Celebrate With Me
Dear Friends,
Thank you for being on this publishing journey with me. In the months leading up to the release of Just Here For the Comments: Lurking As Literacy Practice, I'm going to send a monthly email of some of the events I'm participating in and some of the relevant news hooks related to my book.
I began this research in 2018, took a pause in in 2020 to have a second baby and navigate the global pandemic, and I returned to working on it in 2021. Even when Bristol University Press and the ever-encouraging Sr. Editor, Paul Stevens, issued me a book contract in 2022, I truly didn't know if I could deliver.
On March 21, 2022 when I found out my book was going to be commissioned, I felt the same ecstatic tingle that I did when several years ago I received the surprise news from my doctor that I would be expecting my first child. And when 20 minutes later on March 21, 2022 I received the unexpected call that my babysitter was quitting, effective immediately, I felt the same shortness of breath and fear that quickly follows in one's pregnancy when you realize the magnitude of what is about to happen.
The early days between conception and being, for me, were a time of private joy and constant anxiety. The slippery and brittle state of childcare in the United States, particularly during a global pandemic, meant that the time I needed to complete this book project was illusive. It disintegrated by the minute. In the weeks after my book had been commissioned, I found and then lost three different childcare providers. The caregivers secured full time employment with benefits - something everyone deserves and I was happy for them.
So, without the extra support, I wrote in a chaotic string of moments: in my car (in my driveway while my son napped in the backseat), at 6am on the weekends at Panera (the only place in my neighborhood that opens early and has WiFi), and in a few stolen extra hours of childcare provided by The Children's Greenhouse (our on-campus daycare center), and during the once weekly 7-8am time-slot when one of my former babysitters gave me an hour of her day before she headed to her full-time job.
And it was in these stolen moments that they book was written.
Please help me to celebrate this work by joining any of the events or readings surrounding the release. Thank you for walking beside me.
Upcoming Events
CUNY Graduate Center - April 2
This event at CUNY Grad Center is hybrid. Please join us in person at or over Zoom. Register here for the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMlf--tqz8rGNM4PYGl7FSMqTpoudmHdigj#/registratio
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016
This month I am recording podcasts with Transforming Society, The Measure of Everyday Life (North Carolina NPR affiliate), New Books Network and will send links next month with where and how to listen.
Last Month
Noteworthy
Crowdtangle, a research tool funded by Meta, announced that in August it would be shuttering its operation. I had been granted scholarly access to Crowdtangle, (the only community college employed professor to receive access) in 2020 during a global initiative to assist social scientists exploring research questions related to COVID. Chapter 6 of my book is a deep dive into some of the problems surrounding Crowdtangle and my own experiences as a researcher interacting with this tool.
Reddit has sold access to its various commenting threads to an "undisclosed, but major player" to train AI models. Although Mashable misuses the term lurker in their coverage, the sale, worth over $60 million, underscores the necessity of understanding how lurker literacies work. Our comments on social media are of tremendous financial value to platforms and to investors. Understanding when to comment and when to resist is an essential part of one's survival in the digital economy. Chapter 5 of my book explores the necessity of teaching lurker litearcies to not just students, but people of all ages whose livelihoods and security depend on the finding the right amount of interaction.