Transitions

Wow! I haven't touched my blog or my dancer in a while. >.> So, as I have finally decided to get my ass in gear and start to focus on my Ph.D. I've mulled it over and have decided to dedicate Noob in Academia to my goings on with my Ph.D.

What exactly does this mean? Well, it means my blog will be updated with my progress or just ideas of what I'm doing with my research and dissertation. Think of it as the blog is turning into a big giant whiteboard/posterboard full of notes and post its, etc etc.

Currently I'm still getting courses under my belt. One of the classes I'm taking will hopefully lead to a reading list. I've been exploring amazon and realize that there are many many sources out there that I need to explore as I begin to focus on what I want to research exactly.

Obviously I want to do something with gaming. In the beginning of my graduate studies I believed that I wanted to go with something along these lines: Videogames (especially role playing games) as literature. This topic is requiring some tweaking in that I'm actually entering the Composition/Rhetoric field, New Media Studies. While I do want to explore the concept, and ideas already out there of videogames as literature, my dissertation will not be dedicated to it. Though I'm thinking a chapter exploring the idea and developments that have occurred would fit in nicely. =)

Whatever the specific focus of my dissertation (which my advisor has also suggested of having a chapter using video games to teach first semester first year composition) I know I will or I want to explore address this question/idea: the politics behind popular culture entering the ranks of literature/academics.