Kimberly Hirsh

One challenge with my research interests related to academic publishing is that a lot of them are focused on futuring. I’m interested in how platforms in a given moment are relevant to a zeitgeist, but also how they illuminate larger concerns. Right now, I’m intrigued by how educators are using Discord and how libraries are using Twitch. (Hell, how congresspeople are using Twitch.) I’m interested in what this all means, but by the time any traditional scholarship happens, some of these will be passe. What insights from their heyday will remain, though? I’m going to ponder this further and how I can make this part of what I do.

Co-star gets me. [Image reads “Your heart is a book.”]

I’m very cranky today. I don’t like it. I don’t like who I feel like I am when I feel this way. So I am not letting cranky me do anything that non-cranky me might regret. Which means delaying some email responses, among other things. Get over yourself, cranky Kimberly.

Been trying to figure out who to cosplay for my dissertation defense. Needs to be professional, comfortable, light makeup, no wig, preferably works with glasses. I’d been toying with a genderbent Data but I think I have a better idea now. (Still a genderbend.)

I finished drafting a dissertation chapter (I’ve had 4 almost finished chapters for a couple weeks) and I’m hungry so please come feed me because I want food but don’t want to move.

See this is why we read in the original language if we can: Caesar says the Rhine bends toward Ursa Major, while the translation says “this land has one frontier to the north.” I know which I prefer.

If you’ve been away from Latin for 10+ years but want to return to reading it as a hobby, Caesar’s De Bello Gallico is as gentle a re-introduction as it is an introduction for baby Latin students. Highly recommend.

Things my kid said tonight:
“Mommy, you’ll never be a doctor.” 💔
“I’m going to imagine having a moth for a brother.” 💗

I think… I think I just don’t enjoy consuming Actual Play content and maybe that’s okay?

Okay seriously is anyone keeping any of their shit together right now?

Heeeey, just over here psyching myself up to revisit Chapter 11 - Trustworthiness - in Lincoln & Guba’s (1985) Naturalistic Inquiry. How’s your day?

Conversation with friends:
Tweens - Who’s cute
Teen - Who’s dating
20s - Good food
30s - Home repairs

I read this piece & I need a cold shower. Gonna be intense when I finally read CARMILLA.

Carmilla Is Better Than Dracula, And Here’s Why - Electric Literature electricliterature.com

Read: electricliterature.com

Over at University of Venus, Mary Churchill asks about The Day After: What will you do on November 4?

I am planning absolutely nothing for that day. I will be at home with my husband and child. I’m thinking of asking my husband to freeze his calendar as it is now, so that no new meetings can be added that day.

On November 9, 2016, I took my one month old son to a new parents’ group. I don’t remember my husband being with me, though I know we were together on election day. I can’t imagine he was back at work yet. Maybe he stayed home? I don’t know.

What I do know is that it was an excellent place to be; I was with a group of people with a keen and personal concern for the future, since we all had children under 2 years old. I heard stories of other parents’ family members who already were experiencing verbal attacks and physical violence. We were all scared and angry and didn’t know what to do except care for our kids and hold space for each other.

I really don’t know what I will do on November 4. I know I won’t have a village to turn to that day, not physically, anyway. Just a household.

I really don’t know.

M & I have been watching Netflix’s Bookmarks today. Grace Byers’s I AM ENOUGH is so beautiful and joyful. He asked to watch Lupita Nyong’o’s SULWE again immediately. He loves the part about the sisters Day and Night.

If #FSNNA20 were a meatspace conference and I was there, I would not be berating myself for not dissertating right now. But here we are…

Just added a note to include as a limitation in my dissertation that my methods don’t capture things like fans learning which fan spaces are safe, which cosplay suppliers are harmful, thanks to Liz Laurie’s talk in the Embodied Fandom salon at #FSNNA20.

Dreamed this morning I was at my co-working space w/Glen Weldon (@ghweldon) & he would not stop talking about Batman. I was like “This is fascinating but I have GOT to get some work done.” Woke up & remembered I’d fallen asleep listening to the audiobook of The Caped Crusade.

Portrait of an awesome life partnership: you get the kid down to sleep and then chat in the #FSNNA20 Discord while your partner watches Annotated Castlevania Symphony of the Night YouTube videos. Lots is wrong in the world but this family of mine is just right.

Pleased as can be to be hanging out @ #FSNNA20 this week. You can find me in Discord primarily hanging out in #15-hirsh where you’ll find my poster, “Where’d You Get Those Nightcrawler Hands? The Information Literacy Practices of Cosplayers.” But also elsewhere! Say hi!