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Wordcast #3: Twitter

In Wordcast #3, WRD 110 students Tyler Davenport and Elizabeth Kunnecke discuss the role Twitter plays in their reading and writing habits. Tyler and Elizabeth took their WRD 110 in the A&S Wired program, where all students use iPads in their courses. Yet, as they talk about in this brief interview, social media like Twitter can be useful for thinking about writing in lots of different ways.

Meet Jeff Rice: New Faculty 2011

At the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester, we met with all of the new faculty hires in the College of Arts and Sciences. This series of podcasts introduces them and their research interests. Jeff Rice is an associate professor in the Division of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Media. Rice focuses on writing and rhetoric in new media environments as they pertain to networks and network theory. He is also one of three co-directors of A&S's WIRED program, a new residential college in Keeneland Hall.

Off DeWall: What Relationship Do You Mean?

            Most of my posts and thoughts focus on relationships and, more broadly, social connections. I often treat social connections as these simplistic things that govern thought, emotion, and behavior. But social connections have many different flavors. Your relationship to your parents gives you something different than what you get from your best friend, your professors, or your local Starbucks barista. Each relationship partner also gets something different from you. In a keynote address by the eminent cultural psychology, Michael Harris Bond challenged me to think differently about how people relate to each other.

            Michael shoots out of any crowd in Asia. At a lean 6’5”, he towers over most people here. He has a bald, shiny head that emits a ray of light if the spotlight catches it at the correct angle. Just before he started speaking, he donned a white floppy hat (a la Gilligan’s Island). Maybe it’s his trademark.

Off DeWall: Are Narcissists Everywhere?

Have you ever known someone who loved himself? I’m not talking about the usual positive self-feelings people have. I’m talking about the guy who has a literal addiction to fame, constantly self-promotes, feels entitled to special treatment, and needs to have everyone gawk at how good looking he is. We all know people like this. They’re what we psychologists call narcissists. Narcissism is on the rise in the United States. American have never loved themselves more than they do now. But is this boost in narcissism isolated to Americans? Today, I learned that narcissism isn’t limited to Americans.

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