Sarah Einstein | University of Tennessee Chattanooga (original) (raw)

Papers by Sarah Einstein

Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction, Feb 1, 2012

Fourth Genre Explorations in Nonfiction, 2012

Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: This group project asks students to crea... more Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: This group project asks students to create a choose-your-own-adventure game that engages "gender politics, identity, and narrative in the writing classroom" using Twine. Students propose an original game addressing a gender studies issue, perform research, then develop the game. The purpose of the assignment is to create a narrative that reveals the complex, potential dangers of gender-related issues in a navigable text where players can make choices and reach different outcomes. This assignment can also be adapted to a range of gender studies topics including trans narratives, which are exemplified in the work of Merritt Kopas, who curated such a selection in TransWomen and the New Hypertext, and genre narratives, as anna anthropy has demonstrated with her queer horror and science fiction twine games http://www.auntiepixelante.com/games/.

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction, 2012

Talks by Sarah Einstein

I'm excited to be on this panel, which is made up entirely of women whose works and lives I admir... more I'm excited to be on this panel, which is made up entirely of women whose works and lives I admire. I also have to admit that I am relieved to have finally reached a point where my impairments allow me to say comfortably that I'm a disabled writer. For years, I instead had to give this very complex statement about the fact that I was a writer with impairments, but that my impairments were pretty much all fully accommodated because what I need also makes able-bodied people more comfortable: elevators, moving sidewalks in airports, handrails along sloping paths, and word processors. Thank goodness for word processing programs. Most of my impairments are related to mobility, but one—a key one—is not. I am an aphasic writer. For those of you who don't know, aphasia is a communication disorder that impacts my ability to speak, listen, read, and right. Essentially, I sometimes can't find a word or words and, even worse, I sometimes find the wrong word and don't realize it for hours or days at a time. As a writer, this is obviously a difficulty. If I still worked, as I am old enough to once have done, on a typewriter, my career would be over. Here is an example from this very talk, which I had to write far enough in advance so that I could proofread it after whatever buffer in my brain makes me see the wrong word as the right one. Later in this talk, I will say " I now include a note to editors who ask for pieces that need to be turned around quickly, explaining that I need an accommodation. " What I wrote, though, was " I now include a stone to editors. " When I read this over immediately after writing it, I couldn't see the problem. But of course I don't send stones to editors. I'm sharing this with you not to talk about the specific accommodations I need, but to talk about the work of asking of asking for, and navigating the responses to, asking for accommodations in the writing world.

Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction, Feb 1, 2012

Fourth Genre Explorations in Nonfiction, 2012

Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: This group project asks students to crea... more Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: This group project asks students to create a choose-your-own-adventure game that engages "gender politics, identity, and narrative in the writing classroom" using Twine. Students propose an original game addressing a gender studies issue, perform research, then develop the game. The purpose of the assignment is to create a narrative that reveals the complex, potential dangers of gender-related issues in a navigable text where players can make choices and reach different outcomes. This assignment can also be adapted to a range of gender studies topics including trans narratives, which are exemplified in the work of Merritt Kopas, who curated such a selection in TransWomen and the New Hypertext, and genre narratives, as anna anthropy has demonstrated with her queer horror and science fiction twine games http://www.auntiepixelante.com/games/.

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction, 2012

I'm excited to be on this panel, which is made up entirely of women whose works and lives I admir... more I'm excited to be on this panel, which is made up entirely of women whose works and lives I admire. I also have to admit that I am relieved to have finally reached a point where my impairments allow me to say comfortably that I'm a disabled writer. For years, I instead had to give this very complex statement about the fact that I was a writer with impairments, but that my impairments were pretty much all fully accommodated because what I need also makes able-bodied people more comfortable: elevators, moving sidewalks in airports, handrails along sloping paths, and word processors. Thank goodness for word processing programs. Most of my impairments are related to mobility, but one—a key one—is not. I am an aphasic writer. For those of you who don't know, aphasia is a communication disorder that impacts my ability to speak, listen, read, and right. Essentially, I sometimes can't find a word or words and, even worse, I sometimes find the wrong word and don't realize it for hours or days at a time. As a writer, this is obviously a difficulty. If I still worked, as I am old enough to once have done, on a typewriter, my career would be over. Here is an example from this very talk, which I had to write far enough in advance so that I could proofread it after whatever buffer in my brain makes me see the wrong word as the right one. Later in this talk, I will say " I now include a note to editors who ask for pieces that need to be turned around quickly, explaining that I need an accommodation. " What I wrote, though, was " I now include a stone to editors. " When I read this over immediately after writing it, I couldn't see the problem. But of course I don't send stones to editors. I'm sharing this with you not to talk about the specific accommodations I need, but to talk about the work of asking of asking for, and navigating the responses to, asking for accommodations in the writing world.