Helen J Burgess
Assistant Professor, English
University of Maryland Baltimore County
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250
Editor, Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures
curriculum vitae
education
PhD in English, West Virginia University 2003.
Dissertation: "Highways of the Mind: the Haunting of the Superhighway from the World's Fair to the World Wide Web.” Multimedia format.
MA in English Literature (Distinction), Victoria University Of Wellington, 1997.
Thesis: "'A Problem of Coding': Electronic Subjectivity in Cybernetic Societies."
BA(Hons) (First Class) in English Literature. Victoria University Of Wellington 1994.
professional experience
Assistant Professor of English.
University of Maryland Baltimore County, 2007-current.
Assistant Professor, Digital Technology & Culture.
Washington State University Vancouver, 2003-2006.
Assistant Coordinator, Center for Literary Computing.
Department of English, West Virginia University, 1999-2000; also 2002.
Graduate Teaching Assistant.
Department of English, West Virginia University, 1997-2000.
Editorial Assistant, The Series on Science and Culture.
University of Oklahoma Press, 1997-2000.
Tutor, English Language Institute.
Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand), 1996-1997.
research interests
New media theory, rhetorics of code, electronic literature, cultural studies of technology, web authoring, interactive media development, copyright & information ownership, science fiction studies, superhighways.
publications - in progress
"'‹?php›: 'Invisible' Code and the Mystique of Web Writing." In From A to /A: Keywords in HTML and Writing, eds. Bradley Dilger and Jeff Rice. Accepted for publication.
publications - interactive DVD-rom
Biofutures: Owning Body Parts and Information. Robert Mitchell, Helen J Burgess, Phillip Thurtle. DVD-ROM. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.
Red Planet: Scientific and Cultural Encounters with Mars. Robert Markley, Harrison Higgs, Michelle Kendrick, Helen Burgess. DVD-ROM. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.
publications - journal & book essays
"'Nature without Labor': Virgin Queen and Virgin Land in Sir Walter Ralegh's The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana." Goddesses and Queens: The Iconography of Elizabeth I, eds. Lisa Hopkins and Annaliese Connoly. Manchester University Press, 2007. 101-114.
"'Road of Giants': Nostalgia and the Ruins of the Superhighway in Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias." Science Fiction Studies 33.2 (July 2006): 275-290.
"Futurama, Autogeddon: Imagining the Superhighway from Bel Geddes to Ballard." Rhizomes:
Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge 8 (2004). 1 Nov 2004
"The Dialogics of New Media: Video, Visualization, and Narrative in Red Planet: Scientific and Cultural Encounters with Mars." With Jeanne Hamming and Robert Markley. In Eloquent Images: Writing Visually in New Media, eds. Michelle Kendrick and Mary Hocks. MIT Press, 2003. 61-85.
"The Ghost in the Mechanism: Virtual Bodies, Mechanical Ghosts and Crash Test Dummies." West Coast Line 36.1 (2002): 118-129.
"Mapping Bodies, Mapping Subjects: Missing the Mind's Eye from the X-Ray to the Human Genome." Post Identity 3.2 (2002): 87-104.
"Looking Back on Virtuality: the Strange Corporeographies of Cyberspace." Spectator: The University of Southern California Journal of Film and Television Criticism 21.1 (2001): 71-81.
reviews & encyclopedia articles
"Electronic Literature Organization Collection Vol. 1." (review). SFRA Review 283 (2008): 15-16.
"Virtual Reality and Artificial Life", "Information Theory", "Satire and Humor in Literature and Science", "Industry", "George Orwell", "Colonialism", "Writing Across the Curriculum." In The Encyclopedia of Literature and Science, ed. Pam Gossin. New York: Garland Press, 2003.
grants
Summer Faculty Fellowship. 2008.
$6000 awarded to conduct research and travel for book project digital/critical: New Media Scholarship in the Humanities.
Kaufmann/Faculty Innovation Grant. 2008.
$2,000 awarded by the Alex Brown Center for Entrepreneurship for development of Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures infrastructure at UMBC.
Research Grant Award
$38,000 award by the North Carolina Biotech Consortium to "Biofutures" authors (P.I. Robert Mitchell),
to support development of interdisciplinary DVD-Rom entitled "Biofutures:
Owning Body Parts and Information."
professional activities
Editor. HyperRhiz: New Media Cultures.
Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University. Electronic journal. ISSN 1555-9351.
Technical Editor & Editorial Board. Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge
Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University. Electronic journal. ISSN
1555-9998.
Series Editor. Mariner 10 Multimedia Series, University of Pennsylvania Press.
Consulting Scholar,Humanities Washington/Smithsonian Institute.
Consultant for the Smithsonian Museum
travelling exhibition, "Yesterday's
Tomorrows," 2003-2005.
honors and awards
Featured faculty member.
Washington State University Vancouver promotional material, The Columbian, 2005.
Electronic Dissertation grant.
West Virginia University, Summer 2002. (to develop enhanced multimedia version of dissertation).
Award for Outstanding Research.
Department of English, West Virginia University, April 2002.
Stephen F. Crocker Dissertation Fellowship.
West Virginia University, 2001-2002.
Award for Exemplary Service.
Center for Literary Computing, West Virginia University, 2000.
Meritorious Graduate Student Tuition Waiver.
West Virginia University, 2000-2001.
Jackson Family Doctoral Fellowship.
West Virginia University, 1997-2000.
conference presentations
"Futurama Autogeddon."
Session on Digital Media, MLA/ADE Summer Seminar East, Morgantown, WV, Jun. 2008.
"re_critique."
Codework: Exploring Relations Between Creative Writing Practices and Software Engineering. NSF Workshop. Morgantown, WV, Apr. 2008.
"Steal This Multimedia: Information Ownership and the Anxiety of Genre."
Society for Literature, Sciences and the Arts Conference, Portland, ME, Nov.
2007.
"Selling the Superhighways: A Future
History."
Society for Literature, Science and the Arts Conference, New York, NY, Nov.
2006. With Jeanne Hamming, Centenary College of Louisiana.
"Show Me Your BIOS: Technology, Biology and Open Source Media."
BIOS: The Poetics of Life in Digital Media Symposium. Morgantown, WV, Sept. 2006.
"Whatever Happened to my MOO?"
Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). Chicago,
IL March 2006.
"Intimate Circuits."
Society for Literature, Science and the Arts Conference, Chicago,
IL, November 2005.
Society for Literature, Science and the Arts Conference, Chicago, IL, November 2005.
"New Media in the Academy."
Society for Literature, Science and the Arts Conference, Duke University,
NC 2004.
"Imagining the Future, from the World’s Fair to the Design
for Dreaming."
Fourth biennial Preserving the Historic Road in America Conference,
Portland, OR, April 2004.
"Urban Spaces, Highway Spaces: Narrating the Superhighway."
Society for Literature and Science Conference, Austin, TX 2003.
"Imagining the Future."
Smithsonian/Museum on Main Street meeting, Seattle, WA 2003.
"Red Planet: DVD Authoring."
West Virginia University Technology and Computing Fair, 2002.
"Red Planet: Scientific and Cultural Encounters with Mars: Interactive
DVD-Rom Technology."
With Robert Markley, Michelle Kendrick, Jeanne Hamming. Mars Society Fourth
International Convention, Stanford, California, August 2001.
"Doing Multimedia on Mars."
English Department Graduate Student Colloquium, March 17, 2000, Morgantown,
WV.
"AppalachiaMOO Carnival."
March 1, 2000, online. Organiser, designer and host of an online carnival
to premiere West Virginia University's graphical MOO.
"Multimedia on Mars: A DVD Project on Mars Exploration."
West Virginia Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, November 1999, West
Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon, WV. With Jeanne Hamming.
"Mars: Interactive Technology and Interdisciplinary Education."
West Virginia University Research Horizons Poster Session, September 23, 1999.
"The Strange Corporeographies of Cyberspace."
English Department Graduate Student Colloquium 1999, Morgantown, WV.
"Legible Bodies: Reading Synners and Cyborgs."
Society for Literature and Science Conference 1998, Gainesville, Florida.
"Queers in Space: Borg Fantasy and the Limitations of Slash."
Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Conference 1998, Morgantown, WV.
"Mars: A Scientific and Cultural History."
The Mars Society Convention 1998, Bolder, CO.
Society for Literature and Science 1998, Gainesville, Florida.
West Virginia University Technology and Computing Fair, 1998.
Robert Markley, Michelle Kendrick and Catherine Gouge.
"Missing the Mind's Eye: the Cultural Anxiety of the X-Ray."
English Department Graduate Student Colloquium 1998, Morgantown, WV.
Presenter and panelist in keynote roundtable discussion.
courses taught
Seminar: Visual Literacy (English 442). University of Maryland Baltimore County, 2008. Senior seminar on the relationship of visual design to narrative and meaning-making. Combines interpretation of visual media, graphic novel analysis, and practical studio sessions.
Theories of Communication and Technology (English 324). University of Maryland Baltimore County, 2008. This class starts with the study of orality and early sign-making cultures, moves on to a history of print culture, and ends with investigation into forms of electronic communication.
Seminar: The Culture of the Copyright (English 493). University of Maryland Baltimore County, 2007. Senior seminar on the history of copyright and its consequences for media communication and authoring. Covers copyright of various media forms (print, music, film, software, digital media) and the Creative Commons and Open Source movements.
Multimedia Authoring (English 387). University of Maryland Baltimore County, 2007-2008. Analysis and creation of web texts using XHTML and CSS. Students discuss web genres, learn to write for the web, and experiment with layout, color, and interactivity.
Web
Scripting (English 499). Washington State University-Vancouver, 2005-06.
This advanced class teaches principles of database-driven design, using the open-source scripting languages PHP and mySQL. Designed and delivered online using Moodle, open source courseware.
Computers In English (Engl 300). Washington State University-Vancouver, 2006.
The theory and practice of writing and teaching in online and multimedia environments. Delivered online using Blackboard courseware.
Digital
Diversity (English 471). Washington State University-Vancouver, 2004.
Issues of race, class and gender representation and accessibility in digital environments.
Usability
and Interface Design (English 410). Washington State University-Vancouver, 2003-6.
User experience and human-computer interaction. Students work with a client to produce a usability report on a professional site.
New Communications
Technologies (COM 420). Washington State University-Vancouver, 2003-4.
The cultural impact of digital technologies on issues such as copyright, privacy and innovation.
Multimedia
Authoring (English 355). Washington State University-Vancouver, 2003-06.
Web authoring and hand coding. Students discuss the different ‘genres’ of web sites, learn to write for the web, and experiment with layout, color, and interactivity.
Literary approaches to science fiction, starting with early works such as Frankenstein and ending with cyberpunk short stories.
Scientific and Technical Writing (English 208).
Online, West Virginia University, 1998.
First Year Composition (English 1).
West Virginia University, 1997-1998.
Writing English (Writ 101).
Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand), 1996-1997.
academic service
University of Maryland Baltimore County
MCS Search Committee, 2008-9.
Teaching Assessment Committee, 2008-.
Honors Committee, 2008-.
English Department webmaster, 2008-.
Washington State University Vancouver
Internship Coordinator,
Digital Technology and Culture.
ePortfolio Committee.
2005 Digital Technology & Culture
Search Committee.
2004-5 Technical & Professional Writing Search Committee.
CLA
Arts Committee.
American
Studies Committee on Digital Diversity.
2003 World/Ethnic Literatures Search Committee.
Faculty Advisor,
Digital Technology and Culture Club.
Faculty Advisor, Students
for Choice Club.
professional memberships
NCTE.
Society for Literature, Science and the Arts.
Science Fiction Research Association.
Electronic Literature Organization.
Modern Language Association.
The Mars Society.
references
Robert M. Markley
Romano Professorial Scholar
Department of English
Unit for Criticism & Theory
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright Street
Urbana, IL 61801
217-244-6613
Ellen E. Berry
Professor, Department of English
410 East Hall
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH 43403
419-372-6833
eberry@bgnet.bgsu.edu
Wendy Dasler Johnson
Associate Professor, Department of English
Washington State University Vancouver
14024 NE Salmon Creek Avenue
Vancouver WA 97214
360-546-9648
johnsonw@vancouver.wsu.edu