By Any Other Nerd

Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes Last week, it finally happened. I submitted my dissertation to the institution for publication on their scholar work site. I believe a round of formatting edits is probably in order, but I've done the thing that will allow me to participate in the late May graduation. To say that it's a tremendous relief is an understatement.     As this website tag shows, I have been in this program for a decade, and during that time, I’ve written close to 100 posts. And now, I am done.     I think readers of this blog will find a few more posts forthcoming in this series. I have been meaning to write these and took notes on them, but never finished. I think they would be additionally helpful as other insights gathered in this journey.     For instance, I want to do a post about the media kit I created when I was looking for participants because it proved successful and I had some templated material that others might benefit from. Th...

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes I hit one of those deep and meaningful career moments last week at the annual NERCOMP conference.   I was incredibly honored to receive the Mark Berman Community Outreach Award at NERCOMP; it’s one of those career moments that you pause, look back, and appreciate how far you’ve come, but also are even more energized to look forward and consider how much more you want to do for supporting and connecting with folks in the teaching, learning, and technology spaces in higher ed. For some of you, it might be helpful to know more about both the organization and award.  NERCOMP is a regional organization in the northeastern of the US that focuses on technology in higher education with a focus on leadership, teaching & learning, and technological systems in higher ed.  There are  hundreds of institutional members and they do lots of professional development and also consortium discounts for different services.  The Mark Berma...

Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes I mentioned in my last post that I'd be talking a bit more about something that is giving me hope and a way to think about how to navigate the next few years (or rest of my life--take your pick).   And while I don't usually make blog titles so explicit, I really needed to with this one. I listened to  Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching by Jarvis Givens a few years ago and it's all I can think about since the current administration decided it wanted to root out anything related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. I recently had to relisten to it and read sections of it as well. Since January 2025, I've mentioned the book dozens of times if I've mentioned it once.  The book explores the work of Carter G. Woodson and other Black educators in the 1900s.  Carter G. Woodson 's impact is significant.  He earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1912 and would play an important role in shaping t...

Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes I've been reviewing books, audiobooks, and graphic novels for years. Currently, it's mostly been young adult graphic novels for Publishers Weekly. Recently, I was enjoying a really great graphic novel. One that had me smiling because it focused on a young teen coming into their sexuality. The story didn't talk down to its reader and yet was sweet, kind, and complex with everyone in the story. It sought to understand the tensions and elevate the love. It's the kind of book that was non-existent in my teenage years. And the thing is, the reoccurring thought going through my head as I read was this: this book is going to be banned in the very communities that it is needed.  The thought played into all the feels I've been navigating--for the last few years but more heightened in the last year, when it felt very evident that Trump would win re-election. And now, in the face of the first monrh of his administration, has left me in a chal...