Work in progress.
Why open up my work-in-progress to the public? Mostly because I want to demystify the processes of applying scholarly concepts, methods of analysis, and habits of mind to the literature that engages me. When I come face-to-face with students, I notice that they tend to be a bit baffled by the processes behind the things I do. They’re baffled because all they really get to see are the smooth surfaces of things: slick presentations and clear, published prose, only my most polished work. They see the finished products as things without sources of origin, produced without risk of error or misdirection, and so they can’t develop a meaningful sense of how a scholarly output inches its way fitfully into existence. I want to change that situation.
For more on the ethos and rationale of open source scholarship, take a look at Kris Shaffer’s article at the Digital Pedagogy Lab and his follow-up on GitHub for academics.