Surviving the Fear Monster: Getting a PhD
February 22, 2016 To determine how my first post to our blog could have the most impact, I had to figure out what I could add of value to this discussion, while simultaneously thinking about all the plans I currently have in motion – conferences, papers, publications, if the job market will hold...
T&T 2015-16 CAH Award Winners
February 14, 2016 Congratulations to T&T alum Leandra Preston-Sidler on being chosen for the College of Arts and Humanities 2015-2016 Award for Outstanding Dissertation for her dissertation, “Watch Me Disappear: Gendered Bodies, Pro-Anorexia, and Self-Injury in Virtual Communities.” Additional Congratulations to T&T student Sara Raffel on being chosen for the College of Arts...
U Can Finish!
February 10, 2016 I had the pleasure of attending UCF’s Dissertation Forum on February 5, an event hosted by the UCF Libraries and the UCF College of Graduate Studies, in collaboration with the UCF Center for Success of Women Faculty and ProQuest Academic. Lots of useful information was shared, from utilizing important researcher...
Success of Women Faculty & ProQuest Academic: Baker Successfully Defends Dissertation
February 08, 2016 T&T student, Carissa Baker, attended the UCF Dissertation Forum, a one-day event hosted by the UCF Libraries and the UCF College of Graduate Studies, in collaboration with the UCF Center for Success of Women Faculty and ProQuest Academic. The program was designed to foster knowledge sharing and provide information about...
"Hello, Glass."
January 29, 2016 Sometimes, your program director presents you with fun gadgets and says, “Here. Figure this out.” That’s how we got our hands (and eyes!) on a set of never-been worn Google Glass. While there have been talks about new Google Glass coming in the near future, for now, Google Glass remains...
Digital Humanities Workshops by Brian Blackburne
January 27, 2016 On Tuesday, January 26, 2016, the T&T Guest Speaker Series brought T&T Alum Brian Blackburne (2008) to campus. Dr. Blackburn shared lunch with T&T students, faculty, and staff and discussed his experience with the hiring and tenure process. That evening, Dr. Blackburne conducted a lecture titled, “2 kewl 4 skool:...
A Summary of The Art of Memory by Frances Yates
January 22, 2016 In classical rhetoric, images and text were mapped onto virtual places to aid the memory of orators. Memory was enormously important to orators because they were expected to deliver long speeches with total accuracy. In fact, memory was of such value that there developed an “art of memory” designed to...
Florida Film Studies: Finding a Subject Field of My Own
January 20, 2016 When I was admitted into the Texts and Technology program in the Fall of 2014, like many of the colleagues in my cohort, I had a general idea of what my research interests were and a vague sense of how I could co-opt these interests into a significant dissertation project....
Trust and the Art of Collaboration
December 30, 2015 The art of collaboration is a strange creature. I spent my entire life working in theatres in various production roles – acting, designing, directing – and perhaps these experiences instilled in me the understanding of how a final work can really benefit from the oversight of multiple, occasionally overly passionate,...
Why changing your profile picture isn’t “slacktivism”: Social media and solidarity in times of crisis
December 25, 2015 There have been many critiques leveled at those who participate in social media during times of crisis, including calling people who change their profile pictures or share viral videos “slacktivists.” However, I would suggest reframing the discussion from “slacktivism,” which I find to be a charged term that implies that...
T&T Mock Job Interview Panel
December 08, 2015 Five courageous T&T students participated in mock job interviews to assist them in preparing for the job market. Sandy Branham and Clayton Benjamin held their interviews via Skype, and Emily Johnson, John Bork, and Eric Murnane participated in face-to-face interviews. Drs. McDaniel and Vie were friendly but tough Search Committee...
On Gratitude and Graduate School
November 27, 2015 As graduate faculty and graduate students, we are trained to be critical – to see the flaws and problems in arguments, ideas, and products. This is not surprising, because it is important to carefully evaluate ideas and thoughtful critical review is a significant aspect of what it means to be...
FRBR/RDA: New and Improved Search or Just a New Name for Discrimination?
November 23, 2015 “The Library of Congress Subject Heading as a Gendered Technology” As Ph.D. students, we spend a significant amount of time researching our discipline in the library. We rely on the library to provide academic sources that are authoritative, scholarly, current, and credible. We use the library’s online catalog to search...
Making Waves, Mixing Colors: Johnson Successfully Defends Dissertation
November 03, 2015 Emily K. Johnson successfully defended her dissertation, Making waves, mixing colors, and using mirrors: The self-regulated learning support features and procedural rhetoric of three whole-body educational games. Emily’s dissertation explores three whole-body educational games (WBEGs) using a quantitative study, a case study, and analyses of their procedural rhetoric to better...
Disciplinary Mythologies: Lamothe Successfully Defends Dissertation
November 03, 2015 John Lamothe, a graduate of Penn State University and current T&T student, successfully defended his dissertation, Disciplinary Mythologies: A Rhetorical-Cultural Analysis of Performance Enhancement Technologies in Sports, in UCF’s Center for Graduate Studies. Using a rhetorical-cultural methodological approach, John’s research led to the formation of a new theoretical framework called...
Identification Through a Blended Method of Research: Culler Successfully Defends Dissertation
November 03, 2015 Connie Culler successfully defended her dissertation, Good Works: Commonplaces of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Travel and Tourism Industry. A set of six companies was selected for the study — Disney, Hilton, Intercontinental, Marriott, Starwood, and Wyndham – and commonplaces were identified through a blended method of research that employed...
Challenging Preconceived Notions on Race and Culture
November 03, 2015 Dr. Paulette Richards, Executive Director of the Atlanta-based digital production company, Ayamedia, presented her work in creating lo-tech videos with her handmade puppets, challenging how we see and think about race and culture. Dr. Richards, a graduate of Georgetown University and the University of Virginia, is a scholar, teacher, videographer,...
Creative Curations – Internet
October 28, 2015 Theme: Internet It’s no secret the internet is challenging the traditional ways we have lead our lives – ensuring we remain on our toes at all times and questioning the foundations on which we’ve always come to rest. Which is why Playboy Magazine’s recent change to its traditional content shouldn’t...
Rock and Roll and the Amateur Aesthetic
October 23, 2015 Elvis’ Sun recordings were the products of collaborations amongst amateur and professional artists, Elvis being the amateur. Does this mean that amateurs can achieve levels of creativity that match or better those of professionals? In some cases, yes. Amateurs established new institutions, new standards and new practices, but they would...
What is T&T?
October 13, 2015 It’s a common question posed to students of the UCF T&T Ph.D. Program. The misinterpretations of our family and friends are often quite humorous. One student’s mother thinks she only programs cell phone apps. Often, misunderstandings of the program stem from these extremely narrow assumptions about our fields of research,...