Blogging

warning: Creating default object from empty value in /home3/culturec/public_html/modules/taxonomy/taxonomy.pages.inc on line 34.

Article on Academic Blogging in The Guardian

Submitted by Clancy on 23 September 2004 - 11:16am

Via Crooked Timber, an article in today's Guardian about academic blogging: It's basically an explication of the academic blogging phenomenon, but Jim McClellan also addresses the concern of some academics that others might steal their ideas. :evil: :P Sorry, I tend to get a little flippant in the face of this postulate because Torill and Jill debunked it years ago:

The current reward system depends on certain formulas of academic
publishing that encourage exclusivity and the fear of being robbed of
thoughts and ideas. Since the real currency in the trade of academia is
originality of thought and imaginative development of theories, there is
more to lose than to gain in exposing your own ideas too early. The
danger of having thoughts, ideas or questions copied before they have
been published is not just a matter of some petty game between jealous
professors with too little time on their hands, it's a very real matter of
being robbed of the currency which measures academic success.

From this point of view a weblog that reveals the thoughts, arguments
and questions of the scholar continuously during the process of
research and long before academically accepted publication in print
seems like a waste of perfectly good imagination and theory development, an invitation to having your ideas looted. On the other hand,
published and archived in the World Wide Web, the same ideas and
thoughts are in fact published and as such better protected than if they were
for instance given away over a cup of coffee, randomly at a conference.

Into the Blogosphere gets a mention, which I'm happy about; we (the editors) were interviewed for this story a while back, but McClellan didn't end up using any of the interview. He took the story in a different direction, and that's cool, I'm not complaining. I do want to try to find the interview, which is floating around on my hard drive or one of my flash drives somewhere, and post it here for those who might be interested.

New Article from BROG

Submitted by Clancy on 22 September 2004 - 7:50pm

Blogging

The folks over at BROG (Blog Research on Genre) have a new essay out that I've been meaning to post about for a few days now called "Conversations in the Blogosphere: An Analysis 'From the Bottom Up.'" The abstract:

The "blogosphere" has been claimed to be a densely interconnected
conversation, with bloggers linking to other
bloggers, referring to them in their entries, and posting
comments on each other's blogs. Most such characterizations
have privileged a subset of popular blogs, known as
the 'A-list.' This study empirically investigates the extent
to which, and in what patterns, blogs are interconnected,
taking as its point of departure randomly-selected blogs.
Quantitative social network analysis, visualization of link
patterns, and qualitative analysis of references and
comments in pairs of reciprocally-linked blogs show that
A-list blogs are overrepresented and central in the
network, although other groupings of blogs are more
densely interconnected. At the same time, a majority of
blogs link sparsely or not at all to other blogs in the sample,
suggesting that the blogosphere is partially interconnected
and sporadically conversational.

And research questions:

1) How interlinked is the blogosphere from the perspective
of a random blog?

1a) Which blogs are central?

1b) Which blogs are more interconnected? Are
there cliques?

1c) Is the blogosphere a "small world"?

2) Do other types of "conversation" take place between
linked blogs, and if so, to what extent?

To put it another way (if I understand them correctly) could any random blog on Blogger (nice that they've turned the whole system into one big blog ring instead of putting those ads at the top) potentially lead to this blog right here, given many degrees of separation, of course? Worth a look.

Resources on Blogs in Education

Submitted by Clancy on 13 September 2004 - 3:57pm

The EDUCAUSE Information Resources Library has fairly recently created a weblog category focused on the use of weblogs in education. A lot of people contact me asking for these kinds of sources, so now I have one handy link to send. :)

Clancy's blog
Login to post comments

Into the Blogosphere Review

Submitted by Clancy on 9 September 2004 - 12:10pm

In the reviews section of Computers and Composition Online, there's a review of Into the Blogosphere written by Lanette Cadle.

Short Break

Submitted by Clancy on 4 September 2004 - 1:50pm

Blogging will be light or nonexistent for the next few days, as a good friend is coming here for a visit. :)

Two Apt Metaphors

Submitted by Clancy on 11 August 2004 - 11:43am

I encountered both of these recently in conversations with colleagues in various departments about academic blogging and using blogging in writing pedagogy.

First: "I want to do A, B, and C in my (Insert discipline here) (Insert course number here) class. Would I be able to use a blog for that, or must I enter the WebCT gulag?"

Second: [Colleague who's just starting to learn about blogs, reflecting after our lengthy discussion of public/private and the pros and cons of real name v. pseudonym in blogging] "You know, academic blogging under your real name is sort of like the intellectual equivalent of going to a nude beach."

Note: I'm putting that second one in just because I found it so humorous. I'm not trying to weigh in on the real name v. pseudonym debate. One is not more valuable than the other, in my opinion, and there are definite advantages and disadvantages associated with each choice.

CV

Submitted by Clancy on 8 August 2004 - 7:53pm

Clancy Ratliff

221 Griffin Hall | P.O. Box 44691 | Department of English, University of Louisiana at Lafayette | Lafayette, LA 70504

http://culturecat.net

Academic Employment

Assistant Professor and Director of First-Year Writing, Department of English, University of Louisiana at Lafayette: August 2007-present.

Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition, Department of English, East Carolina University: August 2006-May 2007.

Graduate Instructor, University of Minnesota: August 2002-May 2006.

Instructor, Roane State Community College: January 2002-May 2002.

Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Tennessee: August 1999-May 2001.

Education

Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Scientific and Technical Communication, Minor in Feminist Studies, University of Minnesota, September 2006.
Dissertation: "Where Are the Women?" Rhetoric and Gender in Weblog Discourse. Committee: Mary Lay Schuster (Chair), Laura J. Gurak, Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch, Joanna O'Connell, Geoffrey Sirc.

M.A. in English, Technical Communication emphasis, University of Tennessee, 2001.
Thesis: "I Cannot Read This Story Without Rewriting It": Haraway, Cyborg Writing, and Burkean Form.

B.A. in English, Minor in Photography, University of North Alabama, 1997.

Areas of Specialization

Composition Studies, Writing Program Administration, Feminist Rhetorics, Writing Technologies, Modern Rhetorical Theory, Technical Communication, Research Methodologies, Intellectual Property / Authorship

Articles and Book Chapters

Ratliff, C. (2009). Policing miscarriage: Infertility blogging, rhetorical enclaves, and the case of House Bill 1677. WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, 37, 125-145.

Ratliff, C. (2009). Some rights reserved: Weblogs with Creative Commons licenses. In Westbrook, S. (Ed.), Composition, Copyright, and Intellectual Property Law (pp. 50-67). New York: SUNY Press.

Ratliff, C. (2007). Attracting readers: Sex and audience in the blogosphere. Scholar & Feminist Online, 5.2.

Ratliff, C. (2004). Between work and play: Blogging and community knowledge-making. Lore: An e-journal for teachers of writing. Available at http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/lore/digressions/content.htm?dis11

Encyclopedia Articles

Ratliff, C. (2006). Feminist standpoint theory. In Trauth, E.M. (Ed.), The encyclopedia of gender and information technology (pp. 335-340). Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing.

Ratliff, C. (2006). Postmodern feminism. In Trauth, E.M. (Ed.), The encyclopedia of gender and information technology (pp. 1018-1022). Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing.

Ratliff, C. (2005). Essentialism. In Heywood, L.L. (Ed.), The women's movement today: An encyclopedia of third wave feminism (pp. 122-123). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Ratliff, C. (2005). Performativity. In Heywood, L.L. (Ed.), The women's movement today: An encyclopedia of third wave feminism (pp. 240-242). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Edited Collections

In Progress: The CCCC-IP Annual: Top Intellectual Property Developments of 2009, online collection of essays for the CCCC Intellectual Property Caucus, publication 2010.

The CCCC-IP Annual: Top Intellectual Property Developments of 2008, online collection of essays for the CCCC Intellectual Property Caucus, 2009. Edited the collection and wrote one article, "Open Access in 2008: The Harvard Policy and the APA's Attempt to Profit from the NIH Open Access Mandate." Available at http://www.ncte.org/cccc/committees/ip/2008developments

The CCCC-IP Annual: Top Intellectual Property Developments of 2007, online collection of essays for the CCCC Intellectual Property Caucus, 2008. Edited the collection and wrote one article, "The National Institutes of Health Open Access Mandate: Public Access for Public Funding." Available at http://www.ncte.org/cccc/committees/ip/2007developments

Gurak, L.J., Antonijevic, S., Johnson, L., Ratliff, C., & Reyman, J. (Eds.). (2004). Into the blogosphere: Rhetoric, community, and culture of weblogs. Available at http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/. Reviewed in Computers and Composition Online, Fall 2004.

Book Reviews

In Progress: Review of Technological ecologies & sustainability, eds. Dànielle Nicole DeVoss, Heidi A. McKee, and Richard (Dickie) Selfe. Computers and Composition Digital Press.

In Progress: Review of Webbing Cyberfeminist Practice: Communities, Pedagogies, and Social Action, eds. Kristine Blair, Radhika Gajjala, Christine Tulley. Hampton Press.

In Press: Review of Women's Ways of Making It in Rhetoric and Composition, by Michelle Ballif, Diane Davis, and Roxanne Mountford. JAC: Rhetoric, Writing, Culture, Politics, fall 2008 issue.

In Press: Review of The Rhetoric of Intellectual Property: Copyright Law and the Regulation of Digital Culture, by Jessica Reyman. Computers and Composition, fall 2010 issue.

Scholarships and Awards

Hugh Burns Best Dissertation Award, Computers and Composition, May 2007.

John Lovas Memorial Academic Weblog Award, Kairos, May 2006.

Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, University of Minnesota, May 2005 (university-wide).

Scholarship, Internet Law Program, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA. May 13-15, 2004.

J. Paul Blakely Award of Excellence, Society for Technical Communication, East Tennessee Chapter, March 2001.

Administrative Experience

Director of First-Year Writing, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, August 2007-present. Duties include:

Supervise approximately 60 teachers in a program that serves roughly 4000 students per semester and includes basic writing and honors writing courses
Calibrate placement and transfer credit cases for students based on test scores and writing samples
Assess the curriculum (textbooks, outcomes, student writing in the aggregate) continually
Assist the Writing Center Director with administrative matters
Arrange, promote, and facilitate faculty development workshops
Review syllabi for first-year writing courses
Participate in professional development and curriculum alignment workshops at local high schools
Serve as judge for the Ann Dobie Outstanding Freshman Essay Award and the Outstanding New Teacher Award each year
Advise teachers and students regarding attendance problems, plagiarism cases, and grade appeals

Interviews

Clancy Ratliff: Blogger, Scholar...Blogger Scholar: An Interview by Meredith Graupner (Bowling Green State University and Christine Denecker (University of Findlay). Computers and Composition Online, Spring 2008.

Blogs About Business Travel Begin to Feel the Power by Christopher Elliott, The New York Times, September 18, 2006.

Blog this: Posting views for all to see is not new by Thana Dharmaraah, Guelph Mercury, June 2, 2006.

Not just personal use anymore: U courses tap into blogging by Marni Ginther, The Minnesota Daily, February 17, 2006.

Broads on Blogs: An increasingly popular political forum is attracting women with something to say, but is the blogosphere still a man's world? by Stephanie Schorow, SadieMag, November 2005.

Outlook: What's next for blogging? In Bruns, A., & Jacobs, J. (Eds.), Uses of Blogs. Forthcoming from Peter Lang Publishing. Original questions and answers posted July 24, 2005.

Into the blogosphere: Women find a voice and a community on Internet blogs by Taylor Eisenman, Minnesota Women's Press, April 5, 2005.

It's almost as good as being there by Kathy Boccella, Philadelphia Inquirer, November 8, 2004. Also ran in the Chicago Tribune, December 5, 2004.

Stop press: little Timmy ate his lunch by Lucy Atkins, The Guardian, September 29, 2004. Also ran in The Hindu, September 30, 2004.

Outlet for parents — fun for the masses by Molly Millett, St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 14, 2004. Also ran in the Austin American Statesman, October 26, 2004; the Seattle Times, September 19, 2004; and the Arizona Central, September 4, 2004.

Blogging communities’ popularity draws students by Patricia Drey, The Minnesota Daily, March 26, 2003.

Courses Taught

University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, August 2007-present.

English 102, Writing and Research about Culture
English 293, Writing Center Tutoring
English 457, Classical Rhetoric
English 501, Teaching College English
English 509, Teaching College English Practicum

East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, August 2006-May 2007.

English 1100, Composition I (two sections, one honors)
English 3030, Introduction to Rhetorical Studies
English 3810, Advanced Composition
English 7765, Special Studies Seminar: Research Ethics for a Complex World

University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, August 2002-May 2006.

Rhetoric 1101: Writing to Inform, Convince, and Persuade (five sections)
Rhetoric 1223: Oral Presentations in Professional Settings (four sections)
Rhetoric 3266: Group Process, Team Building, and Leadership (one section)
Rhetoric 3562W: Technical and Professional Writing (two sections)

Roane State Community College, La Follette, TN, January 2002-May 2002.

English 1010: Composition I (one section)

University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, August 1999-May 2001.

English 101: English Composition I (two sections)
English 102: English Composition II (two sections)
Interdisciplinary Studies 493: Technical Writing Module, Ronald McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program (one section)

Dissertation and Thesis Committee Work

Chair, Dissertation: Thomas Reynolds, Wiki Readers Wiki Writers (in progress)
Chair, Dissertation: Kate Lane, Taking Sex Out of the Bedroom: Re-Visioning Ourselves through Sex and the City (defended October 16, 2009)
Chair, Master's Thesis: Shay Frith, Truthiness and Wikiality: A Comparison of Plato to Stephen Colbert in Criticizing Modern and/or Ancient Sophists

Conference Presentations, National

“'Public Access for Public Funding': Copyright, Taxpayer Funding, and Open Access Scholarship.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Louisville, KY, scheduled March 2010.

“How Suffragist Rhetoric Resembles Blogosphere Rhetoric.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, CA, March 11, 2009.

“What Can Composition Learn from Political Blogging? Tapping into the Agora.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, New Orleans, LA, April 4, 2008.

“Bumper Cars and Bloodsports: The Political Blogosphere and the Writing Classroom.” Feminisms and Rhetorics, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR. October 5, 2007.

“Peer-to-Peer Review, Metadata, and Distant Reading: Introducing MediaCommons, a New Scholarly Network.” Computers and Writing, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. May 18, 2007.

“Digital Writing Research(ers): Institutional Review Boards: Mapping the Issues for Organizational Position Statements.” (Roundtable). Computers and Writing, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. May 18, 2007.

“Negotiating and Regulating Plagiarism in Everyday Blogging Practices.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, New York, NY. March 2007.

"Coalition-Building on Weblogs: Negotiating Innovation and Access in Writing Pedagogy." Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, IL. March 2006.

"Carnival in the Commons: New Directions and Old Challenges for Online Scholarly Publishing." Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Washington, D.C. December 2005.

"'The Parental Is Political': Gender, Punditry, and Weblogs." Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, CA. March 16, 2005.

Chair, "Owning Knowledge: New Intersections of Intellectual Property, Technology, and Academia." Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, CA. March 2005.

"Whose Voices Get Heard? Gender Politics in the Blogosphere." Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Antonio, TX. March 26, 2004. Available at http://culturecat.net/node/view/303.

"Women Born Women Only: The Dialogue Between the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and Camp Trans." Feminism(s) and Rhetoric(s), The Ohio State University, October 23, 2003.

"Sites of Resistance: Weblogs and Creative Commons Licenses." Association of Internet Researchers, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 18, 2003. Available at http://culturecat.net/files/ClancyRatliff.AoIR.2003.pdf.

"Blogging as Social Action: The Weblog as Genre." Computers and Writing, Purdue University, May 23, 2003

"Kairosnews: A Weblog for the Computers and Writing Community." Computers and Writing, Purdue University, May 24, 2003.

"Looking to Lorde and Daly: When It's Not Okay to Be Silent in Feminist Rhetorical Theory." Conference on College Composition and Communication, New York, New York, March 20, 2003.

"Kairosnews: A Weblog for the Rhetoric Community." Conference on College Composition and Communication, New York, New York, March 21, 2003.

"The Populist Cyborg: Resituating Haraway in Activism." Humanities and Technology Association, Terre Haute, Indiana, October 25, 2002.

"What is Form to a Cyborg? Burkean Form for a Postmodern Audience." Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, Illinois, March 23, 2002.

Conference Presentations, Regional

“Open Source Software and the Digital Divide: Revisiting the Issue of Access in Computers and Composition Studies.” Louisiana Association of College Composition, Monroe, LA. November 2009.

“'No More Than a Year': Isocrates and the Assessment of First-Year Writing.” Louisiana Association of College Composition, Alexandria, LA. November 15, 2008.

“Opportunities for Teaching Civic Literacy in Louisiana.” Louisiana Association of College Composition, New Orleans, LA. November 17, 2007.

“Attracting Readers: Sex and Audience in the Blogosphere.” South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Charlotte, NC. November 11, 2006.

"Gender, Punditry, and Weblogs: A Feminist Rhetorical Analysis of Blogging’s Challenge to Current Understandings of Political Discourse." New Research for New Media: Innovative Research Methodologies Symposium. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. September 15-16, 2005.

"Blogging to Learn: Engaging Students, Building Community." Academy of Distinguished Teachers Conference, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. April 25, 2005.

"Blogging and the Mainstream Media." Society of Professional Journalists' Region 6 Conference, Bloomington, MN. April 2, 2005.

"Making the Adjunct Visible: Normativity in Academia and Subversive Heteroglossia in the Invisible Adjunct Weblog Community." Great Plains Alliance for Computers and Writing Conference, North Dakota State University. April 24, 2004. Available at http://culturecat.net/ia.

Invited Presentations/Workshops

"Using Podcasting Software to Comment on Student Writing.” Teaching with Technology 2006: A Think-In of Best Practices, East Carolina University Academic Outreach, November 9, 2006.

“Increasing Students’ Sense of Ownership and Participation in a Course Weblog.” (Co-presented with Jonathan Goodwin.) Teaching with Technology 2006: A Think-In of Best Practices, East Carolina University Academic Outreach, November 9, 2006.

Next/Text Meeting for Rhetoric, Composition, and the Digital Textbook. The Institute for the Future of the Book, Annenberg Center at the University of Southern California. April 26, 2006.

“Uses of Blogging and Social Bookmarking in the Classroom.” Web 2.0: Promoting Collaboration and Student-Centered Learning. Technology-Enhanced Learning Seminar Series, University of Minnesota Digital Media Center. April 5, 2006.

“Using Weblogs as Project Management Tools, Sounding Boards, or Everyday Journals.” Writing for the Web, University of Minnesota Compleat Scholar Program, College of Continuing Education. February 13, 2006.

“Weblogs in Writing Pedagogy: Learning Objectives, Questions, and Issues.” Assigning Blogs. Spring 2006 Workshop Series, University of Minnesota Center for Writing. February 2, 2006.

“Live-Action Progymnasmata! Or, Using Weblogs in Writing Courses: Pedagogical Windfalls, Practical Advice, and Tips for Using UThink.” University of Minnesota Department of Rhetoric Instructor Orientation. August 31, 2005.

"Weblogs and Wikis in Teaching." With Krista Kennedy. University of Minnesota Digital Media Center Faculty Fellowship Program, February 10, 2005 and November 16, 2005.

“Into the Blogosphere: New Models of Research and Publication with Blogs.” With Laura Gurak, Smiljana Antonijevic, Laurie Johnson, Krista Kennedy, and Jessica Reyman. University of Minnesota Center for Advanced Feminist Studies Colloquium Series, November 29, 2004.

"Weblogs in Education and Training." Communication 385, Media Relations, Metropolitan State University. Instructor: Victoria Sadler. November 1, 2004.

"Online Writing / Writing Online: A Workshop for Instructors Who Assign Writing." Fall 2004 Workshop Series, University of Minnesota Center for Writing. October 29, 2004.

"Gender and Weblogs." Women's Studies 3306, Pop Culture Women, University of Minnesota. Instructor: Tiffany Muller. July 20, 2004.

Service (Profession)

Member, Editorial Board, Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing http://writingspaces.org/

Member, Editorial Board, MediaCommons: A Digital Scholarly Network http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/

Member, CCCC Intellectual Property Caucus, 2003-present. Co-chair during academic year 2007-2008 and 2008-2009.

Peer Reviewer, Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference 2009

Social Software Special Interest Group, Conference on College Composition and Communication, New York, NY, March 2007.

Open Source Software Special Interest Group, Conference on College Composition and Communication, New York, NY, March 2007.

Co-Chair, Blogging Special Interest Group, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, IL, March 2006. Participant in SIG for CCCC 2005.

Organizing Committee, Computers and Writing Online 2005.

Peer Reviewer, Computers and Writing 2007: Virtual Urbanism. Wayne State University, Detroit, MI.

Peer Reviewer, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

Peer Reviewer, NWSA Journal

Peer Reviewer, New Media and Society

Peer Reviewer, Sex Roles: A Journal of Research

Site Administrator, Computers and Writing Conference Weblog

Founder and Associate Editor, Kairosnews: A Weblog for Discussing Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy.

Feminist Rhetoric Field Editor, rhetcomp.com: A Portal of Sites Relevant to the Field of Rhetoric and Composition.

Service (University of Louisiana at Lafayette)

Global Competency Rapid Action Team for University General Education Assessment

Admission by Exception Committee

Chair, First-Year Writing Committee

Women’s Studies Committee

Personnel Committee, (2-year term 2007-2008, 2008-2009)

Graduate Admissions Committee

Placement Committee

Graduate Course Offerings Committee (2-year term 2009-2010, 2010-2011)

Continuing Assistantships Committee

Awards Committee

Chair, Search committee, Instructor position (academic year 2007-2008)

Chair, Search committee, Writing Center Director position (academic year 2008-2009)

(Printer-friendly version)

Memos to Ourselves

Submitted by Clancy on 24 July 2004 - 3:56pm

Memos to Ourselves is an audioblog open to anyone who wants to contribute. So far I'm, uh, underwhelmed by the creativity of the contributors (hear, for example, this post), but I'll keep checking back; an open audioblog is a pretty cool idea. Oh, and I'm wondering how this woman is doing now. Via Feministe.