And it looks like there is a lot to be done to my beloved, somewhat ignored blog. During my hiatus I have done quite a bit of reading and learning, but admittedly, I am guilty of indulging in the luxury of focusing on my teaching more than anything else. The result is that while I enjoyed my pedagogical immersion, the time has come to get the ball rolling again and finish what I started. To that end I have been working through my lists with pretty good speed, and will be setting the date for my exams in the next few weeks, and I am super excited. Of course, the setting of the date comes with a certain amount of pressure, but I don’t think I’m any more worried than anyone else that has or will take them.
The interesting thing about reading for exams is that no matter how fast you try to get through the material, some ideas/theories will not be rushed. Then their is the negotiation of the information; most ideas have to marinate before I can write about them, and this makes the process longer. Despite repeated attempts at being efficient, my reading leads me to thinking about the triple duty that exams perform; they simultaneously inform our scholarship, prepare us for associate professorship, and teach us a subtle lesson about professionalization. Once employed, making the time to do research and publish is probably going to be one of the most important challenges that I will face. That coupled with the decreasing amounts of positions in my field, and the amount of department freezes that have been listed on the Rhet/Comp Wiki, there is no telling what the job market will be like when I become job ready. That said, I am still eager to finish my journey and begin the next chapter of my life; a new job, new place to live, and an opportunity to engage language in all the ways that can interrupt the current notions about what discourse is really about. Yeah, I’m back and raring to go.
