In the “old days” people who wanted to preach or make a public speech about something would haul a soapbox into the middle of the street, climb on, and start talking. I think soapboxes must have been more sturdy back then. Nowadays, we just use webpages. Some of these entries are academic, some are not. Here’s my contribution to that tradition. For other writings, you can see my She-blog.

Academic Papers

A brief essay on the Feminist Public Sphere discusses two forms of feminist discourse, the confessional and “not speaking for others” and argues that these two forms erode public discourse and feminist politics. I delivered this paper at the Western States Communication Association convention in 1997.

A book review of Donna Haraway’s book, Modest Witness, published in Hypatia. This book review was coauthored with Ingrid Bartsch, who is a plant biologist, and Carolyn DiPalma, who is a political theorist. It took three of us together to make sense of the book. Gosh, Donna’s so smart.

Critical Public Address — This paper Josh Gunn and I wrote and I delivered at the Public Address Pre-conference in Chicago, 2003. In this paper we try to resurrect the oratorical root of public address studies. It’s a hoot. Read it if you’re into PA stuff.

The Southern Phoenix: Women’s Voice and the Sexual Politics of Louisiana’s Old State Capitol — This is a paper I delivered to Southern States Communication Association convention in April 2002. I talk about the way that the building erases women’s real world political accomplishments while it foregrounds stereotypes about southern women. This paper was written before Kathleen Blanco’s election as governor of Louisiana in 2004. Sometime in between this paper and her election, the film exhibit I discuss in the paper was removed from the State Capitol in favor of a new film that celebrated the Louisiana Purchase.

Whiteness in Disney’s The Haunted Mansion — This is the draft of a presentation I delivered at the 2005 Southern States Communication Association convention. It’s missing a bibliography and I admit it’s sloppy. But it talks about race in the Haunted Mansion.

Other Writing

Books for Tween Grrls — This webpage lists recommendations of books that will appeal to tween girls. The book list was generated by the members of the UU Church’s Mother/Daughter reading group.

My Spyware Battle — This webpage is devoted to cleaning up spyware on your computer based on the lessons I learned when my computer was severely infected.

Respecting the The First Day of Class — This wepage applies Harry Wong’s principles of the first day of school to college teaching.

Ten Cool Things about Baton Rouge — A list ten years in the making, this webpage discusses ten things I like about Baton Rouge.