We’re All Victims of This Unavoidable Internet Trap: What You Need to Know…A guest post by Elizabeth Raynal

Posted on January 8, 2018 by Ed Battistella
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Elizabeth Raynal is a senior at Southern Oregon University, studying English and Outdoor Adventure Leadership

As the internet expands into a virtual marketing front, businesses are shifting their outreach tactics subtlety, yet more aggressive and effective. Any social media sight open to advertisers is littered with click bait headlines, and as technology advances, the headlines are getting harder to resist. Linguistically, there are a multitude of click bait approaches, often accompanied by digital attractions intended to maximize reader curiosity. This paper dissects the psychological appeal to click bait, and what journalists are doing to increase reader interest.

We’re All Victims of This Unavoidable Internet Trap: What You…

This statement is just an example of what many psychologists and linguistics have studied in order to understand why certain online headlines and posts become so dire to read (or watch) by online users. The internet has become a leader in communication and is constantly advancing to share more information to more people. And through the invention of social media, an immeasurable number of businesses and media networks have developed a new way to increase consumers and revenue—Clickbait. According to the Journal of Social, Technological, and Environmental Science, “Click Baiting is one of the many strategies used by online news journalists with the intent of making their headlines more attractive and, therefore, obtaining more clicks” (Alves 197). This new phenomenon shows little academic research or well-developed data; however, scholars have concluded that the formula behind clickbait includes forward-reference strategies and relatable terminology which urge readers to satisfy their curiosity and succumb to headline links.

While we scroll through various forms of information-based social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, there is one factor that predicts our next click: Curiosity. According to the Educational Psychology Review: “More than half of definitions [on curiosity] included the need for knowledge or information as a defining feature of curiosity. This suggests that thinking and reasoning about the knowledge one has and the knowledge one desires may be required at either a conscious or automatic level in order for curiosity to arise” (Grossnickle 52). One must measure the information they know in accordance with what they want to know, then the level of curiosity will be determined. This is where journalists publish articles that appear like never before seen information to intrigue readers. For example, W Magazine posted an article titled: “The 25 Most Daring Dresses of All Time” (Petrarca 2017) in reference to celebrity award shows. The awards had already been aired, but the article was posted just after the season was wrapping up in January, so it was still a relevant topic. Readers may have seen an award show and wanted to relate to what they had seen, or were curious about what they may have missed. An article as menial as this, in relation to hard news, still catches the attention of readers. This is a concept psychologist George Loewenstein explores: “The key to understanding curiosity seeking lies in recognizing that the process of satisfying curiosity is itself pleasurable” (Loewenstein 90). This means that by coming to a resolution, one experiences relief and gratification. W Magazine readers likely have shown interest in similar media genres, and journalists used linguistic tactics to heighten their curiosity and lure them into reading such articles.

The most common form of click bait occurs in what linguists refer to as forward-reference. Jonas Blom and Kenneth Hansen explain that, “forward-referring headlines are considered phoric because the reader needs to locate the entities that are being referred to later in the full text or discourse, i.e. ‘needs to look elsewhere’ in order for the headline to make sense” (Blom & Hansen 92). Most headlines point readers in a specific direction, but intentionally omit the main point of the article. This arises curiosity and urges people to read further. The art of forward-referencing is separated into two factors: Deixis and cataphora. Both are similar tactics pointing to a discourse, only in different ways. Deixis is when, “the pronoun can be regarded as a sort of teaser, an information gap (88). For instance, This is How to Save Money While Traveling, engages readers on wanting to know what this is; how to save money. Cataphora, though also employs the use of pronouns, points readers to a single conclusion: ‘The greater ‘the distance’, so to speak, between 3PP [third person pronoun] and NP [nominal phrase], the greater an effect of suspense and anticipation (88). If an article were to say, He Traveled Around the World for Three Years, and Never Spend more than…,” he is the cataphora. Readers firstly want to know who he is, then how he did it. As a bonus, ellipses act as a form of deixis; a sort of cliff-hanger to increase suspense. The more ambiguous the relationship between the prnoun and the event is, the greater the information gap and the more change of readers submitting to click bait.

In addition to forward-reference, journalists use trendy language to connect with their readers. Slang words, although too unreliable to deem academic, make up the dialect in groups of a particular environment. According to Connie Eble in her book, Slang and Sociability, “slang is within the ordinary competence of a language user. Second, the social potential inherent in language is actuated and intensified in the use of slang” (Eble 2). Essentially, slang words are expected to be understood by the speaker and receiver due to common group association, and, slang elevates the semantics of a word. In social media, where posts are generally informal, journalists use slang as a tactic to relate to their readers. In Refinery29 Magazine, one headline reads: “83 Dope Things Coming to Netflix in December” (Farley 2017). In this statement, Dope, Things, and, Netflix could all be considered current slang words as of 2017. Readers of Refinery29 are generally young adults who qualify to fit in to the group associated with these terms. Therefore, young readers could find this article relatable enough to click on. If readers find it beneficial to their life, they will consider reading it.

Another emerging online marketing tactic is the use of emojis. Anyone with access to a smartphone knows the digital symbols indicating a smiley face, a cup of coffee, or a thumbs up. Media sites engage in small phrase communication and emojis help readers understand the tone and emotion behind a writer’s intentions. Additionally, “For all their creative potential, emoji were intended to normalize and then capitalize on the collective strength of affect in human social relations online. (Crawford & Stark 4). By including digital representations of emotions and actions, readers can more directly understand and engage with other writers. Journalists know this and have started to capitalize on its effectiveness. Businesses implement tracking emoji trends on social media users to direct them towards buying into certain products. Researchers have discovered that, “sentiment-analysis firms like Lexalytics are also working to incorporate emoji into their business models, providing data profiles grounded in emotion and mood to their customers” in order to “better monitoring and modulating the flow of consumer desire” (Crawford & Stark 8). Similar to using slang, emojis are both trendy and hyperbolic, which can strongly engage certain audiences. The likelihood of online browsers clicking a link with a picture or comment using an emoji is greater now with the advancements of technology.

On the current news side of things, two name-brand news broadcasters report on the same incident; however, their click bait tactics vary. BBC news writes: “North Korea Say Missle Can Hit entire US,” (BBC 2017) while CNN states: “North Korea Missile Launch: The Most Important Things to Know” (CNN 2017). BBC shoots for a more direct approach, informing readers what North Korea, the subject, is doing. The curiosity lies within the audience affected by this statement—evidently, the entire US. Likely, readers will want to click the link to find out more about what North Korea said, and what can be done. However, there is no guarantee their questions will be answered. CNN upped the ante by implementing deixis in their headline. Things, is the information gap from the headline to the article, and the readers alerted by the missile launch will want to find out what they “need” to know—need also used as a hyperbolic tactic to rise emotion.

Click bait is a fairly new concept that online journalists and marketers have already mastered. From a psychological perspective, curiosity is a key component that moves readers to click on a headline, but it’s not without complex linguistic strategy that the headline becomes interesting. Forward-reference in the form of deixis—pronouns with an information gap, and catophora—pronouns alluding to a direct answer, most effectively lures readers to succumb to the click. Other strategies include linguistic relatability such as slang words and emojis. These tactics intended for capitalizing on consumers, may be the difference between someone reading an article or not, and it’s up to the reader to decide if what they read will truly benefit them, or if they are just another victim of click bait.

Works Cited

Alves, Liliana, et al. “Click Bait: You Won’t Believe What Happens Next.” Fronteiras: Journal of Social, vol. 5, no. 2, 2016, pp. 196–213.

Blom, and Kenneth Hansen. “Click Bait: Forward-Reference as Lure in Online News Headlines.” Journal of Pragmatics, 2015, pp. 87-100

Crawford, and Like Star. “The Conservatism of Emoji: Work, Affect, and Communication.” Social Media and Society. 2015, pp. 1-11

Farley, Rebecca. “83 Dope Things Coming to Netflix in December.” Refinery29 Magazine. 20 Nov. 2017.

Griffiths, James. “North Korea Missile Launch: The Most Important Things to Know.” CNN. 29 Nov. 2017.

Loewenstein, George. “The Psychology of Curiosity: A Review and Reinterpretation.” Psychological Bulletin. July 1994, pp. 75-98.

“North Korea Says New Missile Can Hit entire US.” BBC News. 29 Nov. 2017.

Petracarca, Emilia. “Oscar Red Carpet: The 25 Most Daring Dresses of All Time.” W Magazine. 25 Jan. 2017.

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An Interview with Harley Patrick of Hellgate Press

Posted on January 2, 2018 by Ed Battistella
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Ed Battistella: How did Hellgate Press come about?

Harley Patrick: In the late 1990s, Emmett Ramey, the owner of PSI Research, Inc., a Grants Pass-based publishing company specializing in business-related titles under the imprint Oasis Press, wanted to establish a second imprint that would focus on military history and veteran memoirs. Emmett was a Navy veteran, and was personally interested in both military and historical topics. So he founded Hellgate Press, named after the Rogue River’s Hellgate Canyon.

EB: What does Hellgate specialize in today?

HP: While veteran memoirs and military history are still Hellgate’s main topics of interest, over the years we’ve expanded our catalogue to include adventure travel titles as well as historical fiction.

EB: Tell us a little about some of the books you’ve published.

HP: We currently have almost 100 titles in print, the majority of which are veteran memoirs and biographies. Most of those are Vietnam War related, with WWI, WWII and Iraq also well represented. A few of our titles deal with lesser known conflicts as well.

EB: What do you look for in an author and in a book?

HP: When it comes to our military-related titles, our mission is to help veterans—or the family of veterans—tell their stories. We don’t need an author to be previously published or to be the next David McCullough or Ernest Hemingway. We look for interesting stories well told, and if they’re a little rough to begin with, we’ll help polish them into shape for publishing. For our fiction titles, it’s about the same—an interesting plot, with well defined characters and a topic appropriately related to our genre.

EB: How has Hellgate Press evolved over the years?

HP: When I first joined the company in 2000, Hellgate Press was only a couple of years old with roughly 15-20 titles. I worked for the company until 2007, when I purchased it from Emmett and his wife Ardella. Over the last decade, it’s grown to be one of the best recognized military history publishers in the country, with almost 100 titles and a slew of award-winning authors.

EB: Who are some of the local authors you’ve published?

HP: Hellgate currently has 5 local authors:

–T.B. Smith has penned two police procedural novels for us: The Sticking Place and A Fellow of Infinite Jest. Both center around a San Diego police rookie named Luke Jones, who has a reputation for quoting Shakespeare at appropriate, and occasionally inappropriate, moments. T.B. Smith is a retired SD policeman living in Ashland.

–Paul Fattig is a well-known journalist/columnist for the Mail Tribune, among many other news outlets. His first Hellgate title, Up Sterling Creek Without a Paddle, tells the story of his wife and his often humorous adventures buying and remodeling a 100-year-old homestead just outside of Jacksonville. It was released in 2017. His second book, Madstone, which will appear in March of 2018, is about his two uncles, Alfred and Charlie Fattig, who were WWI draft dodgers that hid out in the area now known as the Kalmiopsis wilderness. His third book, scheduled for a 2019 release, will tell the story of the smokejumpers based in Selma, Oregon, and their adventures fighting fires in Oregon and elsewhere.

–Dennis Powers’ book, Where Past Meets Present, contains 140 stories and photographs that tell the fascinating and occasionally odd history of the Rogue Valley. It was our bestselling book of 2017.

–Richard Seidman has written a delightful YA (Young Adult) book titled The Secret of Ebbets Field (Paloma Books). Set in New York in 1958, it tells the story of a young boy, Eli, a devoted fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who hunts for a treasure buried beneath the Dodgers’ stadium, Ebbets Field, and along the way encounters bad guys, a mysterious homeless man, and baseball great Jackie Robinson.

–Dr. Sylvia Chatroux. Her children’s book, Zucchini the Dog (Paloma Books), follows the adorable adventures of Zucchini as told to the author.

EB: What does the future hold for book arts? It seems to me that people are increasingly interested in the aesthetics of print and books.

HP: I feel we’re in a “golden age” of publishing in that there are so many opportunities today for an author to get his/her book published. From self-publishing to print-on-demand to traditional publishing arrangements, if someone has written a book, they can get it published and out into the marketplace. As far as the future goes, I see augmented ebooks—ones with embedded videos and various interactive apps, as a growing industry. And although we sell many more ebook versions of our titles than print, I don’t believe that print is dead, as some have suggested. I think you’re right in thinking that aesthetics will play an ever increasing role in the types of books we’ll be seeing on the shelves in years to come.

EB: Tell us a little about your background? How did you get interested in publishing?

HP: I left a 25-year career in marketing and public relations, all of it spent in Southern Cal, to move to Eugene, OR and pursue a master’s at the UofO in Literary Nonfiction in 1998. After graduating in 2000, I came to Ashland where I answered a small ad in the Mail Tribune for someone with editing and marketing experience to join a local publishing company. And, no pun intended, the rest is history.

EB: Hellgate also has imprint for Grid Press and Paloma Books. Can you tell us a little about those?

HP: Often we get manuscript submissions that don’t quite fit the usual Hellgate genres, but that we feel warrant publication. So, we created Grid Press to fill that niche. Primarily those have been politically-oriented and/or self-help titles. Paloma Books is a new children’s book imprint that we started about three years ago. It currently offers 19 titles that can be found at www.palomabooks.com.


EB: Thanks for talking with us.

HP: My pleasure, Ed. Thanks for asking.

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Grad School: An Interview with Brenda Nicole Shelton

Posted on December 18, 2017 by Ed Battistella
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A 2015 graduate of Southern Oregon University, Brenda Nicole Shelton completed a Masters of Library and Information Science University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017. She works at the Beaverton City Library.

Ed Battistella: What did your graduate studies involve?

Brenda Nicole Shelton: My program was focused on preparing students for their careers as “innovative information professionals.” I don’t think a lot of people realize librarians are information professionals and not just book jockeys. My program also served other information professions such as archivists and IT. There was a basic core curriculum that focused on digital trends, collection development, HTML coding, metadata, and database organization and operation, to name a few. I learned how libraries are organized and operated, as well as the preservation and cultural skills that archivists need. We also learning HTML coding and metadata markup, which are so vital in any information profession, whether you go on to work in coding or museum work. You could navigate through the program with no chosen focus, or you could choose a path, such as Archives, Public Libraries, Academic Libraries, etc. Since I knew I wanted to work in public libraries with youth, my studies also involved learning about early literacy and teaching skills. Another key facet of study, particularly for library science, is intellectual freedom and equitable access, so we also studied some identity politics and about social inequities, as well as barriers to information and materials access that make libraries so necessary and vital.

EB: What sorts of things were you reading?

BNS: I read such a wide variety of things that it’s hard to recall it all. My core classes involved a lot of reading of standards and coding rules. Some dry procedural stuff. We read about linguistics and the different methods of organization. We read a lot about the history of libraries, as well as current professional pieces about trends in libraries and best practices. Every so often, we would read things about social movements and how they affected libraries in multiple ways. In my Youth Services classes, I would read a lot of Young Adult fiction and picture books coupled with book reviews in order to learn not only how to assess materials to collect, but also how to booktalk and prepare for storytimes and reference. With my concentration I also read a lot of materials about children’s brain development, as well as teaching and learning methods.

EB: How has your education so far shaped your career goals? You minored in Gender Studies and I see that you also worked with the Guerrilla Feminism organization in Madison and served as the gender studies librarian at Wisconsin.

BNS: My activism is really what made me want to become a librarian. While I think all librarians love books, and reading is a core part of their identities, I believe public libraries at their core are champions for equity and access. At least, they should be. In library school you talk a lot about intellectual freedom, which is what libraries champion, not only by offering free materials, but in fighting against censorship and the social and economic barriers that bar individuals for accessing information for educational gain or pure entertainment. When I was in college, I worked at a Women’s Resource Center where I connected individuals with resources that either helped then grow socially and shape their identities, or that helped them navigate out of abuse or trauma. When I worked with GF, it was all about digital connection between people and information, and I did a lot of that work at the gender and women’s studies library as well. In that position, I helped compile and update an online database of free academic resources for individuals who didn’t have access to the resources higher education allows. I also did a lot of work on the library’s published annual journals that connect scholars to new publications in the field. My work in public libraries is also about connecting people to information for free. I had a passion to fight for people’s access to information and materials before I began my professional studies, and I think that interest and my experiences only amplified that desire. Information access is key not only in how we navigate the world, but also how navigate our own emotions and build our identities. Those core values describe both social work and informational institutions, so I’m glad I get to meld those two in my work.

EB: What did you enjoy most about your graduate work?

BNS: My graduate program was dedicated to us spending half our time in class and half of our time in the field. The jobs and volunteer work I did while I was in school were the best teaching experience I could ever have. You can read for years about how libraries run, best practices, and theory, but nothing beats actually being in a library and interacting with patrons. I ran a Minecraft club for kids at the Central Library in Madison for a few years, and it was the best experience I’ve had in my recent professional and academic life. I not only met a great librarian who taught me so much, but I spent my time every week learning from kids. I think those kids taught me more than anything else in my graduate work. Not just about Minecraft and how to play it, but about what kind of listener and professional I want to be.

EB: How do you like the library field so far? What does your work entail?

BNS: I’m really enjoying my work. The majority of my work involves being at the desk helping find books and materials for youth, and also often for adults. When I’m on desk I help keep the area clean, and I also create rotating displays to help showcase our materials, as well as posters that promote my programs. A big part of my work is in-house promotion and programming. I develop and lead weekly programs for young teens. My young teens really enjoy DIY crafts that help them be creative, and they also really like anything rooted in pop culture. I think a lot of people don’t realize that libraries offer free programs for all ages every day of the week, from storytimes, to free computer classes and author visits. Most people I talk to just think I sit around reading all day, and I think people still have a really outdated view of libraries. It’s not a quiet space where I sit shushing people all day. Libraries are actually a great place for kids to play and people to connect. My position also involves updating booklists, school outreach, and I’m about to begin a project to help implement more programming and inclusion for patrons with disabilities or special needs at my library. I don’t have time to sit and read a book all day. There are too many things to do and people to help!

EB: Where do you see librarianship heading in the future??

BNS: While libraries have fought against claims they are “unneeded” or “outdated” in the face of the Internet and Amazon, I think you’ll see even more emphasis on libraries in the future. In the face of “fake news” and moves to defund libraries, archives, and museums even further, libraries have become a key topic of conversation in the national spotlight. Libraries have begun to fight for information access and intellectual freedom even harder in the last year, and I think that will only increase. Issues like preserving net neutrality and fighting against censorship and the spread of false information are key core values outlined by the American Library Association. When they spoke out publicly against executive orders this year they created quite a buzz. I think you’ll continue to see libraries working locally and nationally to speak up about injustice and fight for intellectual freedom, access, and the dismantling of oppressive systems.

EB: Any advice for students considering going on for more school?

BNS: It will be hard. I’ve never been someone who struggled in school, but grad school was the hardest school experience I’ve ever had. It was a busy, challenging, and often lonely time for me, but it helped me get to where I am today. I don’t think I’ve talked to a single person who didn’t struggle at some point in grad school. Yet, I met people who inspired me and became my mentors, and I wouldn’t be who I am today, and having the enriching experiences I do everyday at work, if it wasn’t for that. I think grad school can be very competitive, and you can feel like you are not doing enough or succeeding as well as your peers. My best advice is not to compare yourself to others and to really stick with, and stand up for, your ideas. Also, I’ll always remember this answer that a grad student from another program gave at my orientation: “You don’t have to read the whole 50-page article, just read the abstract and the conclusion and you’ll survive.” Probably not what a professor would ever want to know about, but I think there’s an important truth tied to that about cutting yourself some slack while in a challenging program.

EB: What are you reading currently?

BNS: A librarian who used to talk to us about audiobooks always told us her kids would ask her if she read a book “with her eyes or her ears?” I’m reading The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez with my eyes, and Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner with my ears.

EB: Thanks for talking with us.

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Grad School: An Interview with Eric Worthey

Posted on December 11, 2017 by Ed Battistella
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Eric Worthey is a Graduate student and First-Year-Writing Instructor at Eastern Michigan University. He was a Ronald E. McNair scholar at Southern Oregon University, graduating in 2015.

Ed Battistella: What is your graduate program like?

Eric Worthey: Fun and intense. I am studying children’s literature and working on a creative thesis, so I get to enjoy the imaginative aspects of writing and utilize my artistic skills. Part of the intensity stems from the subject matter and complex themes found in children’s and young adult literatures, but also from the theoretical frameworks that provide a lens in which to analyze these texts. They may be written for kids, but most of the time adults do the writing and present controversial social, ethical, philosophical, religious and often political concepts. The program itself offers cutting-edge and rigorous courses in mythology and folklore, the history of children’s literature, adolescent literature, illustrated texts, as well specialized graduate classes on topics such as multicultural children’s literature and films, global children’s literature, as well as the teaching of children’s and adolescent literatures. The program’s course of study is tailored to prepare master’s level students for careers as educators, librarians, authors, editors, as well as those who desire to obtain a doctoral degree in children’s literature.

EB: How has your experience so far shaped your career goals?

EW: Recently, I received the advice that between Thanksgiving and Christmas may not be the best time to reconsider career goals. One of the reasons I chose EMU was because, like SOU, it originally opened as a Normal school. One way the University retains this heritage is through the motto ‘Education First.’ Combined with the opportunity to teach WRTG 120 and 121 for the First Year Writing Program, I also assist professors in the children’s literature lecture halls. These two positions create opportunities for me to experience diverse teaching environments and work with professors who maintain unique pedagogical approaches. EMU’s student population is much larger than SOU’s, so I have learned that I prefer the teaching and learning environments created with smaller faculty to student ratios. I still aspire to teach writing and literature, as well as produce some writing and literature myself, but I am not sure in what capacity or location these goals will manifest. I have looked into a few Ph.D. programs, but after spending the past eight years devoted to my education I think I would like to take at least a year or two off from being a student. I have learned that a big part of being a graduate student is not knowing for certain how things will unfold or where research will take you, so being open to future possibilities and job opportunities is an important way to reduce the stress associated with being attached to outcomes.

EB: What courses are you taking and what sorts of things were you reading?

EW: This semester, I branched out beyond the children’s literature discipline and signed up for an introductory course on written communication and a teaching of Shakespeare literature course. As part of my graduate assistantship benefits I receive eighteen tuition credits per year, so I am utilizing the extra six credits that I do not need to graduate to meet the qualifications for a post-graduation job opportunity. To have a chance at this job, in addition to a master’s degree in children’s literature and two years’ experience teaching first year writing, I also need at least twelve credits in literature, writing, or English.

In the written communication course, we are mostly reading academic articles which illuminate the history of the field and help us gain a sense of where we would position ourselves academically and professionally since it encompasses many different majors, ranging from technical communication to rhetorics and composition studies.

In the Shakespeare class we are reading an average of one play per week except for a few we discussed during two class periods, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure, All’s Well that Ends Well, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and The Tempest. I never knew that there was such a wide spectrum of gender performance and ambivalence toward gender in Shakespeare’s works until this semester. I also came to realize that queer readings of these plays are not very popular, but that they do exist.

I am also taking a multicultural children’s literature course that is cross-referenced as a teaching course, so we are reading a broad range of classic and contemporary books and discussing films that represent numerous types of diversities that students may experience or encounter, including age, race, religion, ability, gender, sexuality, as well geographic location: Snowy Day, Lon Po Po, King & King, American Born Chinese, The Hate You Give, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Brown Girl Dreaming, The Book Thief, George, The Hunger Games, and films such as Disney’s Inside Out and Pixar’s Up. We examine these multicultural texts in terms of their literary, aesthetic, ideological, political contexts. This class is mostly discussion based, so it helps to gain insights not only from the professor but also from my peers who are also teachers or aspiring to teach.

EB: You are also teaching. How do you enjoy that?

EW: I enjoy working with the students. The relationships I develop with my writing students differ than the ones I have with the students in the large lecture hall, but I find them both rewarding in their own ways. All writing is personal, so when teaching introductory writing I like having the freedom to create a community-based classroom that operates like a writing workshop, rather than a traditional lecture-style course. I think that the lecture-style works for larger class sizes. However, when delivering lectures in this environment, I find myself assigning class activities to encourage students to participate in small group discussions. I like being able to try different pedagogical approaches and apply this knowledge to the creation of my teaching philosophy statement.

EB: What is the most rewarding part of your graduate program?

EW: The opportunity to teach and assist in teaching undergraduate students provides one of the most rewarding experiences of being a part of any graduate program in EMU’s Department of English Language and Literatures. This invaluable experience not only covers the cost of tuition, but it also offers a stipend in exchange for twenty hours of work per week during the fall and winter semesters. It is also rewarding to have three months off during the summer, but it is a little odd to have spring break amidst a Michigan winter: February.

EB: What’s been your academic focus? Has it changed at all since you began?

EW: Focus. Focus. Focus. That was Dr. Alvarez’s advice before booting me off to grad school. Initially, I had wanted to continue my research of mythology and religion representations in contemporary young adult literature. However, during my first semester several events on campus inspired me to focus my independent study on learning about the dimensions of racism. I quickly realized that I had not diverged from my original focus, but I was still attempting to answer the research question that I had first proposed as an undergraduate in a world religions class: Why has the bible been used to usurp the power of women, children, people of color, and gender and sexuality diverse people for the past two thousand years when Jesus’ and Paul’s words create oppositions? The professor’s response to my proposal to pursue this research question for my final paper will always be a cornerstone moment for me in my educational path. Also, I will never forget that it was in this class I first heard the words mythology, non-duality, and Joseph Campbell, and learning their meanings helped shape my academic focus. I did not understand what the professor meant when he identified his religious/spiritual beliefs as being ‘non-dual,’ but I do now and am trying to find ways to encourage others to consider this worldview. Two years hardly feels like enough time to try to focus on one thing that I would like to specialize in for the rest of my academic career.

Last semester, an assignment for one of my children’s literature classes involved creating something. It could be anything if we developed a rationale for the creation. I was reluctant at first, but I took one of my old University Seminar style guides and used its pages to create a postmodern version of the Grimm’s animal fable “The Bremen Town Musicians.” I incorporated drawings and collage materials to draw attention to how the contemporary American political climate seems a lot like the early days of Nazis Germany. I decided instead of writing a traditional thesis, I was going to finally create a children’s book that incorporated mythological elements and symbolism to break down binary perceptions, going back to much of the research I conducted as a McNair Scholar.

It is funny how I am still researching the same question, but at the same time I am learning new ways to look at the trouble with duality. I finally discovered that one of the difficulties of this arises because the place where oppositional forces break down remains indescribable by our languages. Thus, I am back to square one and trying to draw pictures that are highly symbolic and open to interpretation to create a graphic novel that challenges binary perceptions and socially constructed identity markers.

EB: Any advice for students considering going on for more school?

EW: If I were to offer advice to prospective graduate students, I would draw their attention to the amount of time, or lack thereof, that is required to succeed in graduate school. The sheer volume of the reading lists is enough to overwhelm the most avid readers, especially if they desire to have a social existence (not really a reality for a graduate student). Also, don’t invest your own money. Find programs that offer graduate assistantships or scholarships that include the tuition and stipend to cover living costs while you work on your degree. There are plenty of opportunities, but keep in mind that the applications deadlines usually come earlier for these than the program of study applications. Don’t rack up a lot of student debt going to graduate school because another degree does not necessarily translate into post-graduation job opportunities.

Before applying to a graduate program, conduct preliminary research about the availability of jobs on the market by joining your discipline’s organizations, listservs, or by reading or subscribing to higher education publications. Also, when seeking a potential program and a faculty member to work with on major academic projects it helps to discover which scholars or professionals are already working in that area. What institution are they from? What is their academic discipline? What organization sponsored the journal their article appears in? Was there a co-author, an editor(s), or an academic advisor? This will help gain a sense of potential institutions and/or faculty that will support your research goals.

EB: What’s next for you?

EW: I began my postsecondary educational career when my life hinged on the space between my twenties and thirties. I lingered there and wondered what had I done with my life. Nearly eight years later, and following two degrees, I currently anticipate graduating with a Master’s degree in Children’s Literature in April, so I have began reflecting about my experiences and future possibilities. I do plan to take a year or two off before pursuing a Ph.D. program because I would like to gain some teaching experience before I hit the forty mark. While on the Oregon coast this past summer, I spoke with the dean of a community college about a potential post-graduation job opportunity. I plan to apply for this position, as well as for teaching positions at few other community colleges along the Northern California and/or the Oregon coast, and see what happens. Additionally, since I am completing the first issue of a graphic novel for my master’s thesis project, I hope to submit a copy of it along with a book proposal, like the one I created when I participated in your history of publishing course, in hopes of continuing to develop the story line into a middle-grade reader series.

EB: Thanks for talking with us.

EW: It was my pleasure, and thank you!

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