Hello readers,
My name is Alijan. I am finishing my master’s here at Stony Brook this semester. I’m some mix of a first- and second-year master’s student as I am doing the 5-year combined BA/MA program. I am also completing the Writing Certificate. I spent the past semester teaching memoir writing to DREAMers as part of a fellowship with the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook University and Herstory Writer’s Workshop. Outside of academia, I’m an avid photographer. I also do some videography, as well. As of writing this post, I am in the “waiting period” for PhD applications. It’s nerve-racking.
My specializations are in Digital Humanities and New Media. In particular, I have an interest in the patterns of networks and communications of new media with a focus on new media semiotics. I’m currently researching the emoji as it develops new historical valences. My MA thesis, on the other hand, follows different context within the field of DH. My MA thesis uses a hauntological lens in conjunction with hypertext to identify the network of Hamlet within the subtext of Joyce’s Ulysses.
Given that these are my areas of interest, I am very excited for this course. I’m looking forward to blogging with you all.
Nice to meet you, Alijan. Your biography has some exciting implications for your work in Digital Rhetoric–photography, videography, interest in networks and emojis in history. Awesome! Looking forward to hearing more about that. Joyce certainly was a precursor of hypertextual networks and that is a very exciting thesis. Lots of richness to consider in your ideas here. Are you primarily a digital photographer or do you work with film? Have a good time with Digital Storytelling (I think you will enjoy that module).
It’s my pleasure to meet you, too! I feel like I’ve developed a solid multimedia skill set, but am not at all sure how to connect the different skills. Looking forward to learning some new ways to assemble these things. As far as photography goes, my professional work is all digital–e.g. to meet a megapixel count or ease of editing or general reliability and convenience–and I prefer the digital format, but I own a few film cameras and like to experiment with it every now and then. It’s just so expensive to shoot film!
Hi Allan,
I have a daughter graduating college this semester and she is showing more and more interest in the digital humanities; I look forward to learning from you and passing ideas on to her :)
Enjoy the semester!
ab
Hey Allison,
DH is really an exciting field, so it’s cool to hear that your daughter is getting into it! It’s hard to go wrong with DH in my opinion. I’m still kind of new to the field, but the beauty of graduate school (or academia writ large) is to develop paths of inquiry further! If you have any questions, I’m always happy to talk.
I’m sorry–Alijan, not Allan!