| Sometimes this is actually a live webcam! |
Note: The drawings featured above and my book cover were done by the wonderful Irene Silva. Also: I have clothing on in all these shots, so do get a grip if you need one.
What's New
Guess what? I live in England now! Actually, I have been since winter of 2006, but I, uh, forgot to update this page. If you ever want to know something about me that isn't two years out of date, it's probably best to find me on LiveJournal, Facebook, or the new internet crack, Twitter.
For the past few years, I've been a Senior Lecturer at the University of East London, where I've been teaching classes in media theory, race and representation, and of course my usual digital stuff. I really enjoy the students, faculty and general cultural studies focus of the place, so I'm a happy girl. I aslo live in a wicked part of London, not far from Brick Lane!
Earlier this summer, I was made Programme Leader for Media Studies (like a department chair in the U.S.) I am now learning stuff I never knew about the administration of the UK academic system as well as finding out what it's like to be in charge with no authority. Take, for instance, that last web link I noted. We all know it's pants (as they say here) and we're working to make it otherwise, but my word, things are slow to change in administration. My colleagues say the fact that I've not gone mental over this may be a sign I'm growing up. I'm all, whatever.
Another digital-type thing that frustrates me is that at this school, we're encouraged to keep all our course materials on a Blackboard-type site, which means it's more or less hidden from the public. I can transfer all my teaching materials to my main site here, but it's time-consuming. I promise to try though, and in the meantime, if you need something, ask.
Where are the podcasts, you ask? Great question! We're working with administration to release them etc. In the meantime, you can watch me talking about camgirls on YouTube, if you want:
Here's some good news: My book Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social Networks, was published in 2008 by Peter Lang. Here's what the blurb on the back says:
This book is a critical and ethnographic study of camgirls: women who broadcast themselves over the web for the general public while trying to cultivate a measure of celebrity in the process. The books over-arching question is, What does it mean for feminists to speak about the personal as political in a networked society that encourages women to represent through confession, celebrity, and sexual display, but punishes too much visibility with conservative censure and backlash? The narrative follows that of the camgirl phenomenon, beginning with the earliest experiments in personal homecamming and ending with the newest forms of identity and community being articulated through social networking sites like Live Journal, YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook. It is grounded in interviews, performance analysis of events transpiring between camgirls and their viewers, and the authors own experiences as an ersatz camgirl while conducting the research.
The easiest way to get it is probably through Amazon. If you are an instructor or a student doing work on gender, or social networks, you should find plenty to keep you occupied in this book. I can send interested parties a PDF manuscript, as long as it is for your eyes only (i.e. you are evaluating it for class use, or you'd like to review it somewhere.) Just drop me a line: t.senft@uel.ac.uk
New Writing:
I'm working on a two new books at this point. The first is titled Death on the Net: Suicide, Homicide and New Media Ethics. The impulse to begin this project began with an episode I detail in Camgirls, in which one of my subjects attempted suicide via overdose while on her webcam. I found it heartbreaking that in spite of all the personal information this camgirl had shared with us, and all the personal connections we believed ourselves to have with her, nobody seemed to have this woman’s home address, and nobody knew where to send the ambulance. A few hours later, I remembered that I actually had her physical address, as I had sent her a research release form earlier that year. I went to her home, and then to the hospital to see her. Thankfully, she survived her overdose. By that time, however, people had begun speculating over whether the entire event had been a hoax designed to drive up viewership at the camgirl’s site. Many, many people were ready to speculate on the possible fraudulence of the day’s events, but what they had witnessed was all too real. Conceptually, the book works to address what I call ‘tele-ethicality’, a way to apply feminist ethics to events that transpire online.
The second book I am working on is tentatively called Famous to Fifteen People: Micro-celebrity, the Web, and Cultural Politics. Here I interrogate the rise of 'micro-celebrity': a new way to perform the self that combines the visual techniques of corporate branding with distribution technologies of the internet. When people request examples of micro-celebrity, I respond by asking them to consider their own social practices online. Have they have ever agonized over whether something belongs on a work on home web site? Worried about their privacy settings on Facebook? Wondered who was reading them on a blog? Added the Twitter feed of someone they didn’t know? Deleted unflattering photos of themselves online? All of these are part and parcel of micro-celebrity. I believe that rather deriding the impulse toward micro-celebrity, we should consider its ethical ramifications for culture at large.
I love going to give talks, and this semester has been travel-o-riffic. In early October, I was at the Association of Internet Researchers Conference (which my friends have for years insisted on calling the Star Trek Convention.) AoIR was in Milwaukee this year, which wasn't glamorous, in spite of the life-size statue of The Fonz. I had a great time. Who else but AoIR would let me wax lyrical about the role of love in critical internet studies? I even got to reference this crazy Derrida video.
In late October, I met some fantastic people in Boston at Harvard's Berkman Center for a meeting regarding their new Youth and the Media Policy Initiative. I gave a quick riff on a position piece I'm writing for Berkman called, "From Private Property to Speaking Citizen: Teens, Micro-celebrity, and the Fight for Credit in an Attention Economy." That shoud be on their Publius Project site shortly. By the way, while in Boston, I stayed at the beautiful Charles Hotel, where they have embedded television screens into the bathroom mirrors there. Unnerving, yet for a freak like me, also compelling.
In late November, I went to speak at the University of Copenhagen, where some wonderful PhD students organized a conference devoted to the themes of mediatized culture and digital intimacy. I workshopped a new piece I am working on called "Love in the Time of Snuff: Social Media Romance meets the 'Neda' video."
Yes, it's about that video.
Finally, in the latter part of December, I headed off to Oxford Internet Institute, where the marvelous Bill Dutton led an day-long private panel of fantastic speakers. We were all invited to address the topic of Relationships and the Internet. I wrote a tiny thing about why cultural studies should be included in the mix when thinking about online relationships. It's on my LiveJournal, if you care to look at it.
Looking at my calendar, it seems I hardly have any travelling planed for next semester, which stinks (I do have a lot of teaching in Semester B, but still.) If you want me to come visit your university/research group/whatever, please do contact me: t.senft@uel.ac.uk