Tis the Season for Conferences

March Madness

It might only be the beginning of February, but I'm gearing up for March.

I mentioned the international conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society I attended at UCLA in January and that was only the beginning of the presentation pandemonium to come. Somehow, I managed to submit to conference convening primarily in March.

First off, I'm off to San Marcos, Texas where I was a predoctoral fellow. There, I'll be presenting as a part of the Tejas Foco of the National Association of Chicano and Chicana Studies Tejas Regional Conference. 

As in the image above, I will then be in St. Louis, Missouri from March 21-24 for the 2012 CCCC. As a past CCCC Scholar for the Dream, I always look forward to attending the ceremonies along with this years scholars--one of the PhD students I peer-mentor is one of this year's award recipients. Not to mention all of the great NCTE Latina/o Caucus workshop/meetings.

Rounding out March, I'm heading to UCSD for the  2012 Cultural Studies Association Conference, themed CULTURE MATTERS from March 28 through April 1. 

I'm getting tired just thinking about all of the travel, but I think these conferences reflect the intersections of my research interests and will charge my scholarly battery with great presentations and discussion.

Crossing boundaries and speaking in foreign tongues like a pochteca...

Going, Going, Back, Back

To Cali, Cali

Presenting at the Technology, Knowledge and Society International Conference this Tuesday.
For more about the conference, go here.

More on my presentation "Tweeting Latinidad: Constructing Knowledge with Latin@ Students on Twitter"
My bio on the conference site: http://t12.cgpublisher.com/proposals/203/index_html#author-0

Cyberbraceros

The Sleep Dealer

I was told that I needed to see the *Sleep Dealer* because it deals with technology, migrant laborers and the disposable bodies of factory workers in the borderlands. The story is sci-fi and has a satirical agenda that exposes a dark "American Dream" that asks for and utilizes a migrant labor force, but then wants it to disappear.



In undergrad, I took a course that looked at sci-fi as psychological fiction in that many of these outlandish ideas we see represented in films like Stepford Wives play on deeper psychological desires. Looking at Sleep Dealer in this same psychological context, I think the effectiveness of this film hinges on technology erasing racial markers, a concept that could be grounded in some of the tangible legislation that puts into place systems of control for racially marked bodies.





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW8oSRSzS7M

Technology, Teaching and Rhetorical Analysis

Technology, Teaching and Rhetorical Analysis
I was asked to speak to a group of first year graduate students about teaching rhetorical analysis and using technology. This is a short video I put together using the Xtranormal software.