[Air-L] Let's Talk About AoIR

Terri Senft tsenft at gmail.com
Fri May 31 11:13:41 PDT 2013


Some quick things I wanted to throw in here:

1. First, It has come to my attention that some of the hardworking
Conference Committee folks feel a bit "thrown under the bus" by these
conversations.

 I wanted to say I feel lousy about this. One problem of striking while the
iron is hot is that sometimes people feel burned  by what transpires. This
can especially be the case when those people are  also feeling burned
out--and who wouldn't feel burned out after 123678924 million conference
submissions?

I promise--and I hope anyone who has participated in these threads will do
the same--not to talk here and privately, and then flake out when it's time
to try and make things right.

Personally, I have a bunch of ideas about how I can help, with submission
guidelines, reviewer training, and maybe as part of a "critical and
cultural theory" track, if we start to track. I promise to make good on my
bitching and moaning by being more of a team player to make things right. I
encourage others to do the same, here and now, in writing, so the Exec
knows who to hunt down, after the smoke clears from these talks.

2. Re: the discussion Nicole raised about "straight" research: Because I
know you follow my personal life (don't even front), I will remind that
Nicole is a dear friend and a colleague whose work I admire and cite
constantly. She values what I do, and I value what she does, and sometimes,
we even do the same things! One more time: what I am trying to suss is not
whether 'straight' or experimental/theoretical work is better stuff, but
whether AoIR can hold both dear in practice. We all talk a big game about
the interdisciplinary life, but if we are going back to the same old same
old when the rubber meets the road, that's something people have a right to
know.

3. Re: Barry's  comment about doctoral candidates and quality: SHAME ON YOU
for writing so dismissively about our strongest organizational component.
You know how much you've influenced me as an intellectual and how I love
you as a human being, but man, sometimes you miss the boat.

To wit: You say, "Everyone is not Terri Senft," which appeals to my
supermodel nature so thanks, but you don't get that as an intellectual I
didn't start this way. It was raw, sheer luck that Andrew Herman and Tom
Swiss grabbed me to contribute AS A GRAD STUDENT to a conference ( later a
book)  that for all intents and purposes, began this organization.

You know what the conference's name was? THE WEB: MYTH, METAPHOR,
MAGIC.How's that for hippy dippy?

You want the next round of Terri Senfts? You need to GROW THEM. And it
starts with things like conferences. I think getting some shady, half baked
submissions is worth it. Others don't. I get it. Just want to know if it's
time for me, and others like me, to move on--no harm, no foul.

3. I love Joseph's idea about an Announce list and a Discuss list. In the
most informal poll ever among Twitter users, it seems lots of them won't
discuss stuff in email format because they fear 'cluttering' the list
(among other concerns.) An Announce list would keep people tangentially
interested in Internet Studies up to date, and a Discuss list might better
foster longer um, discussions.

I think that's enough from me.

Fondly--no really!
T



Because I know you follow my personal life (don't even front), I



On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 1:34 PM, Joseph Reagle <joseph.2011 at reagle.org>wrote:

> On 05/31/2013 12:33 PM, William Bain wrote:
>
>> from what's been said on this thread. However,
>> in my humble, the cfp's and tecnho refs are great
>> but I think the listserv is at its most dynamic
>> when lots of opinions are being exchanged.
>>
>
> air-l certainly seems much more like a massive announce list than a
> discussion list presently, and hence I hesitate (including now) to violate
> this presumed focus. And this tends to be a self-perpetuating phenomenon.
>
> Perhaps it would be worthwhile to have an announce and discuss list?
>
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>
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> http://www.aoir.org/
>



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Dr. Theresa M. Senft
Global Liberal Studies Program
School of Arts & Sciences
New York University
726 Broadway  NY NY 10003

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