What I’m up to
12 03 2007I’m about 6 weeks into my postdoc, so what I’ve been up to lately is a lot of background research and planning. The immediate goal has been to develop a coherent 2-3 year program of research that builds on my previous work, advances the field and helps to fulfil the ambitions of the Federation Fellowship program within which my postdoctoral fellowship sits. By the way, the FF program involves a team of four researchers, including the Federation Fellow and two other postdocs, so there’s some collaborative stuff we’re doing as well. I’m very happy to report that things are taking shape nicely now.
I’ll explain more as it gets down to brass tacks, but basically my individual research is designed to build on the kind of work I did in my PhD, while extending its reach quite significantly. I’m planning a central case study around YouTube, situating it within the broader historical context of the emergence, popularisation and social uses of new media technologies of all kinds, going right back to the emergence of an ‘elaborated system’ of print literacy. More as things move forward.
Other stuff that’s happening now and in the immediate future:
- Co-teaching a coursework masters unit on Applied Research in the Creative Industries this semester. The unit has been redeveloped around the contexts & uses of Digital Storytelling and incorporates a reflective practice element with the inclusion of a Train-theTrainers workshop as a core activity
- Very excitedly planning a 2 week trip to Boston with fellow postdoc John Banks in mid-late April, including our panel (with Axel Bruns) on “user-led content creation” at MIT5, and a number of other invited seminars and speaking engagements. We’re hoping to develop and strengthen some research collaborations while we’re there as well.
- A multi-authored book proposal - fingers crossed, and more info soon
- An article on Flickr (sort of drawn from my PhD, but sort of moving on from there) for a Big Journal (again, fingers crossed)
- A few other fun journal articles that I banned myself from thinking about while concentrating very hard on Writing Up, but which I promised myself I’d write this year
sounds pretty sweet. would love to see video of the MIT presentation if anyone tapes it!
[…] Jean Burgess writes that she , Axel Bruns and John Banks are doing a panel on “user-led content creation”. Jean’s work on quotidian creativity is great, and Axel does very interesting things about gatewatching, blogging, produsage and citizen journalism, so this should be good. Oh, look, I think Jean’s paper will be on Flickr, social aesthetics, and the reconfiguration of the relations between everyday life, ‘professional’ photography and artworlds. […]