Archival Findings

I've been neglecting my blog for over a week now and I thought it was about time to offer an explanation. In fact, there are three projects that have been interfering with my ability to do much of anything besides work.

Excuse One: I've been teaching a rather intensive three-week summer course for incoming freshman that's designed to help "at risk" students be adequately prepared for the demands of college courses. The course is now half finished and it's going well so far. I'm about to sit down and respond to the draft of their first paper--a two-page response to Jonathan L. Friedman's essay on globalization, "It's a Flat World." It's intensely interesting to read what they think of his rather inflammatory theory about how globalization is both making it easier for once-poorer nations to compete in this technologically driven world, and threatening America's position of economic prominence.

Excuse Two: I recently submitted my drafts of four entries for the Silent Film Sourcebook. I wrote entries for Dot Farley, Flora Finch, Agnes Christine Johnson, and Julia Crawford Ivers. The first two women were most well-known for their slapstick acting in comedy shorts during the teens and early twenties, though they also directed and/or wrote for the cinema; the second two are most often described as screenwriters, though both also directed and/or produced their own films as well. In the process of culling information from fan magazines and historical newspapers databases, I discovered some rather interesting things about these "pioneers" of early cinema. The work on Johnson, in particular, produced some surprising results. Because she was originally credited under the name of Johnston, many of her films have not been credited to her. By searching through the newspaper articles, and performing more expansive searches in the databases that accounted for variations in spelling her name, I discovered she wrote twice as many films as most film historian seemed to think. This also means that some of her early work still exists in archives. I also discovered some titles that Dot Farley wrote and starred in, including "The Near Capture of Jesse James," a 1915 film that had not yet been credited to the film star. In any case, the work has been exciting and rewarding. It's helped remind me of why I love what I do and want to keep plugging along at the dissertation, no matter how frustrating it can be--or how dismal my job prospects may look!

Excuse Three: I'm trying to complete revisions on my Ginger Snaps article, which is going pretty well so far. I'm trying to incorporate more information on the folklore of menstruation and feminist folklore in order to make the essay a better fit for the anthology. The editors really liked the essay but felt, rightly so, that the folklore content lessened toward the end of the paper. That second revision must be submitted by August 1, so I have my work cut out for me.
Ok. Back to marking papers. 3 down, 5 more to go.