Thinking Culture

It seems that I should introduce myself. I'm really happy that Catherine asked me to contribute to the conversation on the "thinking culture" blog, and I've announced my arrival with an entry on the new suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey case, an old interest of mine. I work in the English Department, and may know some of you from there, or from my involvement with Gender and Cultural Studies. The entry on JonBenet introduces my current research fascination, which is with true crime and, in particular right now, the fugitive lives of murdered, missing and abducted children. I work with audiovisual media as well as print media; when not thinking about true crime I'm thinking with queer theory and/or rhetorical theory, Walter Benjamin, psychoanalysis -- sometimes all at cross purposes -- and most usually about the relationship between poetics and the everyday. It's great to have a chance to draw out some of those interests here, and learn more of what other culture thinkers in the university are thinking about.