historian: Fitchburg State | author: LIVE FROM THE UNDERGROUND: A History of College Radio (link in bio) | alum: WRVU 91.1 Nashville | parenting: 3 kids
I came home today and found my cat, who had passed away. Itβs awful and Iβm heartbroken. Consoled by her long, happy life, and she was a wonderful pet. My beautiful Zelda.
It never ceases to astonish me how many people overlook the potential of regional public universities. These are valuable institutions that are often central to the communities they inhabit, with untapped potential. But bc of academia's elitism, etc etc you know the drill here
Apparently neither of these two church ladies was going to back down from getting her chocolate pie recipe in the Lebanon (TN) United Methodist cookbook....despite it being the same recipe.
Here it is, the cover for LIVE FROM THE UNDERGROUND: A HISTORY OF COLLEGE RADIO. Scheduled for publication in Fall 2023! It's real!!
π»ποΈπ»ποΈ
Feeling relieved that the person who said theyβd blurb my book then reneged when it came time is not on the dust jacket. But apparently they put their names on other things freely. Like letters.
It's official! LIVE FROM THE UNDERGROUND: A HISTORY OF COLLEGE RADIO has been approved by the
@UNC_Press
board for publication!
Let's all be DJs!
#livefromtheunderground
π»ποΈ
Score one for the professor whose student said yesterday, βIβm so interested in what we are learning about right now. There is so much to learn about the New Deal.β (me, the professor is me, and this will keep me going to Thanksgiving)
I went to look something up in Menandβs The Metaphysical Club and ran across this William James quote. (From his speech at the dedication of the 54th on Boston Common)
Some exciting news in the midst of all this:
I'm under contract to publish my book about college radio with
@uncpressblog
! I could not envision a better partnership to bring this history to light. Many thanks to
@brndnpr
for his support!
Stay tuned!! π»
Happy pub day to LIVE FROM THE UNDERGROUND: A History of College Radio by Katherine Rye-Jewell, featured on the front page of today's
@BostonGlobeArts
section!
Exciting day because.... advance copies of my book have arrived at the press! I can't wait to get my hands on it! I'm still reeling that Bill Stephney (formerly of CMJ and Def Jam)and Bruce Pavitt (SubPop) endorsed the book... pre-order now, it's out Dec. 5!
So letβs say I launched a video series interviewing scholars about their organizational tools, favorite pens, note-taking strategies? Yes, itβs work, but I spend so much time already thinking about this topic, I might as well connect w/others...
I just remembered that last year I wrote a buzzfeed quiz to assess your field of history. Please be aware that I had a few adult beverages prior to writing this, but I still enjoy it:
Arguably my most successful first-day ice breaker: five groups each propose a song that in 50 years historians will say captures our historical moment. Provide three reasons, with examples, why. It gets heated and energetic. (Almost no one changes their mind after).
When Jim Lang first started teaching, he had precisely one goal for the first day of the semester: Get through it. Take Jim's advice: Don't be like him.
For real, who wants to write a grant with me to create an interactive map of independent music scenes, labels, zines, record stores, and radio stations over time? Someone w map skills plz ππ€π€π€
We couldnβt figure out how the cat was getting out (and killing lots of mice, btw). Then Conor heard a woman on the street yell, βyour cat is trying to open the window!β Andβ¦. Sure enough.
#CatsOfTwitter
itβs not
#Caturday
yet but itβs close.
My 9year old doesnβt like watching shows about space, the Big Bang, etc. β and after her feedback, we realized itβs because it freaks her out to contemplate the void.
I have begun recording my podcast with scholars about their tools (pens! notebooks! apps!) and organization/writing methods. Itβs a limited-run βmixtape,β and Iβm learning fancy video editing techniques on the go. I needed a creative outlet, and this is fun! Plus, I get to learn!
One of my students, in a conversation about Lauryn Hill, said "everyone's mom had that album!" Please share in the joys of teaching "recent" U.S. history with me.
I'm going through the transcripts of the pandemic oral histories my students made, and wow. They are really amazing.
And lest we think the students didn't see what their professors were feeling, this ? was about how students thought their instructors transitioned:
Faculty need to wrest back control of universities. Use the position of having tenure. Open the books. Itβs happening everywhere and we have to stop it. Now.
Under cover of the busy end of the semester, American University's leadership announced a decision to hire Huron Consulting Group, which has brought disastrous 'restructuring' to the New School, Marymount Univ, West Virginia Univ, and elsewhere. Please share widely.
I just retweeted a photo of Robert Johnson, the blues artist, and it reminded me of a story. Johnson's the subject, but the story is really about what it's like being a woman writing about music and claiming some kind of expertise.* 1/
I donβt know who needs to hear this right now, but the university you attend is not a measure or indicator of your intelligence. Nor is the fact of attending a university at all.
Actual statistic in my book (at an institution that closed its radio station in 1996): Despite a one-third decline in students and similar loss of faculty, administrative staff tripled.
Just received word, and I need to celebrate this: my advisee, History and Political Science Major Ben Hill and his partner scored SECOND IN MOOT COURT NATIONALS. Note law schools, he is applying! I am so thrilled for him! Congrats to
@pweizer
and his amazing team!
IT IS HERE.
Iβm not saying you have to pose your copy with your 45s, but if you do Iβll send you a sticker. (Somehow?)
#newbook
#collegeradio
#livefromtheUG
π»
Anyone else have a nice frame for their MA and no clue where their PhD diploma is, or itβs likely shoved in with some books and has green paint on it?
I submitted an application to adopt the cat we met on Saturday -- the 10 year old who gives hugs. He's a venerable old man. Thinking of names appropriate to his station...
The good news: I focused this morning and almost completed a VERY overdue task.
The bad news: my 4-year old capitalized on the opportunity and gave herself a mullet.
The more Dutch I learn, the more I realize how my grandfather (who emigrated when he was 34) basically spoke Dutch most of the time, or used Dutch words mixed with English. Itβs so interesting! It lights up childhood memories.
I see there is discussion re Catcher in the Rye.
Just popping in to say again that Salinger regularly came to my churchβs turkey dinners in White River Jct, VT, and one night both he and Capt Kangaroo were there.
I like to mention this when I can, because itβs weird.
One historian, who I admire very much as a scholar and teacher, noted about my book intro "The scholarship is outstanding," and I have now printed this out and pasted it under my monitor to keep me going. My eternal gratitude. (They know who they are)
What's an early career trauma that has stayed with you?
I'll go first: my first boss never gave me deadlines, and when I asked for them she just said "everything is ASAP".
@LDBurnett
I had a dry run when I had the flu. I created a single google document, one group posts questions; one looks up add'l materials; one responds to the ?s; one sums up the main points. Roles rotate. I summarize, they self-evaluate. That's my plan if we close...
*I can only speak to my experience, and I'm sure other individuals face equal and greater forms of being ignored, etc., but here's one small illustration.
/addendum
These
@UNC_Press
book twins make for an excellent pairing, if I do say so myself. Get
@drewmckevitt
βs now and mine will be shipping soon. They look great on a shelf together.
Book is submitted!
I cracked the first archive in September 2014 (Georgia State's student newspaper) and conducted my first interview during the AHA in New York City (with Jack Rabid of the Big Takeover) in January 2015.
1/
My students, in one semester, produced an archive of documents and 36+ oral histories as well as a podcast based on their research.
They offer a first step in reckoning with the experience of Covid 19
@Fitchburg_State
-- by students, for students.
Details below. /thread π§΅
In case you needed more 2020: yesterday my dad encountered the aftermath of a number of *full* port-a-potties that flew off the back of a truck on I-89 in VT, depositing their contents all over the interstate. He was on his way to get the Christmas ham.
Full. Port-a-potties.
It's official: I have a complete draft. There are no more "TBD" sections or massive brackets for future insertions. Still lots to edit/hone/clarify, footnotes to fix, arguments to square...but it's a draft, in all of its 580 pages of Century Schoolbook 11-point font.
Early reviews results: βthat rabbit was crazy!β, heβs been (unsurprisingly) farting in everyoneβs general direction, and randomly telling people they smell of elderberries.
I just finished recording a podcast about academic writing. The entire thesis: there is no one way, and we all need grace to find our methods because we face different circumstances. Not saying I got the tone right all the time, and discussing it at all can be painful for many rn
Iβm still processing last nightβs book talk with a room of about 70 die hard college radio FANS (as in, practitioners, leaders, lovers, the gamut). The college radio love was palpableβand generous readers brought me gifts like these 45s by
@rem
that epitomize college radio!
Iβm reading a student paper with such outstanding research on the development of the Finnish-American community and identity in Fitchburgβcomplete with socialist schisms and raids, institution building, religion, pressures of assimilation. Ahhh!!!
My 5th grader asked to keep learning about the American Revolution, making my historian heart all full and stuff. We are going to watch some clips of
@jbf1755
βs open Yale lectures and talk about them, but I need some age appropriate book recs! β€οΈ
Friend (male) says, "I think Kate is explaining what you're looking for, it's Robert Johnson."
The man replies, "Oh yeah, Robert Johnson!!"
π€―π€―π€―
The End.
6/