course, we raised a number of questions that we do not have answers to, but I learned this semester that the point of brainstorming is not to solve the problem, it is to ask the question as a way of encouraging collaborative building in unanticipated directions (or sometimes just to flag the moments where a question needs asking). If these questions are easily answered--yes! no!--then it probably wasn’t a good question. An easily answered question can build a bit of confidence, but a “good question” can force a group to create something new. Asking good questions is something any teacher, or leader of a working group, needs to be able to do. I feel like I got a chance to hone this both in class and in my “office hours.”
Dr. Guerra guided me through a series of “how to’s” during my time as his TA which will prove to be beneficial in the future work that I will do. This experience has taught me ways to be consistent and dependable, how to manage a number of different roles, and how to approach new experiences and applications with an impartial and receptive eye for the potentials they present. Because I had my place on both sides of the line that separates student and teacher, I had to learn to manage my responsibilities as a student, be present and achieving in my own classes, while at the same time uphold my obligation to Dr. Guerra and the students in this course. I have been offered a look inside the work a professor does when it comes to the grading process and I have a new understanding of the weights certain aspects of a student’s work have and how they translate into a letter grade (i.e., how fair evaluation happens). I had also taken on the responsibility of sitting on the other side of the desk, so to speak, and serving as the authoritative voice of the conversation during my office hours. I held office hours where students came to me with their work and it is there that I learned how to direct those conversations, offer bits of clarity and provide structure to better formulate and progress their ideas.
Additionally, I have learned the importance of good note-taking. I have heavily relied on my notes and I now understand not only the importance of recording the classifications and definitions of certain concepts but I have also seen the advantages of moving further to recording the diversions a discussion or lecture takes. Similar to the ways Dr. Guerra and I have referenced them over the course of the semester, a good number of the items referenced in the exhibit are my class notes. This measure of active listening and effort to understand the material provides not only myself, but Dr. Guerra and whoever else views this exhibit, with a map to tracking the ideas we’ve talked about.
Continuing with the idea of this exhibit, I had my first experience working on a project like this with a supervisor, learning what is working, what isn’t and why. I not only learned the interworkings of Omeka, but I took on the task of creating (in some cases), inputing, and organizing these items to serve as anchor points in the exhibit. I have a better grasp of how to structure my writing to suit the format of Omeka as well as for a public audience.
I have a new understanding of what it means to be committed to the work that I do, a more attentive eye to certain detail and a willingness to teach and to be taught. I have been afforded the opportunity to shape my own creativity and I learned how to be patient with myself while I was doing the work. This has allowed me to get to know my own creative processes and figure out how I build foundations to my own understandings. In this sense, creating a carpentry though my own understandings will allow me to teach/better convey my ideas and be understood as well as be open and able to take in what others have to teach me.
"On a Super Final Note":
I have such an investment in the conversations that this course encourages because they invite a certain level of care in the exploration of the things that I have yet to learn. Moving forward I aspire to do the work of situating myself in positions/places/communities/environments that allow me to continue following avenues of expansive thinking (and in some cases create my own). The ideas that we explored in this course move far beyond the title of ENG 362: Genre, History, and Theory--yet there were always relationships. We asked questions about wonder (theory), about how society and culture are settled through stories and technologies (history), about how we recognize (genre). Most importantly, we asked questions about the reasons for all the answers to these questions. We didn’t do this because there is a neat and absolutely correct answer that we were working toward. We asked these questions because there is value in unsettling things, as it leads us to make new settlements and provides us with the start of new avenues of understanding. I am invested in continuing these sorts of conversations and expanding upon what I think I know with the aim of learning about the things I have yet to pay attention to.