In their essay "Beyond the Personal: Theorizing a Politics of Location in Composition Research," (College Composition and Communication 46 (1995). All page numbers correspond with the reprinting in Feminism and Composition: A Critical Sourcebook.) Gesa E. Kirsch and Joy S. Ritchie give careful consideration to several problematics in feminist research and critiques of traditional research practices, including the notion of the "value-free observer," the essentialization of the identities of research participants, the lack of reliance on or overreliance on experience as a ground for knowledge claims, the conflict between an ethic of principles and an ethic of caring (for participants), ethical dilemmas encountered in research*, and the power differential between researcher and participants. The article is an excellent overview of feminist research design, but I was a little disappointed with one thing.

Ripe, luscious strawberries dipped in banilla yogurt:

Looks like I'm not the only one who dreamed about Chun.

We've gone live. Here's the official release note:
Announcing---

Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs
ed. Laura Gurak, Smiljana Antonijevic, Laurie Johnson, Clancy Ratliff, and Jessica Reyman, University of Minnesota

This online, edited collection explores discursive, visual, social, and other communicative features of weblogs. Essays analyze and critique situated cases and examples drawn from weblogs and weblog communities. The collection takes a multidisciplinary approach, and contributions represent perspectives from Rhetoric, Communication, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Linguistics, and Education, among others.

Into the Blogosphere is a first in many ways. Along with its being the first scholarly collection focused on the blog as rhetorical artifact, the editors also offer an innovative approach to intellectual property and to publishing. There are a number of peer reviewed journals in digital format. However, with an edited collection, the desired outcome is usually a hard-copy book, so the standard process has been to turn to a publisher with a proposal, then typically wait several years before the book actually comes out.

*Next time you attempt pan-seared salmon, wear long sleeves.

It was worth the little pop-burns on my forearms, though. Before cooking, I marinated the salmon in olive oil and cajun seasoning, and I squeezed some lime on it before serving it to myself. Delicious. :D

What I'm working on:

It's another prototype for a hat I'm making for my friend D.--Michelle got the first one, since I deemed it too feminine for him (but great for a woman, as evidenced by Michelle's picture). This one, too, is up for grabs if anyone wants it; I'm just doing it to get the hang of reducing in rib stitch. I want to use this pattern for the real hat.

Via My Bad Karma--you're going to think I should be taken out and shot once you see which movies I haven't seen. I added Paris Is Burning and Pitch Black to the list since I rented those tonight:

Happened to find these old exams online, for those who might want to see rhetorical theory sample questions other than the ones I've proposed. Oh, and I'm finally posting the reading list for my specialty area: feminist theory and research on gender and computer-mediated communication. Please excuse the ugly formatting; some citations are in APA, some MLA, sometimes the articles came from coursepacks and not all the publication information is there...it's anarchy!