Welp, it’s been over a year since I last posted to this site. The world is a trash fire and everything is awful, but I’m doing fairly well, considering. It’s not like I’m worried about national and international crises, or that my family and I could be denaturalized or anything. Right? Right?!
Anyway…
The last time I posted was after the International Communications Association conference in San Diego a year ago, and since then a lot has happened. Perhaps most importantly, I accepted a job offer and moved my entire household (partner, two cats, and a dog) across the country to Michigan, where I now work as a digital pedagogy librarian at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I work with an amazing team, including instructional technologists, Accessibility specialists, subject specialists, and numerous other brilliant people across multiple units to support digital scholarship and teaching at UMich. You can check out my library profile here (and yes, that is a cat sweater, thankyouverymuch!).
Of course, there have been numerous other updates, both personal and professional, and because it’s so hard to capture all of it, here’s a quick recap of the highlights!
What I’ve done so far in 2018
January
- I left my job of 3 years at Whittier College in sunny Southeast Los Angeles and drove across the country with fur babies (two humans, two cars, three animals) to relocate to Michigan IN JANUARY
- Moved into a dinky one-bedroom apartment
- Started the new job as a digital pedagogy librarian at the University of Michigan Libraries
- Made some friends!
- Discovered my dog loves snow. (Thank goodness!)
February
- Learned about the pandemonium that is the Ann Arbor real estate market
March
- Winter is almost over, right?
- At least I haven’t gotten sick
April
- Sold our house in Whittier (yay!!!)
- Hosted my third Art+Feminism Wikipedia edit-a-thon, this time in Ann Arbor and with the assistance of a ton of badass librarians, the Stamps Gallery, Ann Arbor District Library, and UMMA
- Had a co-written forum essay on precarious labor and digital humanities accepted by the American Quarterly
- Survived winter and witnessed the brief glory that is a Michigan Spring (I think it lasted a week)
May
- Kush and I had a workshop accepted into the Critical Librarianship and Pedagogy Symposium
- I was elected to the Librarian’s Forum
- Wrapped much of the organizational work (with best team of organizers ever!) for a network gathering for FemTechNet and Situated Critical Race + Media at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit
June
- Co-taught Feminist Digital Humanities with the fabulous Liz Losh (William & Mary) at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute at the University of Victoria
- Got sick
- Missed my network gathering at the Allied Media Conference *sob*
Present
- Still living in the one-bedroom apartment … six months later… two humans, a dog, and two cats
- Discovered dog hates Michigan summers. Still insists on cuddling though, even when he’s panting and about to go into heat stroke
Recap
So, I’ve been in Michigan for about six months now, and am loving the job, my co-workers, and have found an incredibly supportive community that is totally down with my madcap plans and schemes. Though this post doesn’t even begin to capture the past six months, it should give you an idea of what I’ve been up to and what I’m working towards. I feel very fortunate to have the colleagues and collaborators I do, and excited to continue our important work. Onwards!
