Hi everyone! I’m Jax. Off the bat I wanted to say I identify as nonbinary and use they/them pronouns, so if you can use that for me that’d be great. I’m definitely open to answering about any questions about this if you have any.
I’m in the second year of my English Master’s here. I was a transfer student from Tompkins Cortland after I got my associates, and then did the rest of my undergraduate here at SUNY Cortland as well. I have an English Bachelor’s and a minor in Professional Writing thus far. I’m extremely interested in queer studies, horror studies, fan studies, seriality, and audience participation within writing. All of which are things I’ve been looking into for my thesis project which is how I’ve spent most of my summer. I’m especially interested in things like found footage, unfiction, and storytelling through podcasts. All of which use interesting frames and lens in which a story is needed to be told through. It’s super interesting to me! I’ll talk to you about any found footage movie for hours.
On top of that, I have a lot of experience with tutoring. I have worked with The Learning Center as a GA and as a peer tutor during my undergrad. If I do not end up becoming a professor, I am extremely interested in becoming a professional tutor or working within writing centers within different colleges. I really enjoy working one on one with students and helping them develop their writing skills. I’ve also tutored things like time management, study skills, and test skills.
Some questions I have for this semester:
- How am I able to integrate race/gender/sexuality studies easily within a subject that might not be entirely about that? I tend to bring these up regardless of my class, just because it falls within my interests and my own self, but it will be helpful to explore effective ways to integrate them into my teaching in a way that doesn’t feel forced.
- How do you develop an effective teaching plan online? Since we don’t know at all what that future may hold for us, teaching might become online sort of permanently. Or at least for the next few years. I’ll be interested to see this develop especially through the group projects.
And now I’ll get into the most important part: Cat pictures (and a book picture)
Hi Jax! Great to virtually meet you and love the cat photos! I had to Google “unfiction” and I’m extremely glad that I did–it’s something interesting that I am not super familiar with as I’m coming more from a social sciences perspective. What fandoms are you interested in? I have a lot of students who are interested in various fandoms / cosplay but don’t always make the connection between fandoms and academic work. Also, you mentioned podcasts–do you have any particular favorites? I’ve been listening to a lot more podcasts since the pandemic started as I have a lot more flexibility in my workday to just take a walk around the neighborhood, and I want to branch out of my usual politics / history / current events =) Can’t wait to meet you!
Hi Jax! So glad to have you in our class (and not just because your cats are so majestic). I can’t wait to hear more about your thesis — you have such a fascinating and exciting set of interests! Maybe at some point in the semester you could share a piece of writing (is it writing, or a multimodal project?) related to your thesis. I also feel that helping students develop their writing is one of the absolute most rewarding experiences. For me, it’s an example of what Audre Lorde calls “the erotic,” something that we aren’t necessarily taught to think of as a deep source of joy and pleasure, but once we experience it, so many other things that are supposed to make us happy seem to pale by comparison (but hey, you’re into queer theory so maybe I’m preaching to the choir!). Looking forward to a great semester!
Hello Jax,
Your interests and thesis topics sound fascinating. I am familiar with found footage, but I wasn’t aware of the term until now. Podcast storytelling is something of a growing interest to me which makes me only the more intrigued in your thesis. Also, your cats are gorgeous. Monkey rocks a cowboy hat better than I ever could.
Looking forward to interacting with you in this class! ^.^
Hiiya Jax,
I momentarily forgot how fluffy Monkey and Phasy are so thank you for those reminders! I think it’s going to be really interesting to see how your thesis evolves over the next year, especially in how you’ll decide to examine narrative voice (or lack thereof) within the different modes of story telling.
See ya soon!