Academic Publishing in the Digital Age [5]
HASTAC Forum, running NOW through November 16

Following from October's discussion of the importance of Fair Use [6], this forum will offer an opportunity to extend the dialogue about new challenges and opportunities in academic publishing today. As established print journals tend toward expensive and restricted subscriptions in response to current technological and financial conditions, a counter-movement is growing in support of online access to scholarship as a public good, led by open electronic journals and databases. Are traditional journals a relic of a pre-internet era, or does their publication model still have value in academia? How can either system be economically viable? Given that strict liability copyright standards are a hurdle for print journals, do electronic journals provide a necessary haven for the citation and transformation of proprietary artifacts and work? In a context where everyone can have a blog or home page, what do students and scholars need to know about the benefits and risks of self-publishing? And perhaps most importantly, what new possibilities for intellectual and creative work are capacitated by the web as a platform?

This goal of this forum is to explore the shifting definition of academic publishing in the digital age, as well as to consider the intellectual, creative and technical challenges which digital platforms pose for scholarly publication. The conversation will be co-hosted by HASTAC Scholars Chris Hanson of USC, who has worked for the online journal Vectors [7], and Julie Levin Russo of Brown, who works for the online journal Transformative Works and Cultures [8]. They will be joined by other members of these publications' editorial and creative teams, including Kristina Busse, Tara McPherson, Steve Anderson and Erik Loyer. Vectors is an international electronic journal that brings together visionary scholars with cutting-edge designers and technologists to propose a thorough rethinking of the dynamic relationship of form to content in academic research, publishing works realized in multimedia that expand the rigid text-based paradigms of traditional scholarship. Transformative Works and Cultures is an Open Access international electronic journal on popular media and fan communities published by the Organization for Transformative Works, and invites authors to embrace the technical possibilities of the web and test the limits of academic writing. Both publications are copyrighted under Creative Commons licenses.

We hope to facilitate a venue in which we may all ask and answer questions about the present and future of digital scholarship. Please come join the discussion at http://www.hastac.org/scholars/forum/11-02-08Academic-Publishing-in-the-Digital-Age [9]

I have FINALLY finished assembling my basic materials -- cover letter (much revised since the version I posted, and with only two customizable sentences /FAIL), CV [14], dissertation excerpt, and a brand new teaching portfolio [15] -- and sent applications to all the tenure-track jobs with October deadlines.

Here are the reasons I'm applying to every remotely plausible job, even those I don't seem likely to get (or want), for as long as I can stand it (according to advice from Brown's Center for Career Planning and Placement):
- sending out materials is a great way to spread the word about you and your research
- you never know whether the job ad accurately reflects who the department wants to hire
- the ones that would be cut are also the least time-consuming ones, so why not?

Most of these are still open; search on SCMS [16] (members only), Chronicle [17], and/or H-Net [18] to find them, or let me know if you need the info.

Ohio State University, Department of Women's Studies
Ohio State University, Department of History of Art
University of Michigan, Department of Screen Arts & Cultures
University of South Carolina, Film and Media Studies Program
Macalester College, Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies Department
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Communication Arts
Whitman College, Department of Rhetoric and Film Studies
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Department of Art History
Ohio University, School of Film
Keene State College, Film Studies
Clemson University, Department of Communication Studies
University of Colorado at Boulder, Department of Humanities
Brooklyn College (CUNY), Department of Film
Harvard University, Department of Visual and Environmental Studies
Stony Brook University (SUNY), Department of Comparative Literary & Cultural Studies
California State University at Fullerton, Women's Studies
Catholic University of America, Department of Media Studies
Boston University, Department of Film & Television
NYU (Tisch), Department of Cinema Studies
University of Texas at Austin, Department of Radio-TV-Film
University of Wollongong, School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication
Griffith University, Film and Screen Studies
Central European University (Budapest), Department of Gender Studies

Now here's the list of jobs with November deadlines to which I hope to apply -- I'm sure this will grow as openings continue to be posted. NB: all jobs in English departments specify film/media/cultural studies.

DePaul University, College of Communication
Amherst College, Department of English
Pomona College, Media Studies
Arcadia University, Communications
Trinity College, English Department
University of Virginia, Department of Media Studies
Pace University, Communication Studies Department
University of Massachusetts at Boston, Department of English
Scripps College, Gender and Women's Studies
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Department of English
University of Minnesota, Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature
College of Charleston, Department of English
McGill University, Department of English
Concordia University, Film Studies
University of Western Ontario, Department of Film Studies
NYU, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication
Fordham University, Department of Communication & Media Studies
Queens College (CUNY), Department of Media Studies
Miami University of Ohio, Department of Communication
Denison University, Department of Communication
Bard College, Film and Electronic Arts
Pitzer College, Media Studies

Colby College, Mellon Postdoc in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Duke University, Postdoc in Women's Studies

I'm thrilled to be part of the editorial team that brings you the first issue of the new open access, international, peer-reviewed journal Transformative Works and Cultures! You can read the press release [23] or dive straight into the table of contents [24]. Many thanks go to our tireless editors, Kristina Busse and Karen Hellekson, without whom this project would never have come to fruition.

I'd like to call special attention to the feature I had the greatest hand in, an audio podcast [25] of the presentations and discussion from the post-"fandebate" workshop [26] at Console-ing Passions last Spring. It is our hope that sharing the event virtually will help inspire continuing conversations about gender and other inequalities in fan culture.

TWC is now seeking submissions for future issues including a special issue on video games and gaming. I've included the CFP below; please assist us in spreading the word!

Special Issue: Games as Transformative Works
Transformative Works and Cultures, Vol. 2 (Spring 2009)
Deadline: November 15, 2008
Guest Editor: Rebecca Carlson

Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) invites essays on gaming and gaming culture as transformative work. We are interested in game studies in all its theoretical and practical breadth, but even more so in the way fan culture shapes itself around and through gaming interfaces. Potential topics include but are not limited to game audiences as fan cultures; anthropological approaches to game design and game engagement; on- and off-line game experiences; textual and cultural analysis of games; fan appropriations and manipulations of games; and intersections between games and other fan artifacts.

TWC is a new Open Access, international peer-reviewed online journal published by the Organization for Transformative Works. TWC aims to provide a publishing outlet that welcomes fan-related topics and to promote dialogue between the academic community and the fan community. The first issue of TWC (September 2008) is available at http://journal.transformativeworks.org/ [27]. TWC accepts rolling electronic submissions of full essays through its Web site, where full guidelines are provided. The final deadline for inclusion in the special games issue is November 15, 2008.

TWC encourages innovative works that situate popular media, fan communities, and transformative works within contemporary culture via a variety of critical approaches, including but not limited to feminism, queer theory, critical race studies, political economy, ethnography, reception theory, literary criticism, film studies, and media studies. Submissions should fit into one of three categories of varying scope:

Theory: These often interdisciplinary essays with a conceptual focus and a theoretical frame offer expansive interventions in the field of fan studies. Peer review. Length, 5,000–8,000 words plus a 100–250-word abstract.

Praxis: These essays may apply a specific theory to a formation or artifact; explicate fan practice; perform a detailed reading of a specific text; or otherwise relate transformative phenomena to social, literary, technological, and/or historical frameworks. Peer review. Length, 4,000–7,000 words plus a 100–250-word abstract.

Symposium: Symposium is a section of concise, thematically contained essays. These short pieces provide insight into current developments and debates surrounding any topic related to fandom or transformative media and cultures. Editorial review. Length, 1,500–2,500 words.

Submission information: http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/about/submissions [28]

I'm delighted to announce that I have been selected as one of this year's HASTAC Scholars [33]! I will be posting regular videoblog entries about web technologies and participatory learning here [34] starting sometime this week. I encourage you to engage with the work of all the HASTAC Scholars [35], as well as the organization's other exciting projects.

Also, I will be attending the LA Queer Studies Conference [36] on October 10-11. Allow me to call special attention to my panel, which falls bright and early at 9:00-10:30am on Saturday morning:

Mediated Queer Socialities and Identities
Moderator: Mary L. Gray, Indiana University, Communication and Culture

Julie Levin Russo [my correction], Brown University, Modern Culture and Media
Labors of Love: Economies of Identity in The L Word’s Fan-Driven Online Promotions

Alexis Lothian, University of Southern California, English
Doing Boys Like They’re Girls, and Other (Trans)Gendered Subjects: The Queer Subcultural Politics of “Genderfuck” Fan Fiction

Jill A. Bakehorn, UC Davis, Sociology
Bordering on Activism: Authenticity and Identity Politics in Women-Made Porn

I'd be grateful for any feedback on this first draft of my cover letter template and dissertation description (for my CV [41], which is now updated). I've annotated the job letter for your edification; Tenured Radical's blog post [42] is also a good place to start for understanding the formula. Please join the Media Studies Job Search facebook group [43] if you're interested in such topics!

Indiscrete Media: Television/Digital Convergence and Economies of Online Lesbian Fan Communities
My dissertation analyzes how the convergence of television and the internet is transforming the relationship between the media industry and its consumers. Taking women's production of fan music videos, fiction, critique, and community as an exemplar of economic, regulatory, and technological struggles emerging today, I undertake three case studies of online lesbian fan formations around three television series. Through these artifacts, and drawing from media archaeology, autonomist Marxism, queer theory and cultural studies, I argue that fan engagement is a contested axis of immaterial labor in late capitalism. By framing convergence's technologies, discourses, and subjectivities as queer, I offer a schema for mapping its challenges to systems of ownership, circulation, and value. My work uniquely synthesizes media studies, fan studies, and industry studies, and makes critical contributions to scholarship on television, digital media, and lesbian representation.

---

Dear [name or generic search committee],


[1] [44] I am writing to apply for the position of [job] in [department] at [institution], as announced on [source]. My expertise is in television, internet subcultures, and their intersection in fan production, via the critical framework of queer, Marxist, and media theory. Currently, I am completing my dissertation, Indiscrete Media: Television/Digital Convergence and Economies of Online Lesbian Fan Communities, under the direction of Lynne Joyrich in the department of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University, and expect to receive my PhD in the summer of 2009. [one-sentence summary of my strengths tailored to the specific job]

[2] [45] "Convergence" crystallizes a matrix of current cultural phenomena, from corporate consolidation to technical integration to user-generated participation, that are transforming the relationship between media producers and consumers. In my dissertation, my analysis of this formation takes queer female labor in the guise of online fan discussion, fiction, music videos, and community-building as an exemplar of the tensions emerging at the crossroads of television and the internet. Because the media industry is itself reorienting to privilege fan engagement, my approach to larger economic, legal, and ideological negotiations through the lens of fandom is timely. Beyond broadening the scope of fan studies, however, my work brings a unique critical theoretical perspective to bear upon popular "new" media dynamics, constructing a framework drawn from autonomist Marxism, media archaeology, queer theory and cultural studies. The core of my project consists of three localized evaluations of lesbian fan activity around the television programs Battlestar Galactica, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and The L Word, with attention to three intertwined registers: the screen texts still defined as television episodes; the transmedia texts online that include tie-ins, promotions, and gossip; and the fan texts produced by interpretive communities. These case studies exemplify disputes over technologies of reproduction (figured by the hybrid), politics of representation (figured by the closet), and commodification of identity (figured by the network), demonstrating that fan economies are a contested axis of immaterial labor in late capitalism. Concluding with an excursion into online video, my dissertation maps the queer interventions and global connections generated by a predominantly female fan subculture, arguing that convergence's technologies, discourses, and subjectivities pose structural challenges to systems of ownership, circulation, and value that corporate media is struggling to reincorporate. I maintain that scrutinizing the increasingly intermediated configuration of television and the internet is necessary to understanding the antagonisms shaping media evolution today.

[3] [46] Beyond my dissertation, I have studied television form, queer spectatorship, digital politics, and cybersexuality, presenting on these topics at numerous conferences and publishing articles on lesbian representation and queer netporn. I currently serve on the founding editorial team of the open access, international, peer-reviewed online journal Transformative Works and Cultures, which exposes me to interdisciplinary scholarship on popular media and fan communities. In my next project, I plan to investigate the ecology of user-generated internet video, examining the ongoing spiral of grassroots participation and capitalist regulation that intersects global struggles over fair use, network infrastructure, visual publics, and self-representation. This expands my work on media fandom to encompass a wider range of subcultural production, with a continuing focus on television futures and on immaterial labor.

[4] [47] My commitment to teaching arises from an investment in endowing young adults with the theoretical tools to think critically about the media engagements that permeate their personal and cultural experience. Pedagogically, I emphasize process-oriented and participatory learning, and mobilize online social media platforms to structure, share, and network course materials and student work. While I accommodate varying learning styles, I have a particular dedication to developing student writing skills, and have taken advantage of programs at Brown's Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning to refine my educational strategies. In my department at Brown, I had the opportunity to teach my own seminar, "Television on the Internet: Private Property in the Public Eye," which introduced students to a variety of methodological frameworks for analyzing how an array of convergent phenomena are reshaping media texts, reception, and production. This venture, along with my training as a teaching assistant for such classes as Introduction to Television Studies, Introduction to Digital Media, and Introduction to Modern Culture and Media, have prepared me to teach core courses offered by [name of department], including [list some]. I am also eager to develop new courses in the areas of [make up some that are relevant to the job description].

[5] [48] [short paragraph expressing specific enthusiasm for the specific job/department]

Please find my curriculum vitae [and list any other materials] enclosed. The names and contact information of my references are included at the end of the CV, and their letters will arrive through Brown's dossier service. [if applicable: My proffered writing sample, "Many Copies: Conceptions of Battlestar Galactica," is a condensed dissertation chapter that is representative of my critical approach to transmedia artifacts.] I would be delighted to provide other materials upon request. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Sincerely,

[me]


NOTES

[1] The first paragraph gives basic information and is highly standardized. Basically, by sentence: 1) what you're applying for; 2) summarize yourself in one sentence (optional); 3) describe your current status (could be two sentences); 4) your pitch -- "I believe that my blah blah blah make me an excellent candidate for this position" (also optional).

[2] Explain your dissertation and its contribution to the field. I worked from a further breakdown of the formula that went, more or less sentence-by-sentence:
1. context
2. intervention
3. methodology
4. contents
5. conclusions
6. big picture

[3] There seem to be differing opinions about the purpose of the third paragraph, but I adopted the model that says this is where you outline your larger research interests and apocryphal next project (NB: invented completely out of thin air). It could also be a catch-all for anything else you think is important about you, outside of dissertation and teaching.

[4] The teaching paragraph. Others might prefer to go into less detail about nebulous principles and more detail about courses you have taught/would like to teach. I haven't really gotten around to imagining new courses yet.

[5] This is a kind of unofficial paragraph, but I wanted to template out this flexible space rather than attempting to rewrite the whole letter in each case. I think it will prove useful as a spot to construct a tailored pitch. Whether you include it or not, do make sure you conclude with an inventory of all the materials you've sent as part of your application package. I'm also putting my contact info both at the top and the bottom of the letter.