Some videos you might find useful (or not!)
I'm answering questions for Leandra Preston's class on Digital Girls at the University of Central Florida this week via video. Just posting the links here in case people are interested, or want to...
View ArticleNext week I play the Old Spice guy, so if you have a question...
A few weeks ago, super smart Women's Studies professor Leandra Peston asked if I would answer some questions from students in her class called "Virtual Girls: Girls and Digital Media" at the...
View ArticleTERRI’S TIPS FOR CLOSE READING (Especially for "hard" theory pieces)
TERRI’S TIPS FOR CLOSE READING What is a close reading?Close reading is a method for • comprehending• analyzing and • appreciating the context of a given piece of writingAs a written document, a close...
View ArticleResearch Methods syllabus and student materials for you
I often find myself teaching Research Methods to graduate and undergraduate students . Because I have a cultural studies focus, I tend to emphasize so-called 'qualitative methods': semiotics,...
View ArticleEssay question options for first year media students
So, it is November, which means that some of you teaching Media classes will be cooking up questions for students, and some of you will be trying to think up ideas for papers. I'm doing neither this...
View ArticleFame to Fifteen: My talk for TED
On Tuesday, November 2, I had the privilege of speaking at a TED Salon in London. The theme of the evening was 're-framing,' and my speech was called "Famous to Fifteen People: Re-framing Celebrity."...
View ArticleR.I.P. Thomas Joseph (T.J.) Senft (1969-2010)
On September 8, 2010, my youngest brother T.J. died after falling down the basement stairs of his home, which resulted in a fatal brain hemorrhage one week later. He was forty-one years old, and...
View ArticleFrom Mad Men to Black Maids: Desire, Position and Cultural Critique
Television theorist Jason Mittell has just written a very thoughtful essay about Why he's not a fan of the show Mad Men. I have little patience for writers who spend their time hating, but he's doing...
View ArticleTrafficking Policies: UR Doing Them Wrong
One day, the world will grow up and stop dividing women into trafficked madonnas and sex worker whores. In the meantime, abuses continue in the name of saving the ladies. The always on-point Melissa...
View ArticleCamgirls and the politics of camp
A student asked me to discuss my thoughts on camgirls and camp performance. Here is my answer:In my work on camgirls, I was interested in a thinking through (some) camgirl performances through what...
View ArticleConfession, discipline, pleasure
I wanted to talk a bit about confession.Pretty regularly, I talk to students who tell me they want to talk about confessional writing online. The cultural studies folks tend to want to focus on how...
View ArticlePrelim. thoughts on the Old Spice Guy (yes, I like him too)
I do not think it is an accident that a society willing to grant corporations the legal status of individuals is also a society that seeks 'community' with anthropomorphized brands. What the viral...
View ArticleAbuse, harassment, stalking: some preliminary thoughts.
Here is something I wrote that I thought I would put out for other people's thoughts.A student recently asked, "Did any of the camgirls you interviewed for your book deal with cyberstalking or other...
View ArticleMy story (academically at least...)
A student asked me how I wound up doing what I do intellectually, and why I do it where I do it. It occurred to me that some of you might welcome hearing me tell this story. I dedicate this to folks...
View ArticleOn ambivalence and ethnography
This week, students in a cyberculture class are asking me questions about doing ethnography. One of the students asked me to discuss the issue of ambivalence. Here is part of my reply:On Ambivalence:I...
View ArticleThe Future Sex symposia project
My colleague Stephen Maddison and I are working to put together the symposia below. We just won a 'pump prime' grant from our university today ('pump prime' is another way of saying, "Here is some...
View ArticleAssessement questions: Digital Media Cultures
After the cut, you can find the assessment questions for my third-year undergrad Digital Media Cultures class. OPTION 1: MAKE AND ANALYZE YOUR OWN REMIX OPTION 2: Discuss the legal and ethical...
View ArticlePublic Lecture at UEL on 8 March at 5:30pm
--PLEASE PASS ON TO INTERESTED PARTIES--Hello, friends in London!I wanted to invite folks to join me next Tuesday at the University of East London Public Lecture Series, where I am giving a talk...
View ArticleMicro-celebrity, charity, democracy? Decoding the Logic of Udorse
Here's my newest paper proposal for the Association of Internet Researchers Conference (this October in Sweden!) This paper is part of a larger (and awesome) panel I’ve proposed with the title,...
View ArticleTis the season to write abstracts
Writing an Abstract: From Terri Senft: t.senft@uel.ac.uk Many students working on abstracts find themselves panicked with "blank page syndrome." To help, I have developed a tool for you. This has...
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